School Development Priorities

GEARIES PRIMARY SCHOOL

2022 – 2023 Core Priorities

School Development Plan

1.The Quality of Education

b) Review Curriculum content to match children’s interests and needs

c) Develop catch-up curriculum provision

2.Behaviour and Attitudes

d) Develop children’s capacity to learn effectively

3.Personal Development

f) Increase engagement of boys and European families

4.Leadership and Management

g) Complete the structural review of our Inclusion teams

5.Early Years Education

Gearies Primary school

The school recognises the need to adapt our educational provision for children into a web of connected experiences that meet the needs of children living in an international community.  We have been trying to respond to stimulus from a broad range of sources, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Ofsted, and the global pandemic.  Following a year of reflection, trial and error and input from local conferences, writers, and theorists, we present the following structure to define future policy direction.

Part One: Our Vision for Education

Our agreed vision documents the key purposes of education for children in the modern world, expanding beyond our traditional focus on taught lessons, to include a wider range of essential functions (safety, wellbeing, social justice).  What is school for, what are the most important things that our education should provide?

The Key functions of our educational offer to children include:

1. The curriculum we teach

We invest in ensuring that English and Maths are at the heart of children’s learning entitlement, however we also teach a broad and balanced curriculum that reflects our community’s global heritage.  This includes:

• A topic-based approach to areas of learning that connects different subjects together
• The provision to develop creative responses across curriculum subjects
• An understanding of the wider modern world, including climate crisis, migration and refugees, and the legacy of the British Empire

1. Children’s learning behaviours

It is important that the following behaviours are explicitly taught to children:

• Self-regulation
• Independence
• Emotional resilience
• A passion for learning

1. Children’s attitudes

Children will be taught to adopt the following attitudes:

• Tolerance and respect for others’ cultural and family dynamics
• Social awareness
• Self-discipline
• An enjoyment for all subjects
• Eagerness to embrace new experiences

1. Children’s learning outcomes

The school is committed to ensuring children are able to communicate ideas, wants, needs and knowledge as they progress through the school.

Our children will achieve the best they can, with a high rate of progress.  We aim to achieve higher than local and national averages in all areas of learning.

1. Provision for health and well-being

We will provide a safe learning environment with clear routines to support learning that enable children to thrive and work on achieving their potential.  All members of staff will offer unconditional professional love for the children, to nurture their development and provide security for their outlook.

1. The heart of our community

We will encourage children to feel they belong to our wider community group and we accept that the school is the heart of the local community. 

Part Two: Learning Experiences

The teaching team will use this vision to continuously review our curriculum map at regular intervals to ensure new learning and community context is reflected in our provision.  We see the writing of our curriculum as a live experience, teachers are given regular opportunities to bespoke the content to age appropriate and contextual demands.

Part Three: Influences on our Global curriculum

Four major areas of enquiry will frame the move forward to build our Global Curriculum:

1. Knowledge

The teaching team will be guided to expand their knowledge of history, culture, and criticality, to ensure they can contribute to the creation of our new curriculum.  Examples include a global knowledge of the history of art, science, mathematics, literature etc.  Teachers will also need to have an understanding of, and empathy for refugee stories, both contemporary and historical.  Our society has been formed by the impact of invasions, revolutions, and cultural change over thousands of years.  Over time, change is the only constant.  We all need to know where we came from in order to know where we are going. (see appendix 1)

We will lead a regular series of input sessions over the year for the teaching time in directed hours, supplemented by readings, references and webinars.

1. Inclusive experiences

We will embrace the challenge to be Guardians of Representation, empowering children to expect to see themselves in the important features of our modern neighbourhood, including sport, politics, art, culture, science and education.  We will plan inclusive experiences to showcase how social interaction should be: sports events, cultural experiences, educational opportunity. 

Such experiences will be designed and negotiated over the academic year, delivered by key members of staff, and targeting available opportunities as examples of inclusion.  These may include, sports festivals, visits to galleries and museum.

1. The Global skill set

We will define a purposeful skill set for children, that will empower them to be successful as agents of change.  This includes the following skills: resilience, emotional intelligence, enterprise, tolerance and empathy, being brave, critical thinking, and independent thinking. 

Many learning experiences already exist in our curriculum, it will be import though to define this and show children how it connects and why it is important.

1. Cultural literacy

We will help our staff and governors have a greater cultural literacy: the understanding of the modern experiences in our community heritage – lifestyle, food, entertainment, societal expectations, and behaviours.  In order to meet the needs of our children it is important we all have a working knowledge of home life, especially for those in our major ethnic groups – Romanian, Bangladeshi, eastern European etc.

Part Four: Our Global Curriculum

All the building blocks of our knowledge and understanding will influence the routine process of revising our Global Curriculum.  The review process will be continuous and responsive to the changes in our world, and the needs of our children.

September 2022

Appendix 1: Knowledge themes

• Ecology – extinction, climate change and deforestation
• The impacts of the British Empire
• Refugee stories – Ukraine, Afghanistan, Indian partition, African countries
• Cultural identity – art, science, mathematics, literature, special celebrations, songs, dance and games (South Asia, East Europe, Africa and the USA)

KEY LINES OF ENQUIRY APRIL 2023