Our Church School
Start of the day
Our school doors open at 8.50am to welcome children into school. A member of staff is present at each end of the footpath and on the driveway at the front of school to tick children off and ensure they get safely into the school building. Doors close at 9am and class registers are taken. Any children who arrive after 9am need to enter school through the main entrance and be signed in by a member of the office team.
End of the day
Children in Early Years and KS1 are collected from the front of school and are dismissed by a member of their classroom team directly to their parents at 3.25pm. If someone who is not known to the classroom team, or does not usually collect them (including another child’s parent), attempts to collect a child and we have not been informed of this by the parent themselves, a telephone call will be made to the parent by the member of staff to verify the change to collection before the child is released. This is the case even if the child appears to recognise the person attempting to collect them. Parents are required to make us aware of any changes to normal collection arrangements in advance, even if the person collecting is listed as a contact within their MIS record on Scholar Pack.
Children in LKS2 leave through the double doors (leading to the footpath) and are dismissed by a member of their classroom team directly to their parents at 3.30pm. If someone who is not known to the classroom team, or does not usually collect them (including another child’s parent), attempts to collect a child and we have not been informed of this by the parent themselves, a telephone call will be made to the parent by the member of staff to verify the change to collection before the child is released. This is the case even if the child appears to recognise the person attempting to collect them. Parents are required to make us aware of any changes to normal collection arrangements in advance, even if the person collecting is listed as a contact within their MIS record on Scholar Pack.
Children in UKS2 leave from the green gates opposite the school playground entrance and are dismissed by a member of their classroom team directly to their parents at 3.30pm. If someone who is not known to the classroom team, or does not usually collect them (including another child’s parent), attempts to collect a child and we have not been informed of this by the parent themselves, a telephone call will be made to the parent by the member of staff to verify the change to collection before the child is released. This is the case even if the child appears to recognise the person attempting to collect them. Parents are required to make us aware of any changes to normal collection arrangements in advance, even if the person collecting is listed as a contact within their MIS record on Scholar Pack.
Children in UKS2 are permitted to walk to the end of the footpath to meet their parents or to walk home if they live within the village but only if we have written permission from parents in advance.
Weekly Highlights
Our Church School
We are a voluntary aided, Church of England primary school in rural Lincolnshire. We have 122 children on roll, aged between four and eleven and organised into six core classes. Our children benefit from small class sizes and the strong relationships we have in school. Everyone knows everyone and our close, family feeling is what almost all visitors to school comment on. We love our school and we think you will too!
Cultural Capital
Our Vision and Ethos
Our small, inclusive and caring school provides an embedded family ethos. We strive to enthuse and inspire our pupils, challenging and supporting their growth into respectful; confident; independent; self-motivated and curious individuals. We care, learn, discover and grow together, developing compassion, consideration, tolerance, understanding and knowledge for life in all its fullness.
Prior to joining our school community, we hold individual meetings with parents of new starters to allow sharing of backgrounds/interests/needs/parental needs etc. and ensure that they feel valued and acknowledged. We hold a welcome evening to ensure parents are fully informed and provide parent workshops to help with key elements of our curriculum including phonics, fluency and prosody, early number and the mathematical approaches, strategies and models we teach in school. We offer open house events, allowing parents to spend time in their child’s classroom. Parents, relatives and other people who are special to children are invited in to be Mystery Readers, sharing a story as a surprise for their child(ren) and their peers. Prior to COVID, we welcomed parents to join us for our weekly good work celebration collective worships and will be resuming this during Summer Two.
Children are greeted into school by their name each day to ensure they feel valued as individuals and that parents have opportunities to share any news they have with a member of staff. Children are dismissed to parents by their class teacher at the end of each day to ensure a continued, healthy relationship between parents and teachers and a chance for parents to see interactions between their child and their teacher first hand. Seesaw provides ongoing communication and the sharing of things that are happening within the classroom, including lessons and additional experiences/celebrations/performances. We formed our Facebook page at the start of the first lockdown to provide an uplifting celebration of our school community, to maintain our children’s focus and inspiration and to ensure our all-important sense of community was protected. We now have a bank of videos and posts that celebrates the special family we are and allows new parents and children to see and share in our positivity. Our website has also been redesigned to ensure our families, and any prospective families are as informed as possible.
