PROSPECTUS 2007 - 2008

Holly Spring Junior School is a suburban, medium sized junior school, sharing a pleasant open site with our partner infant school. We are part of the new Unitary Authority of Bracknell Forest, formerly the Royal County of Berkshire.

Holly Spring Junior School was built in 1960 for children in the 7 to 11 age range. It is a group 2 community school.

Accommodation is designed as a two-form entry school providing space for up to 240 children. The buildings are designed with traditional classrooms, a spacious hall, kitchen facilities and corridors with working areas connecting the classrooms. The school has a well-stocked reference library, which is available throughout the school day for private study and group research.

The school has a large playground and playing field, and there is a copse, herb garden and pond where children can study the natural environment.

Adjacent to the playground is a large log-based adventure area, comprising six separate piece of climbing apparatus.

Children are usually taught in mixed ability, single year groups by a committed skilled teacher and a trained learning support assistant.

The school is class-based. However, teachers do work and plan as four teams of two. The four teams do work independently of each other, but also plan work together, so that continuity and progress at the appropriate level is maintained.

This gives a minimum of 4 hours 40 minutes teaching time per day, which provides for a minimum weekly teaching time of 23½ hours (approx.), excluding breaks and daily collective worship.

Please make sure that your child does not arrive before 8.40am. On arrival, children go to the playground and wait until called into school by the teacher on duty. In wet weather, children will be allowed straight into their classrooms.

Our educational aims will be:-

1. To provide a happy, caring, secure and stimulating enironment and an atmosphere of mutual respect, which encourages children to develop to their full potential and become independent, lifelong learners.

2. To provide a broad and balanced curriculum which develops children's knowledge, skills and understanding which will enable them to play their part in a rapidly changing world.

3. To help children to learn respect, tolerance and consideration of others and celebrate their own and others achievements.

4. To encourage pupils to take active responsibility for their own learning.

5. To promote pupils spiritual, moral, social and cultural development, preparing them for life as an effective citizen.

6. To establish a calm and purposeful atmosphere in which children are well behaved and develop confidence, self respect and honesty.

The curriculum is planned using National Curriculum Guidelines, the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework and our own policy statements developed through staff training and meetings. A proportion of the work is theme based some is subject based. Each broad theme has a particular emphasis so that throughout a school year there is a balance between a science, history or geography bias.

In any one school day, your child could experience a varieyt of teaching styles according to the nature of the work - whole class teaching, mixed ability and ability group work, as well as individual tuition where appropriate.

CLASS SIZES

The school aims to maintain class sizes of 30 children maximum, organised as single year groups, ie, Year 3, 4, 5 and 6, but in any one year it may be necessary to make a combined age class in the lower or upper school in response to fluctuating numbers.

In exceptional circumstances outside school's control, class sizes may exceed the maximum.

YEAR 3

Weather/Contrasting climates
The Earth and beyond
Light and sound
Invaders and Settlers
Changing materials
Improving the environment
Life processes in plants and animals
Different habitats

YEAR 4

Ancient Egypt
Forces: magnetism, gravity and electricity
Tudors
Materials: properties of everyday materials
Solids, liquids, gases
Our local area
Health Education
Aspects of Bracknell

YEAR 5

Economically developing locality: St. Lucia
Plant growth, Life cycles, Food chains
Children and World War Two
Forces: pulling and pushing, friction, air resistance
Mountains
Victorians
Sound and light

YEAR 6

Ancient Greece
Earth and Space
Rocks and soils
Changing Materials
Rivers
Materials: Reversible and irreversible changes
Separating mixtures
Electricity
Violent Earth
Health Education inclusive of Sex Education/Harmful substances

The primary curriculum is made up of the four core subjects - Literacy, Numeracy, Science and Information and Communication Technology and seven foundation subjects, inclusive of Religious Education, History, Geography, Music, Art, P.E. and Design Technology.

Non statutory guidance is in place for the extensive delivery of key skills in Personal, Social and Healthy Education and Citizenship.

Pupils at Holly Spring Junior follow a curriculum which satisfies the requirements of the Education Reform Act in relation to the New Orders for National Curriculum, Religious Education and Collective Worship.

The Curriculum will be:-

1. Balanced, where each area and element of learning is given appropriate time allocation and attention in relation to others and to the curriculum as a whole.

2. Differentiated and catering for the specific learning needs of individual pupils across the full range of abilities.

3. Relevant and prioritised to meet the present and future needs, abilities and interests of the pupils.

4. Providing equal opportunities for all children regardless of their gender or race.

Statutory full assessments will be carried out at the end of each Key Stage - at 7, 11, 14 and 16 years of age. Teacher assessment will be continuous throughout the Key Stage and form the basis of future planning for any given individual or group of children. Children will follow PROGRAMMES of STUDY for any one year group which lead to level descriptions set at six levels of achievement at Key Stage 2. Each of the LEVEL DESCRIPTIONS is roughly equivalent to two years of average progress.

