Dunraven Primary Brochure 2024 entry

Reception Parent

“My child has always been happy and excited to come to school.”

Welcome

Starting school is a big step for your child. Dunraven aims to make the experience as comfortable and confidence building as possible. We aim to give you and your child a real feel for the school and for you to get to know the staff quickly.

Children have had four years of learning experiences at home and at nursery before they start school. We aim to build on this by developing children’s creativity, sense of curiosity and pleasure in achievement.

Dunraven opened its primary phase in September 2013. The school was recently inspected in March 2023 and was judged good overall with outstanding features. The inspection report said ‘In early years, children follow routines sensibly and interact well with each other in a stimulating environment that is rich in resources’. The report also states that we have ‘an ambitious all-through curriculum that is coherently designed from Reception through to Sixth Form’. We strongly believe that being part of an all-through school brings many benefits for you and your child and helps to build a strong Dunraven community.

I am extremely proud to lead a team that is committed to achieving high standards. We provide a stimulating, varied curriculum that all children will enjoy and learn from. We look forward to welcoming you to our school.

Ms M Christian, Head Teacher Dunraven Primary

We are delighted to have Dunraven Primary as part of our family of schools. The school’s aim is ‘Excellence for All’ and it has already done much of which it can be very proud.

As a parent, you want to be confident that your child will be known at school as well as you know them at home. Dunraven is a nurturing and friendly school which means that your child will be seen as the person they are rather than simply as one member of a class.

Remarkable things are happening at Dunraven. We look forward to sharing them with you.

David Boyle, CEO Dunraven Educational Trust

Aims and Ethos

Dunraven’s aim is to provide ‘excellence for all’. This means:

• Children will develop a love of learning and a clear understanding of their needs as well as their responsibilities

• Children will be supported in developing their independence, creativity and confidence

• Children will develop their ability in the key areas of English and Mathematics to prepare them effectively for the demands of secondary school

• Children will have access to a significant range of extra curricular opportunities to enrich their school experience

We also want to help our children develop their capacity in a range of important character strengths to prepare them for their life ahead:

• Optimism - I believe I can improve and be more successful with deliberate practice

• Resilience - I stick with something even when times are difficult or I have to struggle in order to get things done well

• Gratitude - I show my appreciation for other people and opportunities I am offered

• Courtesy - I show respect to my peers and the adults in school because it is the right thing to do (not because I’m told to do so)

• Self discipline - I focus on the right thing at the right time and avoid the easy option

• Working hard - I put as much effort and thought into a task as I can

All Through School

We are really excited by the possibilities that the primary phase provides and believe that we have a lot to offer. One of the key benefits of being an all-through school is that we help develop the whole child into a young adult of whom we can all be proud. Those children in our primary phase will have an automatic right to continue into the secondary school. This will provide a unique opportunity for families to develop a long term relationship with us and remove the anxiety that often surrounds the process of transfer to secondary school.

The primary children are based in the building on our Mount Nod Road site. This offers a supportive and safe small school environment with the benefit of the facilities and expertise that the “big school” can provide.

Reception Parent

“Children are provided with an impressive range of experiences, a lovely school”

Curriculum

Our broad and balanced curriculum is based on the National Curriculum and adapted to celebrate our community. We have used the best of a variety of resources combined with the expertise of staff across Dunraven to design a curriculum that is carefully sequenced and interconnected across subjects and year groups.

English is taught through the use of high-quality texts. Children develop a love of reading by being introduced to a wide range of authors and genres. Opportunities for writing combine grammar with creativity across the curriculum.

The Maths Mastery scheme provides the framework from EYFS, through KS1 and KS2 and into KS3. The Maths Mastery approach is based on establishing conceptual understanding of the number system and mathematical concepts. Children are encouraged to reason verbally and demonstrate their thinking when applying their knowledge to mathematical problems.

Dunraven has established clear principles to ensure a continuity between primary and secondary phases. The principles include an emphasis on oracy, the importance of retrieval practice to embed learning and a commitment to enrich learning through stories and experiences beyond the classroom.

“Staff develop children’s communication and language skills effectively with a strong focus on building vocabulary”

Working with Parents

We believe that during the school years parents have a fundamental role to play in helping children to learn. We do all we can to inform parents about what and how their children are learning by:

• Sending information at the start of each term, which outlines the topics that the children will be studying

• Holding parents’ evenings each term

• Sending parents annual reports

• Keeping the website, class blogs and Twitter up to date

• Explaining to parents how they can support their children with homework

• Sending a regular newsletter to parents

• Inviting parents to share class assemblies and whole school events

• Holding workshops to inform and involve parents in specific aspects of their child’s learning

Parents support their child’s learning in school by:

• Promoting a positive attitude towards school and learning

• Ensuring that their child has the best attendance record possible

• Ensuring that their child is equipped for school with the correct uniform and PE kit

• Informing us if there are matters outside of school that are likely to affect a child’s performance or behaviour

• Supporting their child in extending their learning beyond the classroom, e.g. through homework

• Fulfilling the requirements set out in the home-school agreement which is reviewed regularly by the school and sent out to all new families

Positive Behaviour

We strive to create a positive culture that promotes excellent behaviour, ensuring that all students have the opportunity to learn in a calm, safe and supportive environment. As a school community, we strive to establish a whole-school approach to maintaining high standards and to foster better behaviour. We want a learning environment which encourages students, to work hard and to be the best versions of themselves.

At our school, we set and promote clear, high expectations from EYFS through all key stages. Relationships, and a focus on positive behaviour, are at the heart of our behaviour curriculum. We focus on the individual and where there are specific barriers to building positive behaviours we work with families and provide targeted support to mitigate negative conduct. Communication, clarity and consistency ensure that where misbehaviour does occur, it is dealt with promptly and predictably.

Children are taught to be ready, responsible and respectful; they are ready to learn, responsible for their own behaviour and respectful to everyone in our community.

“Systems to support behaviour are effective and pupils appreciate the rewards policy”

“Leaders have developed an exceptionally high-quality programme of personal development. They promote pupils’ character development consistently from Reception to the Sixth Form”

Extra Curricular

Breakfast Club and After School Club

We provide a Breakfast and After School Club every day from 8.00am to 5.45pm. At our After School Club, children can take part in a wide range of fun activities.

Inclusion

We aim to foster an ethos in which every child is motivated to strive for success and achieve his or her best, regardless of ability or background.

Dunraven is committed to providing equality of opportunity and we are a community that values its ethnic and cultural diversity. By getting to know your child really well, we understand how each individual learns best. Those children with additional needs – including children with special educational needs and those for whom English is an additional language – receive support to ensure that they can access the curriculum fully and achieve their potential. This may be provided in the classroom or outside, either one-to-one or in small groups. We also have a Speech, Language and Communication Needs Resource (SLCR) in both the primary and secondary phases. Children require an EHCP to access this resource.

Admissions for September 2024 entry

The deadline to submit applications is Monday 15 January 2024 Applications are made using the Common Application Form for your home Local Authority.

See the Admissions Policy or our school website www.dunraven.org.uk for details.

Head Teacher

Ms M Christian

Deputy Head Teacher

Ms H Dilley

Chair of Governors

Mr P Thomas

CEO

Mr D Boyle CBE

Dunraven School

94-98 Leigham Court Road

London SW16 2QB

admissions@dunraven.det.org.uk

020 8696 5600

www.dunraven.org.uk

Follow us on Twitter @Dunraven_School