We have a child-initiated approach across Early Years and Key Stage One. Children contribute to and help to shape the curriculum, regarding the timing and content through which objectives will be covered. E.g. Who is the significant individual we will study? Which event within living memory should be our focus? Children’s interests are followed wherever possible and the opportunity to share these positively influences and broadens others’ interests is an invaluable example of positive peer influence.
Families of disadvantaged children are supported to ensure equitable access to the curriculum in its broadest form. We offer the first hour of wraparound care each day free of charge and ensure we offer a wide range of free clubs, run by our own staff and external sport coaches to ensure we are fully inclusive. School trips are subsidised to ensure no child misses out because of the financial implications and we ensure a specific menu of interventions is offered to ensure children are not left behind or with gaps in their understanding. We work closely with external agencies including Working Together Team, Community Paediatricians, Educational Psychologists and Behaviour Outreach to ensure we have expert support to meet diverse needs. We use a range of standardised assessments, including CAT 4 to ensure we can map attainment against underlying cognitive ability and so that we are aware of any moderate or extreme bias that might help us to provide children with an even greater chance of success by utilising and maximising their strengths and to pinpoint areas requiring further support.
We know not all of our children will have the opportunity to access wider experiences and therefore ensure we offer diverse trips to broaden children’s perspectives. These include but are not limited to: Young Voices concert; theatre companies in school and accompanying workshops, visits to out of area centres such as the National Science Museum, team building and outdoor and adventurous experiences like climbing and archery and opportunities to compete in interschool sporting events. We also provide programs in school that help to fully prepare children for their next stage of learning and beyond, including the DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Experience) and the Positive Footprints Raising Aspirations program which opens the door to the world of work, showing children what careers are out there and the skills they’ll need to leave a positive footprint wherever they go in life. It also helps them to build their self-belief and resilience, recognise their qualities and understand how those qualities could be used in the workplace. This program includes a careers event where children and local businesses are invited to help share their chosen career paths with our pupils. We embrace the opportunities we have and responsibilities we share to fully prepare our children for success in life and to help them become the best human being they can be. We value character development and life skills as vital elements of our school curriculum.
Our curriculum is linked to three whole school Golden Threads encompassing concepts such as belonging, global awareness and understanding and the recognition that everyone can make a positive difference.
Autumn Term Golden Thread
Know Yourself, Love Yourself, Love Your Neighbour
‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ (Mark 12:31)
Spring Term Golden Thread
One world, Our world, A world for all
‘The Earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.’ (Psalm 24:1)
Summer Term Golden Thread
Be the Change
‘And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need.’ (Hebrews 13:16)
‘You must be the change you wish to see in the world.’ Inspired by the words of Mahatma Gandhi
Our pupils are encouraged and given opportunity to undertake a social action project inspired by a local issue or any of the learning they have experienced during the school year. We use the Archbishop of York’s Young Leaders’ Award as a support and model of a project and to develop pupil’s understanding of how they can work effectively. Our pupils have a strong moral compass and are proactive in actioning change in school. Our set of litter pickers were purchased in response to a pupil letter and are now regularly borrowed by pupils at weekends and holidays so that they can go litter picking with their families at local villages, beaches and woodlands. Classes nominate charities that they will support for the academic year and as part of this, they are encouraged to write to the charity and conduct research to find out more about their work, organise an event to raise funds or raise the profile and then to share what they have learnt with other classes. Our Spiritual Gang seek out opportunities to help our local community by supporting our nearest foodbanks with tinned and packeted donations received at our Harvest Festival celebrations each year. Wherever possible, they deliver this produce themselves, helping to stock the shelves and asking questions to fully understand the good work these organisations do within the community. This allows them to consequently share their wider knowledge with the rest of the school.
We pride ourselves on knowing each individual child across school well and truly valuing their inherent worth. Children are encouraged to celebrate and be proud of their unique qualities and skills. We are a small, rural school tucked away in a village and it is our responsibility to broaden their perspectives and be interested and inquisitive about the wider world, diverse cultures and beliefs and the views, opinions and perspectives of others. We work closely with members of our local clergy, with several delivering collective worships and spirituality sessions across school. We seek to widen our pupils’ perspectives further by providing pupil workshops linked to special times in the church liturgical calendar, including Advent and Lent.
