Millfields Community School and Children's Centre

Millfields is a much larger than average primary school. The school serves an area of significant deprivation and its pupils represent a very wide range of ethnic backgrounds, with the largest groups being those of Asian, White, Black Caribbean and Black African heritage.

The community is culturally and ethnically diverse: some 8% of our pupils are Turkish, 6% African Caribbean, 66% White British, 11% from other white European backgrounds and the remainder are from a wide range of ethnic groups represented in smaller numbers. This means that the percentage of pupils from minority ethnic groups is more than twice the National average and therefore the school works hard to be culturally inclusive. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive school.Many pupils speak English as an additional language and a large proportion are at the early stages of learning the language. A small number are the children of refugees or those seeking asylum.

Millfields Community School has been a UNICEF Rights Respecting School since 2004 and were re-accredited for the third time with Level 2 in July 2017. The UNICEF UK Rights Respecting School Award (RRSA) is based on principles of equality, dignity, respect, non-discrimination and participation. The RRSA seeks to put the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s ethos and culture to improve well-being and develop every child’s talents and abilities to their full potential. A rights-respecting school is a community where children’s rights are learned, taught, practised, respected, protected and promoted. Young people and the school community learn about children’s rights by putting them into practice every day.

We are at the end of another very busy and productive term that has been enriching for the children, but also challenging and tough in may ways for the whole school community. I hope that the collaboration, support, empathy and understanding that we have shared will give us strength and unity to keep focussed on the well-being, enrichment and progress of the pupils, staff and school as a whole. Once again, thank you for your collective support.

At Millfields Community School we offer a curriculum which is broad and balanced to ensure every child reaches their full potential and has access to a range of educational experiences whatever their starting points or circumstance. The curriculum incorporates the statutory requirements of the National Curriculum 2014. Millfields continues to revise and review the bespoke school curriculum on a termly basis.

Each of our classes is named after a city in the United Kingdom. This encourages our pupils to learn about another area of the country in which they live. On Transition Day in the summer term, the class write a letter to the council of each city, and then the pupils are set a homwork task to find out and create a model or make a presentation on an intersting fact/s about the city that their class is named after. At the beginning of the Autumn term, each class then does a 2 day project on the city. This year we also introduced the idea of 'Twin Cities' and the pupils learnt about which city in the world their class city name is twinned with.

Pupils at Millfields are provided with a clear progression of opportunity to engage with, and be part of, a rich, varied and comprehensive curriculum that reflects the interests of the school, its staff, pupils, parents and the wider national and global communities. Although literacy and mathematics are planned for discreetly in weekly plans, many topic areas are relevant in these lessons, particularly through the choice of texts and writing outcomes in literacy. Whole school approaches to reading support quality teaching and learning.

Specialist teachers support the teaching of music, Modern Foreign Languages, Physical Education and the creative curriculum. Subject leaders are given opportunity to develop their own subject knowledge, skills and understanding so they can support curriculum development in the subjects they lead. Theme weeks, trips and opportunities to engage in workshops within and outside school enrich and develop the children’s learning. The spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of our pupils and their understanding of the core values of our society are woven through the curriculum.

Millfields is a fully inclusive primary school and follows the inclusive policy of all Hackney schools.At Millfields, we ensure that the needs of all pupils, children with learning disabilities such as dyslexia, children who are more able or gifted, children who have English as an additional language, children who have difficulty managing their behaviour, and children with social and emotional needs have appropriate, effective and timely support, challenge and intervention, in order to meet their social, emotional and academic potential.We believe that every child can make progress and achieve and that it is our job to make sure that this happens. We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of our pupils.Millfields also has provision for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.

The safety and well-being of the children at Millfields is our first priority. Children cannot learn unless they feel happy and safe. We adhere to stringent Safeguarding procedures to protect the welfare of all the children who come here. It is the moral and legal duty of all adults in charge of children to be ready to protect children in danger from abuse. Education staff have a responsibility to observe, monitor and refer suspected abuse.Any member of staff suspecting child abuse or neglect must refer their suspicions to the Designated Safeguarding Lead or Head Teacher, who will then refer to the local Social Care Team if appropriate.

It is important that staff are aware that many more children experience abuse than are registered as requiring protection. It is therefore essential that school staff are vigilant in identifying abuse. School staff have regular training opportunities to ensure that they are kept up to date with current policies and procedures.As a school, we have a legal duty to prevent extremism -safeguard children from extremist ideology; to safeguard children at risk of sexual exploitation; and safeguard children at risk of abuse through female genital mutilation. As well as following our policy, we are adopting the guidance of the 'London Safeguarding Children Board'.

Millfields Governing Body is made up of volunteers who are committed to ensuring that high standards are achieved and maintained throughout the school. We are ultimately responsible for the success of the school, including the appointing of the head teacher who reports to us and attends all board meetings.Our governors are either a parent of a pupil in school, a member of the local community, a member of staff or are appointed by Hackney Learning Trust.

Parent and staff governors are elected and every governor is expected to serve a four year term.
The full Governing Body meets once every term. This meeting is dedicated to general business, including scrutinising reports from the Headteacher, other school leaders and looking at feedback from visits that Governors and other outside agencies, all make to the school. We discuss the progress children are making, new approaches to teaching and learning and consider both local and national initiatives and issues such as how to ensure the Pupil Premium is used to best effect. There is also time in the meeting to audit and develop skills and reflect on how we can best help the school to achieve excellence.