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Balsall Common Primary School www.balsallcommonprimary.co.uk Helping Young Minds Grow...

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Page 1: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary Schoolwww.balsallcommonprimary.co.uk

Helping Young Minds Grow...

Page 2: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School is widely considered to be one of the best primary schools in the country. Children that attend this school are expertly supported in becoming well-balanced and independent youngsters, who thrive on challenge, and are thoroughly engaged with their learning. The end result is socially well adjusted, high attaining young people, who go on to make the very best of their potential.

Excellent Facilities and Curriculum

Few schools can boast the level of provision to be found here at Balsall Common Primary School. From its state of the art ICT Suite, through to its own indoor swimming pool, Balsall Common sets the pace, constantly looking for new and imaginative ways to improve further. In fact, this curriculum is described by OFSTED as having, ‘An extensive range of opportunities that broaden pupils’ understanding of their ever-changing world and that particularly contribute to the excellent personal development and well being of pupils’, and was graded as ‘Outstanding’.

Specialist Coaching

The excellent curriculum is enhanced by specialist subject teaching in French, ICT, Sport and Swimming coaching, which contributes immensely to the achievement of our pupils.

In addition, the quality of the school’s extracurricular activities, such as football, tennis, Spanish, Latin and cookery, is also regarded by OFSTED as outstanding, commenting, ‘French and Latin clubs are supported well and good use is made of the on-site indoor swimming pool.’

High Standards

All in all, this is a school that performs extremely well and that has a long and proven track record of providing the very

best opportunities for children and families, and one which we are all very proud to be part of.

Open Door Policy

All visits are very warmly welcomed, so please feel free to book an appointment and come along and see the school in action, first hand.

Page 3: Balsall Common Primary School

There are many aspects of life at Balsall Common Primary School which enhance pupil experiences on a daily basis. One such aspect is the school’s ‘determined and ambitious’ culture, which is a key factor in underpinning and driving forwards high standards of achievement and attainment for all pupils within the school, the net result being that pupils thrive in all aspects of their learning within the school environment.

Balsall Common is a Safeguarding School and, as such, the governors recognise that all staff and volunteers have a full and active part to play in protecting pupils from harm.

Clubs and Additional Activities The school is in essence a true community school. We have developed a culture in which the school week is unrestrictive and the school day is not finite.

There are clubs and activities operating on the school site throughout the week, and a wide range of the following extracurricular opportunities are offered either at lunchtime or at the end of the school day.

• Swimming coaching evenings• Swimming for all - Saturday mornings• Sport: Football, Netball, Athletics, Rounders, Short Tennis, Rugby, Cricket, Water Polo, Basketball, Skiing• Music groups: Choir, Recorders/ Guitar & other music tuition• Radio Station• Radio Controlled Car Club • Computer Club• Dance Club• Drama Club• Nature Club• Cookery Club• Chess Club• Science Club• Latin Club• Reading Buddies

Page 4: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 1

Balsall Common Primary

School

Head’s Welcome Message

Balsall Common Primary School is widely considered to be one of the best primary schools in

the country. Children who attend this school are supported in becoming well-balanced and

independent youngsters, who thrive on challenge, and are thoroughly engaged with their

learning. The end result is socially well adjusted, high attaining young people, who go on to

make the very best of their potential.

The excellent start begins in nursery where, „The provision for the children in Early Years

Foundation Stage is outstanding and ensures all children achieve exceptionally well‟

(OFSTED 2009). This continues throughout the school with an exciting, stimulating and

cohesive curriculum that supports learners‟ engagement using strategies like Mantle of the

Expert and Building Learning Power (both of which are commented on in more detail in the

Curriculum section below).

The school works in close partnership with Pathways, the on-site, private day care setting,

which also provides quality Before and After school provision from 7.45 am until school

starts, and then from the end of the afternoon until 6.00pm.

The school has also received an „Outstanding‟ grading from OFSTED with regard to the

quality of extracurricular activities, such as football, tennis, Spanish, Latin, Cookery and

much, much more!

Few schools can boast the level of provision to be found here at Balsall Common Primary

School. From its state of the art ICT Suite, through to its own indoor swimming pool,

Balsall Common sets the pace, constantly looking for new and imaginative ways to improve

further.

Meanwhile, the staff of the school work hard and enthusiastically, in close partnership with

very supportive parents, and are seen very much as a core strength of the school, with the

governing body being well informed, with a consistent and supportive approach to all school

matters.

All in all, this is a school that performs extremely well, that has a long and proven track

record of providing the very best opportunities for the children and the families that

attend, and a school that I am extremely proud to lead.

I look forward to welcoming you into the school, and to a long and fruitful partnership.

Page 5: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 2

Balsall Common Primary

School

Balsall Common Primary School Curriculum

We provide an exciting, stimulating and cohesive curriculum that motivates

everyone and enables every learner to enjoy and achieve.

Our curriculum is thematic and each theme begins with an “Inspiration Day” – time

taken off timetable to be involved in something special and different that will

enthuse learners at the beginning of the unit. “Inspiration Days” can include

dressing up as famous people, “living in Tudor England”, visits to the Space Centre,

tasting foods from around the world, or creating the Amazon rainforest in the

classroom!

We also use Mantle of the Expert strategies, which mean that the children learn as

part of an imaginary enterprise. For example they may be running a restaurant, a

travel agency, or looking after pets whilst their owners are on holiday! The children

love this way of learning and gain a great deal in terms of problem solving and

collaborative working.