One of our current school development priorities includes a key focus on developing our children’s emotional intelligence and their ability to reason and justify, armed with a broad vocabulary.
We have a quality, progressive reading spine throughout school which encompasses a diverse range of books, both historical and contemporary, which are shared with children across the school year so that all children are able to listen to and share quality texts, regardless of their background. We ensure we have a broad collection of levelled books and continually update our library of books to ensure we have new releases that some children would not otherwise have access to, diverse content and books that help to develop positivity, strength of character and resilience. Reading is embedded within school, is our highest priority of learning and loved by our children and staff. We have many pupil groups in school and our Reading Mentors is the most popular one. Children apply for the hotly contested responsible roles and go through a presentation and interview process to gain one, providing a valuable rehearsal at a key life skill.
Other pupil groups include, but are not limited to, our school council, voted in democratically by peers as part of our recognition of British Values, a Stay Safe Squad with members chosen due to their vulnerability regarding road safety, online safety, Spiritual Gang, who are instrumental in shaping, delivering, evaluating and monitoring collective worships and helping to embed our values throughout school. Our Sport’s Ambassadors help to encourage and model healthy living, exercise and teamwork and help to shape and deliver our annual sports day, intraschool sport competitions and house competitions.
We hold half termly poetry recitals to build our children’ confidence for public speaking and to further develop their fluency, prosody and vocabulary. Another of our school development priorities is to develop our pupils’ reflection and creativity, broadening their ability to maintain good mental health and wellbeing and objectivity. We grasp opportunities for our children to experience opportunities beyond the classroom including focused and dedicated outdoor learning lessons and visits to local secondary schools, including the Royal Institute Mathematics lessons that we would not otherwise be able to offer as a small, rural school.
We recognise the importance of learning a language and the positive impact it can have on other areas of learning and the opportunities it might offer in later life. Children in years one to six have French lessons throughout the school year and our reception children, usually by request, start lessons, based mainly around music and song, during the summer term. Lessons across school encompass language elements and exploration of French culture, further broadening our pupils’ cultural awareness.
All children are given the opportunity to learn to play an instrument via whole class tuition and to continue instruction beyond that point.
We ensure a broad and balanced curriculum is never narrowed and strive to cover a wide range of diverse history and geography in a progressive, age-appropriate way, linking these to our golden threads as a lens to view them through and helping pupils to make connections between their current learning, previous learning and what other classes in school are covering. Our art curriculum provide opportunity to explore, discuss and consider the work of a range of diverse artists that they may not otherwise be aware of.
We mark special days and weeks e.g. Earth day and Science Week, carefully balancing these with the expected curriculum coverage and we utilise local expertise to enhance opportunities e.g. representatives from our local RAF camp assisting with a science day.
We use talking partners and peer assessment to develop children’s abilities to analyse and offer constructive and effective feedback and to further develop reflection. We set expectations for children to self assess, revisit and edit their work and our feedback approach includes pupils identifying areas of work they feel particularly proud of.
We believe we offer a curriculum provision that is ambitious and aspirational for all and that will enhance the cultural capital of every child and family. We strive to ensure children are as ready as they can be for the transition to their secondary setting and equipped with life skills that will ensure their success as individual human beings with unique and inherent value.
Promoting British Values
At Kirkby on Bain CE Primary School, we understand that the society we live in is diverse and therefore, our curriculum and life within school reflects this. For our pupils, we aim to continually weave the thread of social, cultural, moral and spiritual British values throughout day-to-day school life. Underpinning this are the values and understanding of democracy, law, liberty, respect, tolerance, tradition and heritage. The ‘Equality Act 2010’ protects all individuals from discrimination and it is the schools duty to ensure that all individuals have equal access and opportunity to all that is on offer. Funding, including that for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and disadvantaged pupils, is used to target inequalities, to ensure equality and equity.
