We aim to:

Create an atmosphere that is caring and welcoming to all pupils, parents and other members of the community and a sense of excitement and enjoyment in learning.

Offer a curriculum, which will encourage academic, aesthetic, physical, social, emotional and spiritual development, ensuring that the children are given the opportunity to acquire basic skills essential for further learning.

Help pupils develop self-control, co-operation, perseverance and value ideas and values different from their own.

Encourage all pupils to behave with courtesy, care and respect both towards one another and to all adults.

We value each child as an individual

• We aim to bring the best out of each child’s potential

• We are a caring and friendly learning community aiming to be outstanding in whatever we do.

“Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education.”

Martin Luther King

Education begins at birth and is a life-long process. We aim to make an effective contribution to every child’s life and enable learners to express themselves clearly and confidently and communicate with others effectively.

We are proud to serve this community in central Shepherd’s Bush and value the support we receive from parents and carers. We aim to earn continuing support by educating our pupils to the best of our abilities.

By the time children come to school they have already had many experiences and developed an impressive range of abilities. We recognise and value these early experiences and abilities and aim to build on these in school.

Our school community is made up of different ethnic, social and cultural groups. We aim to ensure that our school reflects this diversity in positive ways and provides equal opportunities for all our pupils.

We offer a broad curriculum which aims to provide children with the knowledge, skills, concepts and attitudes necessary for life in a rapidly changing world. In planning our curriculum, we follow the guidelines of the National Curriculum.

We recognise that learners are at different stages of development. We aim to give all children access to the curriculum by ensuring that learning tasks are well matched to individual needs and abilities. In responding to children as individuals, we aim to meet the special educational needs which some of our children have.

Every aspect of the curriculum is directed towards raising levels of children’s achievements. We share with parents high expectations of our pupils, and aim to ensure that each child reaches her or his full educational potential.

Children need active involvement in constructing knowledge through first and second hand experiences. We aim to develop children’s abilities to use their initiative and to take increasing personal responsibility for their own learning.

We aim to provide a supportive yet challenging school environment where children and adults show mutual respect and children develop as confident learners.

We believe that children are more successful learners when they are supported in their learning by all those around them: parents, teachers, members of the community. Since educating children is a shared responsibility, we aim to constantly search for ways of improving links with our local community.

We are committed to on-going staff development with the aim of improving the quality of teaching and learning for all.

The National Curriculum is followed for all pupils of compulsory school age. It consists of the main subjects of English, Mathematics, Computing and Science. Other subjects include History, Geography (with global perspectives), Art, Design and Technology, RE, Spanish, Music, Physical Education, PSHE and RSE (see Well Being section). Subjects are interlinked during exciting themed learning weeks to promote creativity, climate change literacy and higher order thinking skills.

We have strong learning links and are regularly involved in projects e.g. with the Imperial College, BBC, QPR, the Royal Opera House, Royal Academy of Arts ,

National Gallery, National Theatre and Lyric Theatre.

Children work with different sports coaches for football, cricket, tennis and basketball.

The Resource Base at Miles Coverdale is very much part of the mainstream school. It provides for 20 pupils with speech and language difficulties, aged between 4 and 7 years old in two classes of ten, each with a full time teacher. There is a speech and language therapist who works with all pupils, either individually or in a small group.

The school has a strong identity and ethos. School staff and governors share a commitment to serving the community expressed and implemented through our ethos and aims.

• We are an inclusive school. We strive through our policies, practices and procedures to remove barriers to learning, to raise achievement.

• Our Resource Base is an integral part of the school and an asset in terms of provision for pupils with speech and language needs.

• The Creative Curriculum and whole school events are vibrant and with many cross-curricular links and visits: Royal Opera House, Royal College of Music, Royal Academy of Dance, Lyric Theatre, Climate Change Events, Black History, Christmas Concert & Fete, projects with the police, Book Week, fashion projects, cross-curricular focus weeks, Health Week, International Day, chess tournaments etc.

• Pupils have had a wide range of workshops for science, environment (including climate change literacy), music, dance, drumming, drama, art, sports, history, story- telling, maths magician etc.

We work closely with the immediate and wider community on these projects. There has been much involvement of the parents working with the children e.g. healthy cookery classes, maths, reading, science workshops and chess.

We contribute to the children’s wider well-being through, for example: helping each pupil achieve the highest educational standards they possibly can; dealing with bullying and discrimination and keeping children safe; becoming a Healthy School and promoting healthy lifestyles through Personal, Social and Health Education lessons, relationships and sex education, drugs education and sporting activities.

We are also:

• providing a wide range of extra-curricular clubs;

• ensuring attendance, encouraging pupils to behave responsibly, giving them a strong voice in the life of the school and encouraging them to volunteer to help others;

• helping the community to value education and be aware that it is the way to promote economic success;

• engaging and helping parents in actively supporting their children’s learning and development through a variety of parents’ classes and workshops.