West Drayton Academy

On behalf of the children, staff and governors it is with great pleasure that we welcome you to West Drayton Academy. West Drayton Academy is a large three form entry primary school serving a vibrant, supportive and diverse community. We are proud to be part of the Park Federation Trust. The Trust is one of the longest established and most experienced primary federations in the country with nine schools in Slough, Hillingdon and now Buckinghamshire.

In addition to learning excellence, we also aim to develop the personal qualities that will allow the children to leave our school ready to make a positive contribution to society. We understand that being successful is often about attitude and the ability to work hard - we aim to instil those qualities in our pupils. Here at West Drayton Academy, we believe that the combination of our 'SKIP' curriculum and 'Four Pillars' values provides the skills, knowledge and opportunities that will help to prepare our children for today and beyond.

Our pupils are energetic, respectful and grateful. Parents are supportive and recognize that we are a team around their child. We look forward to welcoming you to our WDA family where we proudly demonstrate: Believe, Empower, Achieve. We believe that our young people are capable of excellence.

West Drayton Academy provide an outstanding education for the children. We will work together and communicate well, enforce standards rigorously, ensure that our curriculum is enriching and promote our values at all times.’

As parents, carers and teachers, we lead your child’s learning. At school, successful learning derives from effective teaching, stimulating environments, discipline and good attendance. At the same time, parents and carers provide an equally important programme of learning. Exposing children to new words, taking them to visit new places and experience new things, facilitating daily discussion and supporting your child’s reading for meaning will enhance understanding, language, vocabulary, problem solving, creativity and communication.

Children need reassurance and encouragement from parents and teachers, home and school. Working together, we can augment achievement; both academically and socially. We place children’s social and emotional development at the heart of our work. We are a proud school with established values and an attentiveness to ongoing improvement. Within our community, we expect everybody to have high expectations - to demonstrate self-belief, respect and commitment. Personally, for the last ten years, it has been a privilege to be part of the West Drayton community. The school is here to serve you - our families and children. Thank you for taking time to read the report.

‘From Self-Confidence to Achievement’ is our school motto. This is the foundation for all that we seek to do as a school. We believe that every member of the community matters and together we can achieve more. We have a richly diverse school family and the times we spend working and celebrating together are some of our most precious.

At West Drayton Academy, the aims of our curriculum are to promote children's well-being and development in all areas: spiritual; moral; cultural; mental and physical and to prepare children for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life.

In order to do this, we have designed children's learning through challenges expressed as questions. At the start of each topic, children consider how they will complete the challenge through identifying further questions that they would like to explore. At the end of each learning challenge, children share their discoveries in a variety of ways. These include: a production; an invitation to parents/carers to share in a presentation with food; a booklet; giving a presentation to another class and holding an exhibition.

In order to bring learning to life, we plan rich learning experiences for all year groups. We want our children to experience a wide range of learning opportunities such as: visit a farm; go to the seaside; hear music performed live; meet an author, poet, musician, artist, scientist, engineer etc; visit a museum; perform on a stage; sing in a choir; volunteer; support a charity.

At West Drayton Primary School, all children are equally valued and respected. We are committed to offering an inclusive curriculum to ensure the best possible progress for all of our pupils whatever their needs or abilities. We recognise that many children will have SEN at some time during their school life and believe that children can be helped to overcome their difficulties if they are provided with a differentiated, broad and balanced curriculum and appropriate intervention. We use a range of approaches to meet the needs of pupils with SEN including differentiation of the curriculum, scaffolding e.g. through the use of visual support or concrete apparatus, small group work, 1:1 support or teaching.

At West Drayton Primary School, we are proud of how children embrace school life in a positive and caring manner. Even though school behaviour is consistently very good, we want to become outstanding - always striving for excellence. Forging positive relationships combined with unchanging classroom routines are key components towards engaging the pupils and ultimately helping them to learn.