At our school, we uphold and teach pupils about British Values which are defined as:
- · Democracy
- · Rule of Law
- · Individual Liberty
- · Mutual respect
- · Tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs
These values are taught explicitly through Personal Social Health and Emotional (PHSE) and Religious Education (RE) lessons and heavily link to our whole school golden threads. We also teach British Values through planning and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum.
The school takes opportunities to actively promote British values through our daily collective worships and the whole school systems and structures such as electing and successfully running a School Council. We also actively promote British values by ensuring that our curriculum planning and delivery includes real opportunities for exploring these values. Actively promoting British values means challenging pupils, staff or parents expressing opinions contrary to fundamental British values including extremist views.
At our school, British Values are reinforced regularly and in the following ways:
Democracy
Democracy is embedded within life at our school. Pupils are always listened to by adults and are taught to listen carefully and with concern to each other, respecting the right of every individual to have their opinions and voices heard. The elections of our School Council members are based solely on pupil votes, reflecting our British electoral system and demonstrating democracy in action. Pupils also have the opportunity to air their opinions and ideas and have their voices heard through our School Council and pupil questionnaires. The council meets with our headteacher to discuss any issues raised in class council meetings. The council and other pupil groups, such as our Reading Mentors are genuinely able to effect change within our school.
The Rule of Law
The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school collective worships. Our children are aware of the consequences of not following the rules in our school community. Our children learn to understand the difference between right and wrong in all aspects of school life throughout the day. Pupils are taught the value and reasons behind laws, that laws govern and protect us; the responsibilities that are involved and the consequences faced when laws are broken.
We have our own Mini Police, Junior Online Safety Officers (JOSOs) and Junior Road Safety Officers (JRSOs) who provide support and advice across our school community as part of our Stay Safe Squad.
To encourage and promote good behaviour, attitude and work, we use a clear behaviour system that is consistently followed throughout the school. As a school, we are committed to praising children’s efforts. We endeavour to praise the children informally, individually, during group work, in front of the whole class, the whole school and our wider school community. Children are rewarded not only for achievement in curriculum areas, but also for positive behaviour and personal successes. Rewards are given in the form of stickers, house points and certificates. Children’s achievements are also recognised during weekly celebration collective worships.
Individual Liberty
At our school, our pupils are actively encouraged to make choices, knowing that they are in a safe and supportive environment. As a school, we educate and provide boundaries for our pupils to make informed choices, through a safe environment and an empowering education. Pupils are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights and personal freedoms and are advised how to exercise these safely, for example through our teaching of online safety and PSHE lessons and through whole class projects, such as the DART program. Our children are encouraged to give their opinions and share these ideas with due regard and respect for the feelings of others. As part of our PSHE curriculum, we place a huge emphasis on the social and emotional learning of our children and feel we send them on to their secondary school as well-rounded individuals. We implement a strong anti-bullying culture and any instances perceived as bullying are dealt with promptly.
Whether it be through choice of challenge; how they record their work or participation in our numerous extra-curricular clubs and opportunities, pupils are given the freedom to make choices and to respect the decisions and choices of others.
Mutual Respect
Mutual respect is at the heart of our values. Children learn that their behaviours have an effect on their own rights and on those of others. All members of the school community treat each other with respect.
Posters around the school promote our Golden Values encouraging respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom and learning approaches, as well as through our behaviour policy. Pupils challenge each other when they are not showing respect and encourage each other to be respectful. Our values are upheld across school and our pupils follow and uphold them with great pride.
Tolerance of Different Faiths and Beliefs
This is achieved through enhancing pupils understanding of their place in a culturally diverse society and by giving them opportunities to experience such diversity. Through our RE curriculum, which teaches the main faiths and focuses upon learning about religion and learning from religion, and through exploration of our whole school golden threads, we actively promote diversity by learning about celebrations of different faiths and cultures. Religious Education lessons and PSHE lessons reinforce messages of tolerance and respect for others.
British Traditions and Heritage
We celebrate the role of Britain both historically and in the present. We want pupils to have knowledge of, and be proud of, their British heritage and the cultural and historical traditions that we are renowned for the world over. This involves celebrating royal events, Remembrance Day, festivals such as Harvest, Christmas, Easter and celebrations linked to other religions. We regularly visit our local church, including specifically to mark these celebrations.
