Prospectus

Yarm Primary School

Prospectus

This prospectus aims to answer the questions you may have about how our school is organised and to help you understand more about Yarm Primary School. As a school, we look forward to sharing this period of your child’s life with you and make sure that your family’s associationwith the school is a long and happy one because it’s a fantastic place for learning.

Address: Spitalfields, Yarm, Stockton-on-Tees. TS15 9HF

Telephone: 01642782731

Email: yarmpri.school@stockton.gov.uk

Website: http://yarmprimaryschool.net/

Office Hours: 8am – 4.00pm YarmPrimarySchoolisanAcademy, partofthe EnquireLearning Trust

18 Appleton Court, Wakefield, WF2 7AR

http://enquirelearningtrust.org/

Join us!

We welcome all children, working within our admissions process – see the website for details. Children from the age of 3 years are admitted into the first tier (Early Years 1) of our lower phase. We have a 30 hours offer which allows children to access our Nursery provision on a full time basis. As we also offer a breakfast, lunchtime and after school offer we can provide ‘wrap around care’ for your children form 3-11 years.

Further details are on the website or give us a call and we will be delighted to outline our offer.

Children reaching the age of 5 between 1st September and the following 31st August are admitted into the second tier of our lower phase (Reception—Early Years 2). There are opportunities to find out about how we work throughout the year, and we are committed to a well planned transition process into Key Stage 1; and to support this work EY1, EY2 and Year 1 work closely together as our Lower Phase on the ‘readiness for Y1’ agenda.

Sometimes children join the school when the term has started or later on in their school life. We ensure that they are welcomed, supported and monitored so that they quickly make friends and do not have any obstacles to their learning. Once more we encourage parents to contact us if there are any concerns, to promote a positive partnership between home and school.

Yarm Primary Club

Yarm Primary Club is available to children from Nursery to Year 6 (age 3-11).

The club runs from 7.45am to 8.55am and 3.30pm to 5.30pm during term time (excluding PD days).

Breakfast and an afterschool snack are available to all children.

YPClub activities include crafts, games, outdoor play, support with homework, Music and IT.

We are based in the main school hall. Places are flexible and we will try our best to accept all Childcare Voucher Schemes.

To enrol your child contact the school office on 01642 782731 or e-mail yarm@yarmprimary.org.uk

Getting involved

We recognise the importance of a strong partnership between home and school, in order to support the children in making the best progress across their school career.

We hold 3 parents evenings per year, but also always try our very best to accommodate parents/carers if they wish to discuss any queries or concerns – typically responding to any requests within a 24 hour period.

We hold several curriculum evenings across the year, to address specific areas such as phonics, statutory testing, early reading etc. Our communication system – Bromcom – is intended to provide an effective mechanism to share information. Class teachers in EY, Lower & Middle school, also manage Class Dojo – a means to share homework and key messages around the curriculum.

We have an extremely supportive parents group – FoYPS – Friends of Yarm Primary School – who are always looking for new members – or to join us at the events they help organise – Festival on the Field is a must in our summer calendar!

Homework

Throughout their time at Yarm Primary School pupils will be encouraged to spend some time at home preparing for or following up learning tasks set by the teacher. There is a balance of recorded and more practical activities, some promoting independence and some encouraging collaboration.

Homework is acknowledged and celebrated and we see the routine of doing it regularly as a good ‘habit’ to get into for the children’s future educational career.

The wider community

We recognise the importance of community and plan our curriculum to make authentic links to our town, its people and rich history. We plan for visits and visitors to enrich the experiences we provide for our children.

Colleagues from our Trust ‘family’ are regular visitors, providing support and challenge to ensure our school is developing to meet the needs of our children and families.

The Staff Team

School Principal —Mrs Wood

Vice Principal —*Mrs Barber

School Business Manager – Mrs Gartland

School Administrators– Mrs Tyerman

Site Supervisor – Mr Graham

SENCo— *Mrs Barber

My Tribe, My Tribe, My Tribe is your Tribe…

I have had the privilege of being part of Yarm Primary School for almost 40 years. I truly believe it is a special place and would love to talk with you about it. Our approach to relationships, wellbeing, enrichment and valuing each other are the basis of what happens here every day. I am thankful, in serving the community, to work with talented and committed colleagues, amazing children and wonderful families – My Tribe!

Jill Wood

Early Years

Lower School

Other staff who support pupils across the school in delivering the curriculum are:

Mrs Willis

Mrs Parkes

Mrs Powell

Miss Carthy

Mrs Barber

Miss Outlaw

Mrs Gibson

Miss Anderson

Miss Gott

Miss Rutter

Mrs Hughes

Mrs Bell

Miss West

Mrs Dent

Mrs Whittaker, Mrs Butterwick, DFC coaching, Mr Newton, and Mrs Vardy.

