St Lawrence Primary School Bringing out the best
My son is at the top end of scholastic achievement and the teachers are always looking for new ways to challenge him further. We love the links with the Howard which not only increase academic standards but also prepare the kids for the easiest transition to senior school. The link also gives us resources we couldn’t get in other small schools. All staff are genuinely concerned for his welfare. Collectively, they have created a loving environment. This is increasingly rare. We feel privileged to be a part of it. Parent
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Bringing out the best
Welcome to St Lawrence Primary School St Lawrence Primary School is a small, friendly one-form entry village school catering for 210 children aged between 4 and 11 years.
Our ethos is that learning should be at the heart of everything that we do because we understand that wherever learning flourishes, children flourish too. Our aim is to feed curiosity and inspire learning so that we “bring out the best� in every child in a caring and secure environment. The staff and Governors are committed to working with our families to ensure that our pupils experience high quality teaching of a relevant and dynamic curriculum in a safe and aspirational setting as they start their journey through school. Additional expertise and resources are accessed through working with The Howard Partnership Trust, which St Lawrence Primary School joined in November 2014. We know you want the very best for your child and we strive to achieve this in all aspects of school life at St Lawrence Primary School. You are warmly invited to come and visit our school to see our community in action. Our staff and children will be delighted to answer any questions you may have.
Mr Tom Dell
Mrs Vanessa Wallden
Head of School
Executive Head
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Our Aims
Our Values
At St Lawrence we bring out the best in all of our children, enabling them to flourish within a nurturing and supportive environment.
Our values are extremely important to us and provide the firm foundations for all that we do.
All children are welcome at our school and valued for who they are. We are an inclusive school, giving all children the support they need to achieve success. Children at St Lawrence are developing understanding, knowledge and key skills to establish a sound foundation for learning throughout their lives. We have high aspirations for all our children, enabling them to leave our school prepared and inspired to do their best in secondary school and beyond.
Positive behaviour choices are encouraged through the language and modelling of our values. When children are able to demonstrate all values they become values ambassadors At St Lawrence Primary we value: • • • • • • • • • • •
Honesty Respect Responsibility Team work Kindness Fairness Courage Cooperation Commitment Tolerance Citizenship
Our school values alongside core British values are embedded throughout the curriculum, taught through Personal, Social, Health Education (PSHE) and all assemblies. Values are celebrated on a weekly basis and children are rewarded for displaying them.
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Bringing out the best
Children get off to a good start in Reception. The quality of teaching is high and ensures that children are fully prepared for Year 1. Ofsted 2018
Leaders’ planning of the curriculum is well thought out. It covers a broad range of topics, is diverse and exciting. Ofsted 2018
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Learning Environment We are all proud of our school and because of this children are respectful of it.
Our school has 7 well-equipped classrooms with access to the fantastic outdoor space. Each classroom in Key Stage 1 has an outside learning environment, and these are linked to support transition between the classes. The outside space enhances the learning, encouraging children to explore and be creative. A unique feature of St Lawrence Primary School is the amount of outside space, providing children with opportunities to take part in a range of sporting events on the school field. Our allotments and orchard provide lots of excitement for the children, watching their vegetables and fruit grow and then selling the produce to the school community. The outdoor area is complemented by our well-equipped playground which the children enjoy using during lunch times and playtimes. Our large hall is home to the school’s award-winning lunches, prepared and cooked in the kitchen. PE and several extra-curricular activities also take place in the hall, such as dance and taekwondo. There is a fully equipped kitchen for cookery lessons, which the children use on a regular basis. The children are also encouraged to use our well-resourced library and to spend time sharing books with adults and peers. Each classroom has a bank of desktop computers and access to 30 tablets for use in all areas of the curriculum.
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The School Curriculum At St Lawrence Primary School, we follow the National Curriculum. Children are given opportunities to use and apply their knowledge and skills, both inside and outside the classroom. We aim to develop a thirst for learning, where pupils are intrinsically motivated and display all the characteristics of independent learners. We believe our language-rich and diverse curriculum is relevant, purposeful, and enables us to ‘bring out the best’ in all children through rich cross-curricular class topics. We are also fortunate to have a learning hub at the centre of the school, providing enhanced learning opportunities to children who require extra support to accelerate their progress. The hub is facilitated by our specialist teacher who provides access to the curriculum for all every morning, closely liaising with class teachers to provide the very best curriculum for our children. Mathematics Mathematics is a creative subject, which links with many aspects of everyday life including science, technology and engineering. We aim to develop a positive attitude, providing all our pupils with a sound practical base from which to develop more complex mathematical operations. A careful progression in mathematical skills is developed through the innovative use of Singapore maths resources. We focus on deepening children’s mathematical knowledge and developing their fluency of number, so that they can achieve or exceed mastery at the end of each year.
