Our school
Blackawton Primary School reflects the village it is situated in. It combines a strong sense of community with a high degree of individualism. We strive to learn in community.
We believe that children learn best when they feel safe, happy and valued. We recognise that children learn in different ways and have different strengths. We look to foster self-esteem by valuing and supporting the needs of all the learners in our school.
We want children to have independence, integrity, respect for themselves and others, be self-expressed and have a love of learning. We want children to take responsibility and work in teams through the school. Children have a voice in the school to ensure their opinions are considered, valued and impact on the development of the school. For example, children have recently written their own prospectus to hand out to children who are interested in coming to Blackawton.
We are also keen for parents to be involved in the school. We have parents who offer their skills and support children in a range of ways from running clubs to listening to children read. The perspectives of others are taken very seriously by the staff and governors. We are keen to learn and improve ourselves. The governors are involved in many aspects of the school life and are a great strength of the school.
The school has been regularly updated and we are excited by the possibility of a partial rebuild to improve the learning environment at the back of the school. We are currently updating our ICT provision to include laptops and interactive whiteboards in all classrooms.
At Blackawton we recognise and and take account of the fact that different children learn in different ways. The curriculum is topic based and allows children to look at an area of learning in a variety of ways. We look to develop learning skills and independence through the experiences children have. Creative Arts have high priority in our school and in the local community. We aim to give children opportunities to express themselves through art, music, dance and drama. We use visits and visitors to greatly enrich this aspect of the curriculum. We also have many specialist music teachers who teach instruments to 65 children in the school. Mr Strudwick, our Headteacher, teaches dance across the school. We also have a band run by Mrs Kinder, the previous Head.
The school want our learners to successful and happy. We also want them to be healthy and safe. The curriculum takes account of this with children learning to cook and is supported by our fantastic healthy school dinners.
We want our children to think and learn like historians, scientists, mathematicians etc. and share the excitement of discovery where possible and appropriate. We are helped in this by living in such a wonderful place, surrounded by the sea, estuaries and the moors, and by historic towns of Totnes, and Dartmouth. We use and enjoy them all.
The staff of the school are dedicated, passionate and caring. One of the many benefits of our school is that we are able to work closely fostering quality relationships, based on trust, ensuring the learning of children and adults.
The school provides a wide range of clubs that enrich the opportunities of children. We are also keen that the school is a part of the village and have a number of adult groups using the facilities in the evening.
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