Drapers’ Maylands Primary School Growing Together…
Trudy Spillane, Principal, says: Drapers’ Maylands Primary School is unique in many ways and as Principal, I am very proud of what we have achieved in recent years, the continuing successes of our pupils and of the wonderful new learning environment. Our beautiful, modern premises are designed with the children at the centre, to be a place where they feel welcome and willing to learn. Visitors always enjoy visiting our school and the last OFSTED inspection rated our school a Good provider with Outstanding rating in Early Years and Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare.
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Excellence as standard
Global Citizens
Our standards are very high as we believe that they lead to academic progress, behaviour for learning and moral values across the school. Our Home/School Contract sets out our expectations for children, parents and staff and we are strict in our request that this Contract is respected, as it lays the foundations for our values of Respect, Trust, Determination and Tolerance.
We feel fortunate to be within a richly diverse community, where everyone has something to offer and everyone is included in every part of school life.
Every child, every ability Our school welcomes every child, of any ability; we have the dedication, facilities and resources to support them all. Our approach is to give children the tools to achieve whatever their starting point, within a caring and disciplined atmosphere. We know that children flourish in a secure and nurturing environment, where they understand and respect boundaries, are listened to, valued and made to feel secure. We are an inclusive school, where every individual feels a sense of belonging.
Drapers’ Maylands Primary School is a Right Respecting school. We ensure that the UNICEF Convention for the Rights of the Child are part of our policies, systems and teaching. The children are able to participate fully by having a shared ownership of their school. As a commitment to Global Citizenship we are working towards an award to celebrate this as a priority in our school.
A parent’s view “The atmosphere at Maylands is unique. Staff faces quickly become familiar as they are always outside meeting and greeting the beginning and end of each day. Teachers are always available to listen, chat and advise whenever parents are on site. If your little one has grazed their knee on the way to school or just had a bad morning you know that the staff are there to listen and that they will take over the care and nurture that ensure the children start their day well. “The assemblies, the annual fireworks extravaganza and particularly the Commemoration Day celebrations all feel a bit like family celebrations where staff, children and parents alike mingle and enjoy themselves - sometimes aided by giant inflatables!
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we were given direct email access to our children’s teachers and they regularly rang to catch up with the children - they were still very much a part of the children’s lives. It must have been a lot of effort, but that does seem to be the way at Maylands - the staff make the effort to make a difference.
Parents and Carers as partners Parents and careers are an important part of the children’s education. We welcome you into school for celebrations and supporting with learning. We arrange workshops and courses for parents and carers who wish to further their own studies, improve their language skills or to better support their children’s learning at home. Our library has a parent and carer section so that a love of reading may be shared with our whole community.
Mrs Libby Shipway (Parent Governor)
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Settling in: The School Day There is a Parent and Carer handbook with key information about the school day. The children in Key Stage 1 and Reception classes enter and leave the school through their classroom doors. The children in Key Stage 2 go through the corridors and up a staircase to the classrooms. The staircases are carefully designed to promote learning when moving in and around the school. Lower Key Stage 2: Years 3 and 4 have a history timeline, linked to the expectations for the National Curriculum Upper Key Stage 2: Years 5 and 6 have a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) timeline which features inventions through history.
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Wraparound Care Our Breakfast Club, from 7.30am until start of the school day, is run by members of the school staff. After-school provision until 6.00pm is currently operated by an external provider. The children collect eggs from our hens for their breakfast and are able to have support for reading and home learning as part of the care offer.
Looking Smart We are proud to be part of the Drapers’ Trust and share the same high standards for appearance. Our uniform of grey and blue is smart, practical and gives the children a sense of belonging within our school family. The choice to have the same uniform for boys and girls, with slight variation for shorts, is part of our commitment to equal opportunities for all.
Healthy Eating
Extra-curricular
Encouraging fitness and understanding
As part of our commitment to the well-being of our pupils, we prepare and serve nutritious meals from our own kitchen for every child. There is no packed lunch option at Maylands.
We offer clubs and activities to support learning beyond the school day. The clubs include: Multi-Sports, Fencing, Spanish, Performing Arts, Lego, French, Netball, Computing, Photography, Gardening, Football, Chess, Gymnastics, Archery, and activity days during the school holidays.
To promote fitness and physical development, Challenge Days in September and April enable pupils to measure personal bests during physical tasks, set themselves targets and reflect on physical development. From EYFS pupils will be aware of fitness and health with more formal sports science introduced to prepare pupils for Secondary school in Years 5 and 6.
