From the Headteacher, Ms. K. Brookes

On behalf of the staff, the pupils and governing body, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Davyhulme Primary School. Ours is a vibrant school community which places children and learning at the heart. Standards of teaching and learning are excellent and the children thrive in our outstanding learning environment. Pupils consistently attain highly and make exceptional progress across all phases.

As Head teacher of this wonderful school, I strive for two simple things for our pupils:

• I want them to be happy.
• I want them to do the very best that they possibly can.

Our mission statement – Reaching for the Stars! – is at the heart of everything that we do: we are ambitious for all of our pupils and believe that every child can succeed, no matter what their starting point, or whatever individual challenges they may face.  Closely linked with this are our core values – we are ambitious, we are caring, we are collaborative, we are courageous – which run through all aspects of life at D.P.S. like a golden thread.

As educators, our core purpose is to provide the very best education for all of our pupils. We passionately believe that education transforms lives and provides endless opportunities for our children and young people.  We take inspiration from the human rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, who famously said, ‘One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.' Therefore, we value and cherish education and are keen to instill a lifelong love of learning in all our pupils. Our curriculum promotes high standards and challenges children’s thinking, whilst also engaging and exciting them. Our intent is to develop children’s knowledge and skills across all areas of our broad and balanced curriculum so that we nurture well-rounded children who can excel in any area they choose.

As well as ensuring that your children have the very best education, we are also firmly committed to developing and nurturing the whole child so that our children grow in confidence, self-esteem and have a sense of pride in their achievements. This begins at the very start of our children’s learning journey at D.P.S. in the Early Years and Foundation Stage. We believe that every child has a skill or a talent and should be encouraged to discover what this may be… Whether it is performing on stage, learning a musical instrument, representing the school on a sporting team, discovering the beauty and wonder of the natural world, being a lovely, kind person, or excelling academically… the opportunities are limitless. Everyone has their chance to shine at D.P.S.  We are deeply committed to the wider, enriched curriculum and there are many opportunities for children to participate in extra-curricular clubs which take place after school and during lunchtimes. In addition, pupils have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument including, for example, guitar, violin and trumpet.

It is my firm belief that our curriculum should teach our pupils not only knowledge and skills, but also educate them to be kind, thoughtful, respectful and tolerant members of society. Never has this been more important!  We aim to instill these values into our children so that they are always prepared to challenge prejudice and intolerance in any form and so that they treat people with kindness and compassion. Therefore, we work hard at D.P.S. to develop a community (including pupils, parents, staff and governors) who care for one another, where kindness is highly valued and respect is strong.

As we are ambitious for all of our pupils, we have very high expectations of our pupils and of our staff. We are deeply committed to providing the very best teachers and teaching assistants which leads to outstanding outcomes for our pupils. In return, we expect our children to live our values every single day by behaving impeccably; by adopting a positive attitude towards their learning; by showing high levels of respect; by having excellent attendance; by being punctual, and by arriving to school ready to learn and wearing the correct uniform.

Nurturing and building positive relationships with all members of our school community is really important to me. As Headteacher, I aim to be visible, approachable and compassionate. I understand that pupils’ outcomes improve significantly when school and parents/carers work together in partnership, so it is very important to me to build positive relationships based on trust and mutual respect. I would like parents/carers to be an integral part of our happy school community, so that you all feel valued, welcome and comfortable coming into school in whatever capacity. I believe that effective communication is key to fostering good relationships. I welcome your feedback and always try, whenever possible, to make myself accessible by being out on the school gates every day. If you have any worries or concerns about your child, we encourage you to share this with our staff so that we can try to work together to resolve the issue. All that we ask is that this is done in a polite and respectful way, in order to build a culture of kindness and tolerance.

Our school website has a wealth of useful information for parents and carers about our wonderful school, and I would encourage you to take a good look at it in order to get a feel of the kind of school D.P.S. is. It truly is a unique and special place and visitors frequently comment on the lovely, polite children; the friendly, welcoming staff and the exceptional learning environment.

As informative and up-to-date as our website is, it can only give you a small insight into the life our vibrant school. I would always encourage prospective parents to visit our school and to see for yourselves the school in action. Although we are a large primary school, we still maintain a happy, friendly atmosphere in which all children are part of our Davyhulme family. By seeing and experiencing the school environment for yourself, you will be able to make your own judgement as to whether you feel this is the best learning environment for your child.

Mixed Classes:

 One issue for parents to consider when choosing Davyhulme Primary School is that we have some mixed age classes in the Infant department. This is because we have 70 pupils in a cohort, but can only have 30 pupils in a class legally in Key Stage 1. This means that we have the following structure in our Infant department:

• X 2 Reception classes of 30 pupils each.
• X 1 mixed Year 1/Reception class which consists of x 20 Year 1 pupils and x 10 Reception pupils. The 10 Reception children access the full EYFS curriculum in the EYFS setting.
• X1 Year 1 class of 30 pupils
• X1 mixed Year 1/Year 2 class consisting of x 10 Year 1 pupils and x 20 Year 2 pupils
• X 2 Year 2 class of 30 pupils each.

Some parents do worry about this, but we ask parents to trust in our professional judgement when deciding which class your child will be in. We understand parents’ anxiety around this issue, however we would like to reassure parents that children are chosen to be in the mixed classes for a whole variety of reasons which are not based on ability. Children in these classes access the same curriculum as their peers and our analysis of attainment and progress of these pupils over time consistently shows that pupils achieve just as well as their peers in these settings. Parents can also be reassured that there are no mixed classes when children enter Key Stage 2 in Year 3 where classes consist of x 2 classes of 35 pupils.

In explaining the issue of mixed classes to prospective parents at this point, we aim to be as open and as transparent as possible. In selecting Davyhulme Primary School for your child, you are doing so with the understanding that your child could be taught in a mixed-age class. Please be assured that this will not be detrimental in any way to your child as all classes across the whole school have a wide range of abilities and needs. Please trust in the professionalism of our teaching staff on this issue. We are more than happy to discuss this further with you during your visit to our school if this is still a concern for you.

If you wish to visit our school, we would be delighted to welcome you and give you a tour. Please contact the school office to make an appointment. We look forward to meeting you and giving you a warm welcome.

Kind regards,

Ms. Kate Brookes