
3ASHMEAD COMBINED SCHOOL |
BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE
curriculum and that learning is carried
out in an environment that is enriching
and relevant.
In this way, when children enter
the classroom on the first day of a
term, they are surrounded by the
objects and key vocabulary from the
main topic text; in the case of the
example above, the room would be
filled with objects from the seaside.
In this sense, we are lucky to have
such a committed and creative staff
at the school, who buy into our vision
of education and work tirelessly to
create fresh and stimulating learning
environments for children every term.
Therefore, our curriculum does not
assume that every child has the same
experiences but rather provides them
with the experiences they need to
enable effective learning to happen.
Rather than expect our children to
adapt to a predetermined or published
curriculum, we use experiences
to build a curriculum around our
children’s needs, putting the child at
the centre and working outwards,
not the other way around. Alongside
this curriculum, we use assessment
effectively to inform our teaching
instead of gearing everything we teach
towards assessments. We have a staff
who are proud of the curriculum and a
pupil body who are inspired by it.
Home-grown staff
In recent years this curriculum has
resulted in strong outcomes for
pupils, which we have worked hard
to maintain by ensuring sustainability
of staffing and by becoming involved
in teacher training. We employ a
number of home-grown teachers who
have completed initial teacher training
through the school – some of whom
worked as teaching assistants in the
school prior to this and have been
supported through higher education.
Such apprenticeship has not only
relieved us of the pressures of
recruitment but also means that we
employ teachers who share our values
and vision for a quality education. We
also promote an “everyone teaches”
approach, whereby every qualified
teacher, from the headteachers to
the newly qualified teacher, takes
responsibility for teaching every day.
As such, the headteachers, deputy
headteacher, assistant headteacher
and special educational needs and
disabilities co-ordinator all have a daily
teaching commitment. In this way,
we are able to reduce ever-strained
classroom ratios in order to give our
children a better deal and to sustain
outcomes for all.
We have a
staff who are
proud of the
curriculum
and a pupil
body who are
inspired by it
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The Iron Man topic