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About
Oatlands School
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Oatlands is an Infant
School in the North East of Surrey Education
Authority with a published admission number
of 60 children. Approximately 210 children
will be on roll during the school year 2008
/ 2009 aged four to seven. The children will
be allocated classes according to age. There
will be seven classes organised as follows: |
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2 Reception Classes - age range
(4 to 5 years) |
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3 Year One Classes - age range
(5 to 6 years) |
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2 Year Two Classes - age range
(6 to 7 years) |
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Oatlands school is committed to
safeguarding and promoting the welfare of
children and expects all staff and
volunteers to share this commitment. |
| We aim |
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To provide a happy, secure and
stimulating environment in which
children may develop positive
attitudes to both living and
learning. |
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To enable all children to
achieve their full potential
regardless of ability, gender, race
and culture. |
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To foster feelings of
self-worth, motivation and
independence. |
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To deliver a broad and balanced
curriculum which promotes high
achievement in all subjects. |
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To inspire an enthusiasm for
learning so that our children may
become active and responsible
participants in society. |
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Learning
& Teaching
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Oatlands School strives
to ensure that the learning experience for
all pupils is both effective and enjoyable. |
| We do this by: |
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Assessing the
needs of all children in each aspect
of the curriculum and planning to
deliver skills and knowledge that
are personalised to meet those
needs. |
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Planning and
delivering a curriculum which is
broad and balanced, and allows for
areas of learning to be revisited,
developed and extended to meet the
needs and interests of the children. |
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Using visual,
auditory and kinaesthetic methods of
delivery to meet the differing
learning styles of all children. |
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Providing a rich
and stimulating environment, which
offers a wide range of learning
opportunities both inside and
outside the classroom. |
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Ensuring all
pupils develop a high level of
motivation and self-esteem by
operating a pastoral policy that
rewards positive behaviour, provides
opportunities to learn from
experiences and emphasises values
for life. |
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Tracking pupil
progress and providing support,
through intervention if targets are
not achieved. |
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Liaising closely
with parents, carers and support
agencies, in order to provide
children with optimum support. |
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Maintaining a high ratio of
adults to pupils. |
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Ensuring all
staff are well-trained, competent
and confident practitioners who are
able to deliver the curriculum both
enthusiastically and effectively. |
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The
School Day
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8.50 a.m Doors Open |
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9.00 a.m 12.10 p.m Morning
Session |
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12.10 p.m 1.15 p.m Lunch Time |
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1.15 p.m 3.00 p.m Afternoon
Session |
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| Part-time children attend 9.00 a.m to
12.00 p.m |
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Teaching time (excluding
assemblies, registration and playtimes) - 21
hours 15 minutes per week. |
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School
Assembly
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A daily assembly is held
in the school hall. Each week's assemblies
are developed around a central theme and
incorporate the statutory daily Act of
Collective Worship which is broadly
Christian in nature. Representatives from
local churches and groups are invited to
lead occasional assemblies. |
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Parents have the right to
withdraw children from assemblies or class
work of a religious nature either in full or
in part. |
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What is Values Led Education and why
should I be interested?
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Those of you who follow
the PTA minutes will be aware that the
school has recently become part of the
Bridge Partnership, which is a confederation
of local schools. As a
partnership we have launched a Values Led
initiative in which all schools are
participating. |
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Schools have identified
22 values for life which will be introduced
to children over a period of 2 years. All
schools will be working on the same value at
the same time in order to have the greatest
impact on the community. |
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The school has been
trialling the project since April 2007 and
the seminar on the 10th October was the
official launch to which all parents and
members of the community were invited. We
joined with Manby Lodge for the evening to
illustrate our determination to make this
initiative community wide for the sake and
future of all our children. |
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We were absolutely
thrilled and privileged to have Dr Neil
Hawkes, who is both a leading exponent of
Values Led Education and a renown
international speaker, to lead our
introductory seminar. |
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It was definitely not an
evening to be missed with its inspirational
and thought provoking content. |
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Dr Neil Hawkes has
successful experience as a teacher, head
teacher, senior and chief education adviser.
He now works as an international education
consultant to governments and ministries
around the world. In England he is currently
an adviser to the Qualifications and
Curriculum Authority (QCA) working on
values-based education. He is a Director of
ALIVE (Association of Living Values
International). |
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This charity works with
organisations such as UNESCO to underpin
education systems throughout the world with
Values Education. Neil's most recent book
is: How to inspire and develop values in the
classroom.
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Overall effectiveness (how good is the
school?): Outstanding
The
school's capacity for sustained improvement:
Outstanding
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Main findings
Oatlands is an outstanding school. It
has improved under the very positive
leadership of the headteacher. She is
enthusiastically supported by her staff and
an effective governing body. The school has
excellent links with the local community,
particularly with a special school, its
partner secondary schools and
teacher-training universities. The school
instils in its pupils a clear sense of
values, self-belief and above all, a joy of
learning; as two pupils said, 'Being in our
class is very special because we can learn
and make friends with each other.'br>
The school's motto 'Laying
foundations for future success' is seen in
all of its work and helps pupils to gain
excellent levels of spiritual, moral, social
and cultural awareness. By the end of Year
2, pupils achieve extremely well in their
learning because the school has very high
expectations of them. Staff work hard to
eradicate any differences in the achievement
of groups of pupils. Information on pupils'
progress is accurately captured and tracked.
More robust analysis by all staff would
ensure that all pupils would make
accelerated progress.
Oatlands has
been successful in driving up pupils'
academic performance and sustaining
outstanding practice in supporting their
personal development. Pupils feel extremely
safe and secure and have a mature and very
well-developed understanding of what
constitutes a healthy lifestyle. The
partnership with parents and other agencies
is extremely strong and underpins the
school's exceptionally good levels of care,
guidance and support. As one parent
commented, echoing the views of many, 'This
is a fantastic school with a real sense of
'family' where each child is encouraged to
push themselves to make the most of their
abilities.'
TThrough the honest and
accurate school self-evaluation, leaders
have brought about many improvements.
Concerted action, by all staff, has raised
pupils' attainment and developed teachers'
skills. As a result, teaching and learning
are good, and in some instances they are
outstanding. This has led to a rising trend
in attainment over the last three years.
Leaders also know that there are examples of
good assessment practice, particularly of
reading, although the quality across the
school is variable. There is a need to
develop further teachers' skills in asking
probing questions, and to provide specific
targets that enable all pupils to make
consistently good or better progress.
Behaviour throughout the school is
exemplary, with pupils responding positively
to the high expectations set. Since the last
inspection the school has improved its
self-evaluation, accelerated the progress of
more able pupils and embedded a vision based
on values. The school has excellent capacity
to improve and fulfil its ambitious vision
for the future. |
More:
DFES Ofted Report for Oatlands School
Weybridge Surrey - March 2010 |
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More Information About Oatlands
School
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Oatlands School Website |
