Introduction

Istead Rise Community Primary School is situated in the small semi-rural village of the same name. The village, whilst enjoying a pleasant outlook benefits from excellent road links with easy access to both the A2/M2 and A20.

Our School sits in an attractive setting within the community. The children and staff are able to enjoy the extensive grass areas, playing fields, pond and playgrounds that surround the school buildings. The school also benefits from its own covered swimming pool, which is very popular with the children.

An ongoing programme of refurbishment ensures that we have school facilities that allow our children and staff to be accommodated in safe, secure and comfortable surroundings and make the best use of our resources.

The school has forged close links with the local community through an ongoing programme of events such as our popular Summer and Christmas Fayres which never fail to bring visitors from the surrounding areas.

Istead Rise is a thriving school with an enthusiastic and committed staff who work in conjunction with the Governors and parents to provide a comprehensive learning journey for its pupils and to make that journey both informative, enjoyable but most importantly, give the children the skills they need to equip them for life.

Mission Statement

We aim to be an e-confident community school delivering quality education for all our learners.

School Ethos

At Istead Rise Primary School we are a thriving school with an enthusiastic and committed staff working with parents to provide a comprehensive learning journey for our children and to make that journey:
• Informative
• Enjoyable
• Provide the children with the skills they need to equip them for life.

We encourage our children to:

• Become life-long independent learners
• To have high standards of personal behaviour through mutual respect and understanding.

The importance of having a well planned, organised and above all stimulating, curriculum cannot be over emphasised. Our teaching staff aims to do this by:

• Creating a balanced, yet broad framework for all pupils to learn and achieve
• Promoting pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development
• Making sure children of all backgrounds, disabilities and cultures have equal opportunities

The school follows the National Curriculum starting with the Foundation stage. This very important stage in education was introduced in 2000 and is for children from the age of three to the end of the Reception year. Early learning goals are followed in this stage which links in the curriculum offered in pre-school settings. This stage gives the children planned activities but also the opportunity to plan and initiate themselves. The work appears to take the form of play and is enjoyable to the children. Importantly, it helps to integrate them into school life smoothly and with the minimum trauma to the child. We are pleased that our work at Foundation stage has been highly praised in OFSTED inspections.

ICT is a major tool for learning and is embedded into the curriculum as a normal part of daily learning within the classroom. In addition to the core subjects of English, Maths and Science which follow the Primary Strategy, the Curriculum as followed at KS1 and KS2 covers geography, history, design technology, religious education, art and PE.

• Religious Education – is based upon the Kent Agreed Syllabus which requires a number of core units and supplementary units to be taught. Christianity, Sikhism, Judaism, Hinduism and the Islamic faith are part of this curriculum. Within the school, social and moral values are upheld with a respect for all encouraged. Personal, Health, Social Education and Citizenship also form part of our curricular framework. These subjects are within this framework but not necessarily in subject lessons, as would be expected in a secondary school.

Note Collective worship occurs every day and is broadly Christian in nature. Major Christian festivals are celebrated and children are also taught about festivals in other religions. Parents have the right to withdraw their children from all, or part of, collective worship or religious education by notifying the school office.

• ECO – The children are encouraged to respect and care for the environment; they help to improve the school grounds, try to be economical in the use of energy (electricity) and water, follow the three R’s of Repair, Re-use and Recycle and learn about the need to conserve non-renewable resources. We are proud that our school has so far been awarded the ECO Schools Award, Bronze Level.

• PMFL (Primary Modern Foreign Languages) – In our school we begin to teach French using the PILOTE scheme, from Reception through to Year 6. The emphasis is on spoken, rather than written French, giving the children an introduction to a modern foreign language and a good basis to build on in secondary education.

The school also works closely with pre-schools, nurseries and other agencies to ensure continuity of educational standards and goals in order to give our children the best possible learning experience.

The development of wider skills and experiences is an important part of school life. We encourage the children to continue learning outside of the school environment and groups are taken out of the school for local walks, day visits to places of interest and on residential trips for our older children. We do ask parents to make a voluntary contribution (where possible) towards the cost of these activities.

We also encourage the children to take part in after school activities. Popular activities include football, netball, choir and drama club. We are always looking to extend the range and scope of activities and welcome the help and support of parents or other volunteers from the community.

The school thrives on being part of the local community and has an active Parent Teacher Association (PTA). A wide range of fund raising events are organised by the PTA each year and the school has greatly benefited from their efforts - most notably the covered swimming pool.

We have a single intake to our Foundation stage in September. Any child who has had their 4th birthday on or before 31st August 2002 would be eligible.

The Governing Body of the school have adopted the Kent County Council over-subscription criteria for admission. These give priority to:

• Children in local authority care
• Current family association (a sibling in the school at time of entry
• Health and special access reasons
• Nearness of children’s homes and ease of access to school

The full details of the KCC policy can be found in the Admission to Primary School booklet available from KCC. Applications for places at the school must be made on the form RCAF contained within this booklet. If you wish to apply for a place for your child other than at Reception stage please contact the school office in the first instance.