English The skills developed in English underpin all areas of the curriculum. Children learn to speak and write fluently in English to enable them to communicate their ideas and emotions to others effectively. Through reading in particular, pupils have a chance to develop culturally, emotionally, intellectually, socially and spiritually. Our ‘Story Time Phonics’ and ‘Letters and Sounds Phonics’ programmes ensure a systematic approach to the teaching of reading and spelling. We understand the joy and motivation of ‘reading for pleasure’. A broad and balanced curriculum is taught at St Lawrence, in order to develop well-rounded, intrinsically motivated pupils. Forest School Our children are very privileged to have the opportunity to attend forest school every week on a rotation. All children get the opportunity to have at least half a term of Forest school, which supports the DT curriculum and fosters the development of both fine motor and gross motor control. We believe that increasing the opportunities to be learning outside supports wellbeing and increased connection to nature and the outside world. Further details on each curriculum subject can be found on our website.
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The school provides a wide range of extracurricular clubs and after-school sessions to support pupils’ learning and wider experience of school life. Ofsted 2018 Leaders show an unswerving determination to provide the best possible education for pupils. Ofsted 2018
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Enhanced Learning Experience
Safeguarding At St Lawrence Primary School we are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. All adults who work with pupils are DBS checked. We follow Surrey Local Authority’s safeguarding procedures and where necessary work in partnership with other agencies that support children and families, to ensure we address the needs of our pupils with sensitivity, care and confidentiality.
Residential and school trips A broad range of school trips is offered to all pupils at St Lawrence Primary School, to compliment learning within the classrooms. These trips are carefully planned to link to the curriculum specific to each year group. Such trips enrich the curriculum by increasing children’s engagement and enjoyment of the topics that they are covering. They support the development of both resilience and confidence in learning and are a really unique feature of the school, something that all of the children promote when talking about the school. In addition, children are encouraged to participate in residential trips, as we believe these are a great way to develop independence away from home and to enable children to spend time with peers within a different setting. Building community links is really important to us and through projects like ‘Stride’ (business enterprise scheme) we are able to forge these business links within the local community.
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The Howard Partnership Trust
The Howard Partnership Trust (THPT) grew out of a long-standing federation, the first in Surrey, originally formed in 2007 at the request of the Department of Education and Surrey Local Authority. The success of this federation between Howard of Effingham, an Ofsted Outstanding school, and Thomas Knyvett College resulted in the formation of THPT when the partnership’s first primary school, Kenyngton Manor, joined in 2013. The Multi Academy Trust (MAT) now comprises a diverse range of primary and secondary schools across Surrey. All our schools uphold a shared vision in which there is a commitment to ‘bringing out the best’ in young people of all abilities and aptitudes, so increasing their life-chances. Those working in partnership with THPT are justly proud of the strength of collaboration and inclusion present in each of our schools. We believe that by embedding a culture built around our ethos of partnership, inclusion, excellence and energy, our vision can succeed. The inclusive ethos of the MAT is enhanced by a number of Special Centres attached to mainstream settings. Schools within THPT remain local schools and retain their own unique features to serve their local communities. However, they are all underpinned with the same guiding principles: namely to ensure that a first rate education is provided through consistently high quality teaching which facilitates excellent learning within an inclusive, caring, vibrant environment. THPT schools provide a student-centred, broad curriculum with a personalised approach where the individual student lies at the heart of everything we do.
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Teaching engages pupils’ interests and provides them with the skills they need to be successful in the next stage of their education. Ofsted 2018 The school has a strong foundation of values that link strongly to the fundamental British values. Ofsted 2018
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St Lawrence Primary School Bringing out the best Lower Road, Effingham, Leatherhead, Surrey KT24 5JP 01372 452870
info@stlawrence-primary.org
@StLawrencetweet
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Bringing out the best
www.stlawrence-primary.surrey.sch.uk
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