At Primley Wood, we pride ourselves on providing an inclusive environment where all teachers have high expectations, children experience high levels of enjoyment and are therefore able to succeed. Through our virtues-led approach to education, we develop the whole child: academically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. We aim to nurture children’s interests and talents and celebrate their successes. We encourage children to challenge themselves and to use the virtue of courage to try new experiences.  Our curriculum extends beyond the National Curriculum and provides a wide range of enrichment experiences and opportunities both within and outside of the school day to enhance the learning for our pupils. Below are some of the ways in which we enrich the learning journey for all our pupils:

School Clubs
We have an extensive programme of after-school clubs that support the core curriculum offer, as well as those which develop specialist skills, such as languages, music and art. All our after-school clubs aim to promote children’s interests and provide a range of differing experiences, thus building on their cultural capital.  All our after-school clubs are inclusive, and provision is made where necessary to ensure all pupils are able to access their chosen club. We continuously develop our after-school offer based on the voice of our pupils and attendance numbers, ensuring clubs are relevant and of interest to pupils. 

Educational Visits & Residential Trips

At Primley Wood, we aim to bring excellence and enjoyment into our pupils’ education in order for them to grow a love learning and to excel. This is fostered through unique and inspiring moments. One way in which our school provides for these moments is through educational visits; they invite pupils to discover new places, new people and new experiences in different and exciting ways. 

As a school, we value the opportunities such visits offer for our pupils and are committed to ensuring that visits are relevant to our pupils’ learning and development. Our past and future educational visits include:

Residential Visits

We believe that a residential visit provides children with multiple benefits. They develop independence, improve confidence and self-esteem, establish strong relationships, motivate pupils and allows them to create lifelong memories.

Year 4 – The children in Year 4 have the opportunity to attend a residential trip for two nights at Herd Farm.

Year 6 – The children in Year 6 have the opportunity to attend a residential trip for two nights at Robin Wood.

Residential visits for schools are a key part of the national curriculum. The diverse and high-quality educational visits we offer mean teachers can create experiences that enhance pupils’ classroom learning, adding opportunities pupils may not otherwise have, particularly in the case of schools where children have limited access to natural outdoor environments in their day-to-day learning.

Visitors to School
We believe that people from outside of our school setting contribute significantly to the development of our pupils both academically and personally. We have had a range of visitors within our school who have either delivered assemblies, workshops or curriculum sessions. Below is an overview of some of our school visitors:

• People working within the local community, such as police officers:
• James Boffn – the Science nerd
• HSBC: Financial education workshop (EYFS through to Year 6)
• St John’s Ambulance: Class workshops on life saving first aid skills (EYFS through to Year 6)
• Sam Sarari – brings several creatures into school

Enrichment Days & Weeks
Throughout the year, enrichment days and weeks are woven into the curriculum and school diary. These aim to extend and reinforce previous learning, as well as providing new or different experiences for all our pupils. Below are some of the enrichment days we offer:

Faith Enrichment Days – The school organises three enrichment days throughout the academic school year. Some are linked to festivals e.g. Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s birthday and some are focussed on certain virtues e.g. love, compassion, forgiveness. Pupils are also able to participate in a variety of activities in and out of school to further understand the faith or the virtue.

Art Enrichment Days – Using our virtues of creativity and resilience, the children embark on a variety of Art Enrichment experiences which provide the opportunity to apply previously learned art skills as well as developing new knowledge around an artists and art disciplines.

Science Week – As a school community, we take part in the national Science Week. The week comprises of science focused activities and learning which develop pupils’ subject knowledge, skills, curiosity and enjoyment within the subject. 

National/International Awareness Days/Weeks
To ensure our pupils are aware of the world around them and their part within that world, we believe it is essential for them to partake in national and international awareness days and weeks. Our school takes part in a variety of awareness events, including: Anti-bullying Week, Internet Safety Day, World Food Day, Children’s Mental Health Week and UN Interfaith & Harmony Week.

PE & Sport Enrichment

Healthy Lifestyles – Healthy food awareness and choices, being active throughout the day. School Council campaigns.

Playground game, equipment and team games – We believe children being active  helps with not only their fitness, but their mental health and academic success. At breaktimes and lunchtimes we have a range of equipment and activities to help support our children’s development and to keep them active. At lunchtime, a Sports Coach facilitates team sports to help enrich and develop their team games knowledge and skills. We regularly update our resources and change the activities on offer to ensure a wide range of opportunities.

Sports Days – Every year, our pupils engage in competitive sports through our House Sports Days. This is a whole school event and involves every pupil collaborating and gaining points for their House.

Music Enrichment
‘Music is a universal language that embodies one of the highest forms of creativity’ (The National Curriculum). At Primley Wood, we believe that children can use music to not only explore and practise the virtues of creativity and collaboration but can build on their understanding of our world – it's cultures and it’s diversity. Through music, children can develop life-long, transferable skills and knowledge.

To enrich our music curriculum, we offer a variety of opportunities to listen to music as well as partake in musical activities outside of our core music lessons, which includes opportunities to explore, develop and celebrate pupils’ musical talents and interests. Below are some examples on how we facilitate this:

After-school clubs – We provide the opportunity for pupils to access external, specialist music teachers after-school.

Nishkam Musicians – An open opportunity for pupils to share their musical talents and perform in front of an audience. Nishkam Musicians audition for this position and are given an opportunity to perform in assemblies.  

Music speaking and listening sessions – Each class has a weekly music speaking and listening session in addition to their music units. The aims of the sessions are: to increase children’s understanding and knowledge of musicians, composers, music artists, music styles, genres and periods; make links to the wider world and the use and impact of music of societies and cultures; and to build children’s singing repertoire.

Music on the playground – We celebrate our love of music not only inside our school building but out on our playground. On our rooftop playground, we have wall mounted instruments available to all pupils to access throughout their break times and lunchtimes. Instrument guides and challenges are provided to support and further challenge pupils in their musical explorations.

Nishkam Trust Concerts and Performances –
Nishakm Trust enjoy coming together to celebrate and showcase the talents within our school communities. These events have included a Winter Concert and Primley’s Got Talent Show.

Assemblies

Our assemblies promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, and help to guide our pupils on how to become well-rounded individuals and global citizens.

Faith Assemblies – Weekly faith assemblies support our Virtues, Faith and Personal Development (VFPD) curriculum. Assemblies are prepared and delivered by our class teachers or senior leaders and aim to bring our school community together in collective worship. Our aim is to ensure we are working together to equip our children with the understanding and knowledge to be well-rounded, global citizens.

Celebration Assemblies – Weekly celebration assemblies are led by our class teachers or senior leaders. The aims of these assemblies are to celebrate the successes of our pupils as a school community and to promote excellent behaviours towards learning.

Parent Assemblies – Each year, every class has the opportunity to perform in front of the school community and their parents. Each class will focus on a key calendar event (linked to our virtues) and will work with their class teacher to develop an informative and entertaining assembly. These assemblies promote our pupils’ speaking and listening development and provide the opportunity for pupils to practise the virtues of courage, collaboration and creativity.

Visitor Assemblies – Throughout the year, a variety of visitors may lead on assemblies to raise awareness or to educate.