Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

Sacred Heart School is a single form entry, voluntary aided Catholic Primary school. It has 30 places in Reception, 26 in Nursery and is situated in the heart of Teddington. Catholic spirituality is central to every aspect of school life and our pupils grow and develop in God's love. In a recent OFSTED inspection, March 2017, the school was recognised for the 'bespoke provision' it provides for its pupils.

Sacred Heart School serves all the Catholic parishes in the area. These include Sacred Heart (Teddington), St Francis de Sales (Hampton Hill), St Theodore's (Hampton) and St Margaret's (East Twickenham). Applications are warmly invited from Catholic families in all these parishes. Additionally, applicants to Sacred Heart school are warmly welcome from families of other faiths and none - our expectation is that these applicant are comfortable with and to support for the Catholic character and ethos of the school. In recent years the school has been able to offer places to all applicants from all local parishes and beyond.

To apply to Sacred Heart School, you must complete the School’s Supplementary Information Form (SIF) in addition to the Borough's Common Application Form. The completed SIF and supporting documents must be returned to the School.

At Sacred Heart, we plan our curriculum around the National Curriculum guidance published in 2014 (a copy of this document can be accessed from the link below). Our curriculum is broadened through the inclusion of ‘Do Something Different’ (DSD) days or weeks. The focus of the DSD days are developed with the input of the School Council.

As a school our enrichment programme includes ‘Do Something Different’ weeks where all the curriculum is taught through one curricular area (e.g. science). As a school, we use the National Gallery’s ‘Take One Picture’ project successfully to this end. The ‘Take One Picture’ project is run across a half term and normally culminates in an Exhibition of the children’s work.

In addition to these DSD days, the school council lead Charity based days, where they look outside our community to support others who are less fortunate than themselves. Previously, the school council has organised Charity days in aid of Macmillan, Comic Relief, Sport Relief, Shooting Stars, The Catholic Children's Society and many more. This year, 2017/18, many more events are planned.At Sacred Heart, we believe it is important that our pupils leave us as responsible, well-prepared and well-rounded young people. We endeavour to achieve this through the opportunities offered through a broad and balanced curriculum.

At Sacred Heart, we do not rely on one individual reading scheme. We use a variety of schemes as we find that this enables us to meet the individual needs of our pupils and cater for their interests. Reading books are provided from a range of publishers including : Oxford Reading Tree, Project X, Heinemann, Oxford University Press and Rising Stars among others.When teaching phonics, again, the school does not rely on one individual phonics scheme. We use a variety of schemes as we find that this enables us to meet the individual needs of our pupils. The phonics schemes used include: Letters and Sounds, Jolly Phonics and Fresh Start Phonics.

The Children and Families Bill was enacted in September 2014. From this date Local Authorities (LA) and schools are required to publish and keep under review information about services they expect to be available for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) aged 0-25. The LA refer to this as the ‘Local Offer’.The intention of the Local Offer is to improve choice and transparency for families. It will also be an important resource for parents in understanding the range of services and provision in the local area.

Schools utilise the LA Local Offer to meet the needs of SEND pupils as determined by school policy and the provision that the school is able to provide. Schools refer to this as ‘The Special Education Needs Information Report’.

Our commitment to sustainability is reflected in our recent awards: we have gained the Gold level of accreditation for Sustainable Travel and we hold the Silver level Eco Award.In September we were the first school in our borough to have an energy audit conducted by the Local Authority’s Carbon Reduction Manager. Its findings have formed the basis of this year’s Energy Action Plan, including installing an Efergy meter to identify unnecessary energy consumption.

We recently fitted double-glazed windows to the rear of the school and used grants to install separate scooter racks, a new cycle shed, a large planter and a rock garden to encourage biodiversity.Our partnership with Udayan school in India provides opportunities for cross-cultural activities comparison, and we have much to learn from their sustainable endeavours.

Closer to home, children participated in ‘The Big Tidy Up’ and gained positive comments from the local community for their litter clearance from streets and verges. The Student Council consulted neighbours on parking near school; information was fed back to parents to demonstrate the impact of their behaviour, leading to a reduction in complaints about inconsiderate parking.

We work closely with the Council’s Safety Education team and have engendered a walk/cycle to school culture. Our Cycle to School day in May was hugely popular: the Police Safer Neighbourhood Team marked bikes, and a local cycle shop conducted health checks and minor repairs.

Children and parents enjoyed participating in ‘Switch-off Energy Fortnight’ and energy awareness is now included in the curriculum. The whole school learnt about renewable energy from BP and regularly take part in WWF’s Earth Hour.