Our menus are designed to be wholesome but with the preferences of the children in mind, and the School Council is consulted so that the children have a say in what is provided. The experience of dining together with staff, taking turns to be helpers and eating a hot nutritionally balanced lunch has had a significant impact on the personal, social, physical and academic progress of our children. The government provides fruit for children up to the age of 7. We believe that all children should enjoy a healthy snack and so provide children up to the age of 11 with fruit at break-times. Children are encouraged to drink fresh water throughout the day and so their water bottles are an essential part of their school kit.
School Councillors are voted by the whole class and they get to do things like meet with the governors and choose the new dinner menus.
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Responsibilities Ambassadors School Council Representatives House points Celebration assembliesCertificates count towards a Golden Owl Badge
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Developing the whole child Rich and stimulating curriculum
Skills for life
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Termly educational visits or visitors for every year group
In our school, children are able to access a rich and stimulating curriculum which feeds a love of learning. They are encouraged to have a keen spirit of enquiry about both people and places, challenge themselves and to be confident about themselves as learners.
The school curriculum follows the National Curriculum but is further enhanced by a modern approach to meet the needs of our current learners.
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Forest school sessions for every child
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esidential visits beginning with a camp-out on the school R grounds in Year 3 and leading to a weekend away for Year 6
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Chess Curriculum for Year 3
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Speech and Language Therapy
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Enterprise skills days for Years 2, 3 and 5
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Atelerista (Artist in Residence)
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elebration days; Diwali Dance, Chinese New Year painting; Eid C lunch; Hannukah celebration
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Eco-Committee
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Christmas dinner and visit from Santa (the real one)
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School Council
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Spanish lessons
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usic lessons with instrument tuition from Year 1 to Year 6 for all M children
The school employs specialist teachers for some areas of the curriculum. We are very fortunate that the Drapers’ Company provides a generous contribution to support the children’s educational experiences and we subsidise all visits and visitors with this funding.
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Specialist Music lessons
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First Aid training for Year 1 and Year 4
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LAMDA qualifications
At our school we grow our own vegetables and have chickens that lay eggs. When I go to Breakfast Club, I have scrambled eggs on toast.
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It is our aim that the children in our school will have a broad experience and be exceptionally well prepared for the next stage of learning and beyond, into adulthood.
What is a learner?
Creating and thinking critically:
At Drapers’ Maylands we apply the principles of Characteristics for Effective Learning. This approach focusses on not what the children learn so much as how they learn, and concentrates on:
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Having their own ideas.
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Making links.
Playing and exploring:
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Choosing ways to do things.
This system usually applies specifically to the Early Years Foundation Stage but at Drapers’ Maylands, we follow it throughout the primary years so the children build on their early experience and knowledge to reinforce a positive attitude to learning.
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Finding out and exploring.
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Playing with what they know.
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Being willing to ‘have a go.’
Active learning: •
Being involved and concentrating.
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Keeping trying.
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Enjoying achieving what they set out to do.
I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand. Growing Together…
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What makes Drapers’ Maylands Primary School different? Enchanted Wood Library
Forest School
The beautiful library is at the heart of our school. We aim to foster a love of reading through an enchanted wood setting where we have a treehouse, made from recycled wood. The library is stocked with hundreds of new books, has cosy reading dens and cushions to encourage readers to become lost in a book.
Forest School is an inspirational process that offers all learners regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and selfesteem through hands-on learning experience in a natural woodland environment. Drapers’ Maylands Primary School was one of the very first schools in the area to provide Forest School as an integral part of the school curriculum, and we now provide support to other settings.
It has a magical feel and is often a favourite part of the school for the children and visitors!
Forest School means we can play and relax. We set challenges for ourselves and everyone cheers when we get up the mud hill!
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We are very fortunate to be able to use the forest setting within 5 minutes walk of our school. Specially trained teachers accompany the children and each year we train new staff so that this becomes a specialism across the school. The child-centred ethos of Forest School mirrors the child-centred ethos of Maylands.
Just playing in the woods? No. Forest school is a learner-centred approach which extends beyond Forest School sessions and is woven into the learning environment in our school. Forest School builds self-confidence, resilience, strength, team skills, creativity, determination and has a positive effect on overall wellbeing. The children love Forest School and the learning in the forest leads to positive attitudes in the classroom.
Why Forest School: •
s upports the connection between the children and the natural world.
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ims to promote holistic development, encouraging resilience, A confidence, independence and creativity.
Offers the children the opportunity to learn from taking supported risks appropriate to the environment and to themselves.
