News & Star Tuesday, June 2, 200928 www.newsandstar.co.uk yyoouurrffaammiillyy1100
Traditional village life
with a dynamic edge
H
igh Hesket Primary
School lies at the heart
of the village community
and while it prides itself
on being a traditional village
school it also sees itself as being
forward-thinking and dynamic and
has just opened a purpose-built
Foundation classroom.
The school is striving to be a
centre of excellence for early
years education and the unit has
been specifically designed for this
age group, incorporating a safe
outdoor space.
Headteacher Margaret Taylor
said: "As a school we never stand
still and are always developing
and moving forward in order that
all children have their needs met."
The school has seven classroom
areas together with a hall, a
library, resource/ICT area and
Forest Friends Pre-School meets
at the school twice a week. This
aids the transition to school as
parents and children become
familiar with staff and the building
prior to starting school.
An extended nursery provision
is offered so that children can
stay for lunch and for the
afternoon and they can opt to
bring a packed lunch or have a
cooked meal served in the setting.
In order to prepare children for
life in the 21st century each class
has networked computers with
internet access and an interactive
whiteboard.
The ICT suite and hall also have
whiteboard facilities.
The ICT provision includes using
digital cameras for animation,
photography and video recording,
digital musical instruments and
software that allows children to
compose and perform their own
music and a digital microscope.
Pupils are also benefiting from
new ICT video conferencing
facilities.
The school has a high quality
music specialist teacher who also
teaches Spanish from reception
to year six.
A wide range of after-school
clubs is offered which are run by
staff on a voluntary basis and for
which there is no fee.
These include an art club,
dance, multi-skills, choir, ICT and
a wildlife club, which meets
weekly.
There are extensive grounds for
games and the school is proud of
its wildlife garden which is used
for lessons and also by the
thriving wildlife club.
The school kitchen provides
freshly made meals each day
which are served on plates, not
plastic trays.
The school has been give status
as a Fairtrade School and Healthy
School and has the Activemark
and Sportsmark and has disabled
access and disabled toilets and
shower room.
There is an active Parents'
Association which organises a
variety of fundraising and social
activities which help to raise
extra funding for the school.
In the last Ofsted report about
the school in 2007 the school was
said to be good with outstanding
and it was noted: "The good
curriculum is founded on an
emphasis on personal and social
education. This provides all pupils
with the skills and attributes
needed to become good learners.
The curriculum is extensively
enriched. The school grounds �
with its mathematics, science and
wildlife areas � make a very good
contribution to learning. Day
visits, the residential experience
for older pupils and visitors are
much appreciated by pupils.
"The range of sports, some in
conjunction with secondary
schools and outside experts,
musical opportunities, clubs and
Spanish lessons add considerably
to the wealth of learning
experiences."
The outdoor area is in the
process of being developed
and will be completed in the
summer holidays.
The school has a thriving
walking bus that is run by
parents and they have not
missed a day since it started
in 2007. The school is part
of the Better Ways To School
initiative and is committed
to encouraging children to
walk to school safely. The
walking bus starts from the
edge of the village and picks
up `passengers' along the
route to school. This is run
by a group of parents on a
rota system.
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The school has introduced
a new approach to early
education using Key to
Learning, an educational
programme giving parents
and teachers the tools to
develop children's cognitive
learning abilities.
It is based on the ideas of
educationalists and
psychologists from the
Vygotsky school. Lev
Vygotsky, one of the 20th
century's most influential
theorists in the field of early
years education, believed
that socially mediated
learning was a crucial
component of learning.
There are more than 600
learning activities and
games in the programme and
staff have been trained and
resources purchased for the
programme to be developed.
Children (Nursery and
Reception) in the Foundation
Stage follow the Early Years
Foundation Stage Curriculum.
This framework sets the
standards for learning,
development and care for
children from birth to five
years of age and covers six
main areas: personal, social
and emotional development;
communication, language
and literacy development;
problem solving, reasoning
and numeracy development;
knowledge and
understanding of the world;
physical development and
creative development.
These are delivered
through planned, purposeful
play, with a balance of adult-
led and child-initiated
activities.
Varied curriculum: High Hesket Primary School teacher Fiona
White helps the children PICTURES: JONATHAN BECKER
Busy: Reception children in one of the new classrooms in the
Foundation unit at High Hesket Primary School

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