The Oval Primary School

The Oval School is situated in Yardley, just off Bordesley Green East and Meadway. We have over 600 pupils on role and a further 50+ in nursery. We are a successful and constantly improving school. We are now a three form entry school,throughout.

Pupils join us from a range of backgrounds. We presently have 8 religions and 23 races in school. A truly 'multicultural community' we celebrate all the major world religions and our religious education features intercultural topics such as places of worship and holy books - so all of our community are included and valued.

We have Quality Mark status 2011 for our school standards in English and Maths work and a Civic Society award for our schools environmental work, particularly on school allotment. We are also very proud to have acheived Gold Award from Food For Life.

We are an inclusive school, we seek to provide the best possible opportunities for all pupils. We are currently learning through a very creative topic based approach focussing on British history and geography for two terms and an international study for the third.

We have a range of extra curricular activities reviewed termly e.g. drama, homework club, football and ICT club. Our school invests in ICT to prepare our pupils for the world of work. We are very lucky to have a dedicated ICT suite along with sets of laptops for use within the classroom. Our mission statement as created together with parents, pupils, teachers and governors is: Together we are achieving success.

At the Oval School we believe that all children can achieve and succeed. In an increasingly complex world, we ensure that our children have the best possible education so that they can fulfill their potential. At the Oval, everyone is an individual and valued equally and we ensure that we positively engage in each other’s faith, religions and cultures. The school ethos, culture and curriculum celebrate children’s and teacher’s creativity and are the means by which the Oval provides a happy, successful and inspiring learning journey.

The values of the school are:

• We ensure that all children grow as healthily as possible, can learn at school, are protected, have their views listened to, and are treated fairly and evenly.
• We have respect for each other at all times, treat everybody as we would wish to be treated, and enjoy learning from each other’s faiths, religions and cultures.
• We have a strong sense of personal morality and integrity, are truthful at all times and are able to voice our own opinion in a kind way.
• We are truthful to others and to ourselves by doing what’s right regardless of who’s around, being someone others can trust.
• We listen, share, take turns, take part in team work and are aware of the needs of others, negotiating, helping and encouraging others.
• We are confident and adept in learning from experience, experimentation, research and inquiry.
• We are able to see and value what other people are feeling and experiencing.
• We take personal and collective responsibility for our actions and work towards individual and collective goals, accepting responsibility for our own behaviour, showing initiative, and understanding how we can contribute positively to our lives at school and more widely.

The School Improvement Plan is the vehicle through which this vision will be delivered. The plan will be structured to reflect this vision, and progress regarding each of the key priority areas will contribute to the delivery of the vision. Senior leaders and nominated governors will be specified as being accountable for making progress in the plan. Governors will also be strategically involved in the schools self-evaluation via their roles as Link Governors. In partnership with the Headteacher, governors will undertake a strategic role in monitoring the implementation of the plan and evaluating its impact. On an annual basis or sooner if required, the Governing Body will review both the vision and the plan and agree improvements as necessary. All staff at the school are responsible for delivering the plan to ensure that the Oval School is continuously improving to achieve its aspirations for pupils

A key concept which shapes the ethos of our school is growth mindset based on the work of Carol Dweck. We believe the best thing to do is to teach children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning and asking questions. Rather than simply praising success we praise effort, persistence and positive attitudes to the frequent difficulties in the process of learning.