Welcome to our school. We are looking forward to working with you to provide an enjoyable and successful experience for your child

Our reason for being here is to educate children. By this we mean that we want the children who come to our school to be able to get the most out of their lives, now and in the future.We want them to be able to make a living in a way that is fulfilling, enjoyable and responsible.We want them to be able to make good use of their leisure time, and to have fun in a way that does not harm other people or the environment.We want them to be able to build and maintain successful relationships, and to be loving and kind.

We want the children to respect people’s different beliefs, faiths and persuasions, and to take an active part in the life of the community.We want them to develop clear values and principles and to live by them.We want them to live without fear and insecurity, and to be happy. These aspirations are based on some ofthe principles outlined in Guy Claxton’s ‘Building Learning Power’.

Built in the 1950s, the school is situated to the north-east outskirts of the beautiful cathedral city of Exeter and is fortunate to have extensive grounds, as well as commanding views of the surrounding countryside. We have excellent facilities and a dedicated and professional staff. It is a popular school in which children and staff work co-operatively and with enthusiasm. We cater for the 7-11 age range, and have an average roll of 340 students

There are fourteen classrooms, a food technology room, a networked computer suite, a dual purpose hall, a dining hall, as well as other work and resource areas. We also have a newly refurbished library with an extensive and exciting stock of books.

The grounds enable a wide range of sporting activities throughout the year, culminating in sports day at the end of the summer term. They also enhance the environmental education programme.

Most of the children attending the school are from the area and we encourage links with the community, the local playgroups, the infant school, the church and other organisations. We also make use of the locality in the curriculum and the children study the area in a variety of ways for a number of different purposes.

Children in Year 6 have the opportunity to go on residential visits and all year groups make educational visits every term. We also invite a range of speakers, artists and other experts in to school on a regular basis.

Stoke Hill is an exciting and stimulating school where there are high standards of work and behaviour, where children are treated as individuals, and where we all have fun learning together

BE HEALTHY
• Be physically healthy
• Be mentally and emotionally healthy
• Have a healthy lifestyle

ENJOY AND ACHIEVE
• Attend and enjoy school
• Achieve stretching educational standards
• Achieve personal and social development and
enjoy recreation

STAY SAFE
• Be safe from maltreatment, neglect and violence
• Be safe from accidental injury
• Be safe from bullying and intimidation
• Be safe from crime and anti-social behaviour in
and out of school
• Have security, stability and be cared for

MAKE A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION
• Engage in decision making about the school
and environment
• Engage in positive behaviour in and out of
school and choose not to bully or discriminate
• Develop self-confidence and successfully deal
with life changes and challenges

Teaching Methods  
Stoke Hill Junior School caters for children from Year 3 to Year 6. There are three classes in each year group. Mixed ability teaching is used in all lessons apart from Maths, where children are set in ability groups. There is a mixture of whole class, group and individual work depending on the subject being taught.

We think carefully about the types of tasks and the time we give, which allows children to develop the ability to become resilient learners - to be able to resist distractions from within and from outside. We teach the children a wide range of learning strategies and methods, and teach them how to become resourceful enough to draw on these in new and unfamiliar situations. We encourage the children to be reflective learners, to think about learning and themselves as learners in a positive way.

Activities such as peer assessment, self-assessment and teacher-child conferences allow children the time and space to think carefully about their own work and how they can improve it.We teach children how to accept praise and compliments and have a well-developed system for rewarding positive work and behaviour. We teach the children to be ready, willing and able to learn alone and with others.

We model and encourage good attitudes to work, and teach children how to pick up others’ good habits and values.We enable children to balance self-reliance and sociability by planning a mix of individual and collaborative tasks and activities.

Sounds-Write

At Stoke Hill Junior School we use an approach called ‘Sounds-Write’ to teach children to read and spell. All of our teachers and teaching assistants have attended a five-day training course in order to become experts in this approach.