It is therefore important that, as parents, an interest is taken in your child's progress and there is frequent dialogue with your child's teacher.

Parents may view the current scheme of work for any one curriculum subject area on request. Additionally, the most recent full Ofsted Inspection report (July 2006) is available on request.

We aim to provide our children with opportunities to experience and to develop their abilities in Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, Grammar, Spelling and Punctuation within a planned four year framework.

The National literacy strategy provides a clear structure to the teaching of the basic skills and is organised through the delivery of a daily literacy hour.

Literacy is mainly subject taught within ability and mixed ability groups but there are many opportunities for cross-curricular planning.

SPEAKING & LISTENING

Sharing work, experiences, ideas, insights and opinions orally with other children and listening to stories and accounts form an important part of the junior classroom. Assemblies and special events give children the opportunity to speak to a wider audience and participate in a wide range of drama activities both scripted and improvised.

Circle time gives an added dimension to this area when relevant class discussion is held on a range of personal and social issue.

READING

Reading forms an integral part of the Literacy Hour. The children work both as a whole class and in ability groups on a range of texts from different traditions. This encourages a love of literature and develops essential vocabulary and comprehension skills.

Children are encouraged to share their developing reading skills and appreciation of books with their families by means of F.A.R (Families and Reading). Books are taken home for the whole family to enjoy. The current school reading scheme is the Oxford Reading Tree. The school has an annual Book Week, which helps to promote reading in all its forms.

WRITING

Children acquire writing skills through a range of cross-curricular activities.

Within the Literacy Hour, children are taught important grammar and punctuation skills. They continue to develop these skills when writing for a range of purposes from imaginative stories and poems to letters and factual reports. Most writing composition goes through several drafts from the original plan to the final revised proof read piece.

HANDWRITING

Children are taught to hold a pencil comfortably in order to develop a fluent, legible style. They are taught to form letters correctly in a lead in style and to produce both joined and the printed word. Ou children develop an awareness of the importance of a clear, neat presentation in order to communicate meaning effectively.

SPELLING

Children learn spelling in a structured way by using 'letter strings' and word families, which form the core of words in a weekly spelling list.

The PAT scheme aids the teaching of phonics to the less able chidlren (Phonological Awareness Training).

Opportunities for the use of Information and Communication Technology are taken whenever appropriate.

The school closely follows the National Numeracy Strategy using the Framework for Teaching Mathematics, which gives pace of progress and continuity for each child across Key Stage 2.

A high proportion of oral and mental work features strongly in Numeracy lessons; this over time encourages children to work with speed and accuracy. This means knowing basic number facts and times tables.

We make use of a wide variety of resources including games, practical equipment, information and Communication Technology and published schemes as appropriate.

Numeracy may be integrated with topic based work where relevant, but in the main is organised as a separate subject in its own right.

Numeracy is taught across the school both within ability and mixed ability groups five mornings a week.

We aim to give our children the opportunity for investigating, interpreting and accumulating concepts, good scientific attitudes, appropriate skills and first hand experience where possible.

Science is taught through topic work or as a blocked unit that is subject specific, covering a range, which may include studies in life processes, materials and physical forces.

Skills of observation, classifying, predicting, testing, estimating and measuring with a view to the reporting process are all emphasized in the course of a four year programme.

The school aims to raise children's awareness of and stimulate their interest in, all aspects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Pupils are encouraged to make use of the rich information resources available on the Internet and to develop appropriate skills to analyse and evaluate such resources. These skills will be fundamental in the society our pupils will be entering.

The school is well equipped with two RM network computer systems in each classroom with Internet and e-mail connections as standard. A full range of software meets all the requirements of the National Curriculum. Children have the opportunity to use a digital camera, a camcorder, and sensors. Interactive whiteboards in all classrooms serves to enhance the quality of teaching and learning.

The children are taught the basic ICT skills for:-

1. Communicating and handling information

2. Controlling and monitoring external events

3. Problem solving through modelling

4. Creative and imaginative work

They usually work in pairs or small groups and, therefore, develop social and communication skills through teamwork. The use of ICT develops a more positive attitude to planning and redrafting work and enables children of all abilities to take pride in the final presentation of their work.

ICT is used as a tool to aid children's learning and investigations in all subjects of the curriculum. The children have access to a range of internet sites, which have been carefully selected as appropriate for the National Curriculum inclusive of school pen pal links with Leverkusen, Bracknell's twin town. An Internet Access policy is in place, which requires the strict supervision of the children's use of the Internet. Individual classes maintain a class website that serve to inform everyone of ongoing classroom activities but also acts as an application of skills taught.

Design Technology skills and techniques are taught through a given task to the theme being studied. The task is tackled for the most part in mixed ability groups to facilitate teamwork, co-operation and delegation of responsibility. At all times group assessment of hazard and risk is paramount.

The skills taught include the definition of the task, the design process, the making of the produt and its evaluation.