Middle School

Upper School

Mr Fox

Mrs Oliver

Mrs Grey

Mrs Rawling

Mr Painter

Mr Parry

Mr Wood

Miss Palmer

Mr Jefferies

Mr Smith

Miss Dale

Mrs Meek

There are 3 entrance gates which open at 8.45am and close again at 9.00am. Registers are completed at 9.00am Gates will open at 3.20pm and children will be ‘handed over’ to an adult on the playground (or dismissed from school as agreed with parents) at 3.30pm. The school site will close at 3.40pm. During the day children have a 15 minute morning playtime and a 10 minute afternoon play. Lunch take place in 2 sittings over a one hour period. Children are encouraged to be active over playtimes and each day has a dedicated movement time in addition – the daily mile.

The School Day

Children have access to 2 free after school clubs, which are sports based. There are also a number of other clubs which parents can pay for. Over the lunch period, children from Y1 – Y6 are offered at least 2 clubs, run by the staff in their year group. The main school library is also open over some lunchtimes for children to enjoy.

Promoting positive behaviour

We believe that children are happier and achieve more if they feel secure. We apply rewards and sanctions consistently so that children see that discipline in school is fair, firm and positive; appropriate to the age of the child and the circumstance. As the children grow we aim to develop a sense of responsibility for themselves and others and ultimately achieve a form of positive behaviour that is self-motivated. The awareness that for every action there is a consequence, we see as very powerful and this message is supported throughout school via the ‘Golden Rules’ The Golden Rules are supported by Golden Time, and sanctions around ‘missing’ part of this weekly session provides an opportunity to reflect on behaviour and what decisions could have been made instead. We find this to be, for most pupils, a very effective and positive system.

Working together for success

Reflecting current government guidancehttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-uniform https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cost-of-schooluniforms/cost-of-school-uniforms

We believe that wearing a uniform creates a sense of belonging and identity –Team Yarm! - and helps to set an appropriate tone for education.

But it does need to support the children in being able to carry out all activities they will be involved in during the course of their school week.

Therefore, we suggest:

Choice from the following items in grey or black:

Leggings/trousers/jogging pants

Skirt (perhaps with shorts underneath)

White or pale blue polo shirt/blouse/T-shirt

Summer wear may include a blue (striped/checked) summer dress/shorts.

A school jumper - Royal blue cardigan/jumper/sweatshirt – and although there is a jumper with a school logo available, a plain version is just as acceptable.

Team Yarm look smart

As children take part in the ‘daily mile’ footwear is of paramount importance so that they are safe to be active throughout the day – consideration should be given to the ‘grips’ on shoes and appropriate trainer shoes (no platform trainers please) are an option.

Parents are informed of when PE lessons are and as these are typically taken outside (unless raining), children can come to school in an appropriate alternative uniform on these days – grey, black, blue jogging/track suit, which can still incorporate the school jumper.

For more information please refer to the school website.

The welfare of our children is a high priority for us and the way we support our pupils in their development of personal, social, health awareness and development, is identified by outside agencies as a strength of our school. Our curriculum supports children in understanding what it means to have a healthy life and how emotional well being/mental health can be supported. Staff have understanding around the issues and use a range of listening systems, including Circle Time to develop understanding and promote positive messages. We work with a counsellor and have staff within school, who provide a range of therapeutic approaches.

Team Yarm Feel safe

Safeguarding and Child Protection

Procedures are well developed. We benefit from the input of the Trust and local agencies; with all staff undertaking a suite of training annually.

The designated person in regard to safeguarding is the Principal, with the Vice Principals acting in the role of Deputy designated officers.

The curriculum offers opportunities for children to learn about risk, managing it and understanding how to keep safe –including on-line. We also share information with parents to support them in safeguarding.

Team Yarm eat well!

Since September 2021 the catering group ‘Food Stars’ – part of the Trust – have worked with us to improve and develop the lunch offer. Menus are on a 3 week rota, with a wide choice for children to order prior to service and at the hatch. Our kitchen team are dedicated to quality and adapt the offer to individual needs around allergies etc. Some children choose to bring a packed lunch from home. However, children from Reception to Y2 inclusive are eligible to a free school lunch through the governments

‘Universal Infant free meals’ scheme. Children eat in the hall over 2 sittings, so that year groups can sit in friendship groups if they wish.

Team Yarm are great learners

Our curriculum

At Yarm Primary School we carefully design, plan and implement a curriculum which provides breadth, balance and depth of learning for every pupil.

We intend for our curriculum to be progressive whilst allowing for opportunities to develop children’s interests and ‘exploit’ opportunities in the local, regional and international realm. We use a calendar of events to plan enrichment; year group, phase and whole school; linked to e.g. the well-publicised World Book Day but also other areas such as BSL, First Aid, Dot day (Art links), Diversity day etc. Therefore the curriculum remains a dynamic thing; relevant and well-evaluated; so that it remains engaging and effective for all our children.