Behaviour for Learning Restorative practices
A successful education requires a caring, supportive and disciplined environment, reinforced by positive attitudes and protection from disruption. Restorative practices allow children to learn how and why to manage their behaviour rather than just learning ‘what to do’. The approach builds a sense of moral purpose, reducing incidents of bullying behaviour and allowing children to make choices with an understanding of consequences. We feel that it is important that in Primary school we prepare the children for challenges they face in teenage years and how to manage their own behaviour through choice and reason.
We are a Thrive school Through the Thrive Approach, we support the social and emotional learning of our children. Thrive is a dynamic, developmental approach to working with children and which supports their emotional and social wellbeing. The programme is based on the latest research and proven to significantly improve children’s attitude and behaviour, reinforce self esteem and to encourage a greater understanding of themselves and others. Our commitment to the wellbeing of our pupils means that we are able to meet the needs of every child and offer support through whole class and 1:1 sessions in a supportive and positive way. We have our own staff trained to support children as Thrive Practitioners. In addition, we offer Play Therapy sessions for individuals in need.
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Our School Vision and Values Our vision
Our aims
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Every child deserves to enjoy their school experience.
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very child deserves be valued for their contributions to the E school environment.
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Every child should be successful.
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o nurture the enquiring minds of children so that education is T engaging and fun.
Respect - for the community, the environment and one another in attitude and action.
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o ensure that high expectations are maintained through excellent T teaching and learning opportunities.
rust - through kindness, consideration and being trustworthy as T well as recognising trust.
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o create a happy and safe environment where difference and T similarity are equally valued.
etermination - always trying your best, never giving up and D taking pride in achievements.
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o plan for the future, ensuring the children of our school are able T to be confident and successful adults.
Tolerance - celebrating the differences or similarities of people in our community and the world and having a positive attitude.
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o create an exceptional learning environment which allows our T children have opportunities for contemporary learning.
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o invite visitors, parents and carers to be part of children’s T learning.
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o ensure that opportunities to broaden experience and extend T learning opportunities are available for every child.
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o be a Rights Respecting School by enabling and encouraging T our children to be global citizens.
Our values
Our school values ensure that children are confident individuals, respectful of themselves, others and the learning environment, responsible members of the school community, resilient learners, and demonstrate tolerance for challenge and difference. Our commitment as a Rights Respecting School ensures that our children are prepared as global citizens with an empowered sense of their rights and responsibilities. Ambassadors: each half term a role-model is chosen to be the class ambassador.
Drapers’ Multi-Academy Trust Mission Statement
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As a Multi-Academy Trust, founded in 2014, we strive for our schools to be among the most successful all-ability schools in their area. We will achieve this through traditional values and laying the foundations for an outstanding education. In all of our schools we ensure the following:
e will celebrate our diversity and promote tolerance, W inclusiveness and understanding among pupils of all backgrounds, ethnicities and religions.
of London. The Drapers’ Company have been involved in education for over six hundred years. They support a range of extra-curricular activities and link the Trust to a wider community across the country.
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e will not tolerate unkindness and physical and cyber-bullying W and will, with the support of parents and carers, be vigilant in safeguarding the children in our care.
More information about the Drapers’ Company can be found on their website - www.thedrapers.co.uk
Drapers’ Multi-Academy Trust offers fantastic learning opportunities from Nursery, all the way through to a Sixth Form offering guaranteed conditional offers at Queen Mary University of London.
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ll the children in our care will be nurtured in a safe, caring, A supportive and happy environment.
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e will challenge all our pupils to achieve the highest possible W academic goals by providing a stimulating and disciplined learning experience.
Our Sponsors
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t the same time, we will encourage each pupil to develop their A interests and capabilities in sport, in the arts, in drama, music and community affairs, so that they become well rounded citizens of our community.
The Drapers’ Company
We are supported by two sponsors, who are highly experienced and passionate about education:
Queen Mary University of London Dating back to 1785, our co-sponsor, Queen Mary University of London, is one of the leading Colleges of the University of London. The University caters for over 25,000 students studying degrees in Science and Engineering; Humanities and Social Sciences; and Medicine and Dentistry. More information about Queen Mary University of London can be found on their website - www.qmul.ac.uk
The Drapers’ Company is proud to be the lead sponsor of Drapers’ Academy and is one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City
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How to find us The Manor
Drapers’ Academy le R Sett
Drapers’ Pyrgo
Drapers’ Maylands Primary School
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Leamington Rd
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Tarnworth Rd
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Petersfield Ave
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Drapers’ Maylands Primary School Settle Road Harold Hill RM3 9XR Tel: 01708 371 331 Fax: 01708 347 515 Email: admin@drapersmaylands.com Web: www.drapersmaylands.com
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