Our curriculum enables children to develop sophisticated ICT skills which they

readily use in their learning – creating animations, podcasts, films, and presenting

their own radio programmes.

We are keen that children have a very rounded education and have recently gained

the “Artsmark Gold Award” for the second time.

We offer an extensive range of extra curricular opportunities including a

comprehensive range of sporting activities – football, cricket, tennis, swimming,

rugby, netball, rounders, athletics, dance. We also offer Drama, ICT, Latin, Spanish,

Cookery, Science, Young Engineers, Nature Study, Crafts, Art, Chess, and many

more.

Ofsted has twice graded our curriculum as “outstanding”, and HMI included our

curriculum in their review of outstanding schools in 2007. We believe that the

curriculum we offer our children is at the forefront of educational best practice

and we will continue to strive to provide the children with an environment that truly

fosters the love of learning.

Page 6: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 3

Balsall Common Primary

School

We are passionate in our desire to help our children to become real learners, who

not only have the key skills of literacy, numeracy, ICT and science, but have a true

thirst for learning. We recognise that in a fast changing world, our learners will

need the skill of discernment – there is so much information available to us at the

touch of a button; they will also need to be able to work independently and with

others; and to have developed a resourcefulness that will see them through periods

of challenge or change.

With this in mind, we have produced a curriculum that will promote the development

of these capacities. We believe in the approach to learning to learn espoused by Guy

Claxton – Building Learning Power. Through the ethos of the school and the

curriculum pupils are encouraged to develop learning capacities which will help them

to become confident, capable, creative life-long learners.

Resilience – absorption, managing distractions, noticing, perseverance.

Resourcefulness – questioning, making links, imagining, reasoning, capitalising.

Reflectiveness – planning, revising, distilling, meta-learning.

Reciprocity – interdependence, collaboration, empathy and listening, imitation

Throughout all aspects of school life we believe that we should encourage the

children to become increasingly responsible for their own learning. We encourage

them, and orchestrate opportunities for them to develop the learning capacities

that we all need to thrive as learners.

Page 7: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 4

Balsall Common Primary

School

KS2 SAT’s Scores, End of Year 6

2009 2010 2011

%

Target

%

Actual

%

Target

% Actual %

Target

%

Actual

English – Overall Score

Level 3 18 9

Level 4+ 88 86 92 88 (LA AV 88)

Level 5 43 51 55 54 (LA AV 44)

2 levels progress 94 92 85

More than 2 levels

progress

18

Conversion Lv 2 – 4+ 98 (40/41)

English – Reading

Level 3 6 8 5

Level 4+ 92 87 92

Level 5 73

2 levels progress 90

More than 2 levels

progress

19

Conversion Lv 2 – 4+ 96 (24/25)

English – Writing

Level 3 14 35 14

Level 4+ 60 84

Level 5 18

2 levels progress 61

More than 2 levels

progress

6

Conversion Lv 2 – 4+ 83 (35/42)

Maths

Level 3 10 14 1 8

Level 4+ 86 89 95 88

Level 5 45 60 57 56

2 levels progress 88 83 87

More than 2 levels

progress

6

Conversion Lv 2 – 4+ 76 (29/38)

Combined Eng and Maths

Combined Eng and Mat 2

levels Progress

90

More than 2 levels

progress

Combined Eng and Mat

English and Maths Lv 4+ 90 80 85

English and Maths Lv 5 43 (39/91)

Science

Level 3 6

Level 4+ 93 93 95

Level 5 80 76 85

Page 8: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 5

Balsall Common Primary

School

KS2 Level 5 SAT’s Scores, End of Year 6

Level 5’s

2009 School National 2010 School

English 51 29 54

Maths 60 35 56

Science 76 43

Whole School Contextual Value Added

Progress

CVA Summary, Whole School

1 2 3 4 5 6

2007-

2008 M 20 B 40 T 25 T40

2008-

2009 T 5 T 40 T 25

T

40 M 20

2009-

2010 T 25 T 25 T 25

T

25 T 25 T 40

SEN CVA Summary, Whole School

SEN

Children

CVA

1 2 3 4 5 6

2007-

2008 99.7619 98.75 99.75758 100.0128

M 20 B 25 M 20 M 20

2008-

2009

100.3214 100.8846 99.42424 99.69231

T 40 T 25 B 40 M 20

2009-

2010

101 100.6635 99 99.71154

T 25 T 25 B 25 M 20

Page 9: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary School Page 6

Balsall Common Primary

School

I very much enjoy meeting prospective parents, so

please do make an appointment to come and enjoy a

guided tour of the school and see the children at work

first hand.

Contact me at the school office to make an

appointment.

Graeme Burgess

Page 10: Balsall Common Primary School

Balsall Common Primary Schoolwww.balsallcommonprimary.co.uk

Helping Young Minds Grow...

Balsall Common Primary SchoolBalsall Street EastBalsall Common

Coventry CV7 7FS

Telephone: 01676 532254Fax: 01676 533314

E.mail: office@balsall-common.solihull.sch.ukwww.balsallcommonprimary.co.ukHeadteacher: Mr Graeme T. Burgess MA

BalSall Common Primary SChool

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Remember to visit our websitefor more information

www.balsallcommonprimary.co.uk

Proud sponsors ofBalsall Common Primary School

A continuing partnership with Balsall Common Primary School offering:

• Full and part-time nursery places

(0-4 years)

• Before and after school care (3-11 years)

• Holiday activities

For more details telephone:

01676 534018