Maths

At Yarm Primary, our intent is to provide children with a broad and balanced curriculum, which builds on their needs and prepares them for the future. We have adopted the mastery approach to maths with support from the White Rose scheme, which we enhance with materials from NCETM progression documentation, in order to provide an engaging and purposeful context for learning. Pupils are encouraged to apply the skills and knowledge in a range of situations such as investigations and games, as well as reasoning and problem solving opportunities. We place emphasis on mastering key skills to provide a solid foundation for lifelong learning.

The National Curriculum identifies Science as a core subject. At Yarm Primary School, we wish to reflect this through a curriculum that builds on children’s natural curiosity. We wish to develop and support our children to question, enquire and challenge, ultimately leading to them seeing themselves as scientists as well as recognising the crucial role that science plays in the world around them.

Science

Reading

The impact of our reading offer at Yarm Primary School is that children see themselves as confident, capable and curious readers who have a lifelong love of reading and who are able to access a range of increasingly complex and varied texts across the primary curriculum. Children become fluent readers–using decoding strategies where appropriate –who can read for meaning, drawing upon their strong vocabulary knowledge and understanding of the topic context to support their reading journey. They understand that being a reader opens doors to success and enrichment in everyday life, including in a diverse range of rewarding future careers.

At Yarm Primary School, we believe that all our children can become fluent readers and writers. This is why we teach reading through Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised, which is a systematic and synthetic phonics programme. We start teaching phonics in Nursery/Reception and follow the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised progression, which ensures children build on their growing knowledge of the alphabetic code, mastering phonics to read and spell as they move through school. As a result, all our children are able to tackle any unfamiliar words as they read.

Phonics

Writing

To implement our offer, we recognise that the writing process is a journey from dependence to independence. Attainment in writing is intrinsically linked to the reading culture of the class and the school and we aim to foster this by ensuring children have experience of sharing reading for pleasure and purpose and opportunities to participate in reading and writing alongside adults. Supported by reading high-quality texts, we believe this ethos will enable children to become increasingly aware of audience, form, voice and written language structures

The past influences all aspects of our lives and shapes the customs and beliefs of the community we are a part of. Our work in History is based on children gaining a sense of identity, empathy with others (past & present), an appreciation of the ways we find out about the past and a growing ability to make sense of the world in which they live today; through curiosity and development of the skills needed to be a great historian!

In Geography we aim to inspire curiosity and fascination about the world and its people. Through the study of Geography children develop knowledge & understanding of local, regional and global environments. We incorporate map skills, comparative studies and field work to facilitate learning.

Geography

It is our intent that our Art curriculum develops curiosity and fascination about the world in our pupils and enable them to see themselves as artists. We aim for our learners to make links across the curriculum and embed Art as part of their lives now and moving forward. To implement the offer children are supported in developing their skills through discrete topic links or more explicit sequences of work based on famous artists and art movements. Sequences are designed to support all pupils in being able to see for themselves their progress across the sequence leading to an end product. Feedback is crucial in this process, and an ‘Austin’s butterfly’ approach is used by many pupils.

Children are supported in developing their skills through links to the main topic theme through Composing, Performing, Listening & Appraisal of a variety of music forms. Each topic has a playlist of songs that children listen to, describe them through specific language, understand the purpose and meaning with a historical & cultural relevance. Opportunities arise to sing or play instruments from some of these and they will go on to compose their own ideas. We also have our own selfpenned topic songs that relate to the learning through the lyrics such as Titanic Disaster, Egyptian song and We are Superheroes.

To implement the offer children are supported in developing their skills through discrete topic links or more explicit sequences of work based on famous buildings/structures and designs. It also supports children in critiquing, evaluating and testing their ideas and products and the work of others. We exploit opportunities to deliver food technology through thematic work. A focus on skills, in addition to promoting healthy lifestyles allows for greater depth across the themes

Design technology Computing

In order to meet the demands of the National Curriculum throughout school, our computing curriculum is divided into three clear strands: digital literacy, information technology and computer science. Learning in each of these strands is progressive and builds upon children’s understanding of previously-taught content.

Our intent is that our PE curriculum is designed to help children develop physical competence, an appreciation of skilled and creative performances, improved inter-personal skills and enhanced selfesteem. We aim to promote active and healthy lifestyles

Within PSCHE, we aim to develop skills such as resilience, self-esteem, risk-management, team working and critical thinking. PSHCE underpins all of the work that we do at Yarm Primary School. It helps pupils to stay healthy, safe and prepared for life –and work –in modern Britain.

Our aim is to help our children to develop an awareness of themselves, others and the World around them. The purpose of our approach is to develop the children’s attitude in terms of wonder, awe, reverence, compassion, curiosity, self-respect and integrity. The RE curriculum also reflects issues which underpin conduct and we ensure that pupils encounter diversity and belief, both religious and nonreligious, as well as cultural and geographical.

French is taught in KS2. The children learn a wide vocabulary range and work to develop confidence in speaking and listening to French through a combination of games, songs, and interactive resources. In upper school work is recorded with children working with a specialist languages teacher.