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Welcome to Maryland Primary School 

Our school is in Stratford, the home of the London 2012 Olympics. We are situated close to the Olympic development, Stratford Town Centre and Stratford City. On site, Forest Gate Children’s Centre delivers a wide range of services to the community. 

We pride ourselves on being a diverse school. We have over 450 children from 34 countries representing 40 different languages and 53 dialects. 

We are widely recognised as being pioneers in curriculum innovation, carrying out international educational research for the benefit of this school and many other schools within the locality. We have been recognised by the House of Lords for our international research and profiled in the Parliamentary Review 2018. We are a lead school on teaching equality, diversity and inclusion. We coach and mentor many schools to embed equality, diversity and anti-racism into their practice so it is seamless.  

We are renowned for our award winning outdoor environment (Cluckingham Palace – our hen house, Nature’s Garden, Negril Beach etc) which provides unique learning opportunities for our inner city students. We are one of only a handful of schools who hold the prestigious Royal Horticultural 5 star Award. We are a model school for Oxford University Press in the teaching of the successful literacy programme, Read Write Inc.

In addition to our academic success, we are a model school for integrating technology, being the first to adopt Google Education and is a Mayor of London designated ‘School for Success’ for progress. 

We continually achieve one of the highest attendance rates in Newham because our children love coming to school. Many pupils take part in after school clubs such as fencing, chess, dance, STEM, choir and football.

Maryland is an inclusive school. We believe in laying the foundations on which children can build their futures. Staff work hard to instil an early love for learning, especially reading, enabling our children to grow into confident, independent and successful individuals.

We are a school that lives its motto to prepare children for the future. We inspire our pupils with unique opportunities e.g. meeting Major Tim Peake, astronaut; Alan Titchmarsh, horticulturist; international research Professors, and of course Olympic athletes, a legacy from our involvement in the 2012 Olympics. More recently artists, authors and illustrators have visited the school to learn about our approach to Equality in the curriculum. We ensure our children have ambition, that they are successful learners, and that they enjoy each day that they spend with us at Maryland.  Ofsted describe our excellent environment as one “in which all pupils thrive and flourish ”, where “pupils’ behaviour is outstanding”. They praised our commitment to safeguarding pupils as well as commenting that there was a “high proportion” of outstanding teaching. We are continually looking to improve in all areas of our school as we strive for excellence in educating children to ensure we remain one of the best primary schools in Stratford, Newham and London. We invite you to get in touch to book an appointment for a tour around the school. We look forward to meeting you.


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STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES 2023-24

 

 

  1. To closely monitor the progress of pupils, in particular, the progress of vulnerable pupils through effective planning, assessment and enrichment opportunities.

      Vulnerable is defined as: SEND, PP, LAC, No Reco2. To closely monitor the progress of pupils, in particular, the progress of vulnerable pupils through effective planning, assessment and enrichment opportunities. 

  • To focus on overcoming barriers to learning such as SEND, wellbeing and attendance, and ensure the provision and enrichment for vulnerable pupils such as disadvantaged and SEND is of the highest quality.
  • To ensure the advice of SEND professionals in every EHCP is enacted in every lesson. (OFSTED 2023)
  • Continue to review English with the love of reading and explicit reading comprehension strategies.
  • Bespoke and targeted tuition support in English and maths to minimise the impact of lockdown on pupil achievement and wellbeing.
  • A language rich environment for our pupils with broad and rich curriculum opportunities.
  • Monitor closely the new feedback policy and impact across the school on outcomes  
  • Continue with curriculum development and sequencing of key skills and knowledge that children develop from Reception to year 6 to improve outcomes.

 

  1. EYFS  To ensure language development is prioritised through meaningful adult: child interactions

      OFSTED, 2023

  • All EYFS staff to model the ShREC approach which include four evidence-informed strategies to promote high quality interactions with young children (Education Endowment Foundation). 
  • Children acquire and use new vocabulary and begin to understand sentence structures through collaborative conversations, meaningful interactions and modelling from adults.
  • New resources (books, dolls, small world activities and role play) are used as tools to initiate and enhance conversations.
  • Detailed and sequential long term curriculum plans are followed. These are to be broken down into medium term plans which include key vocabulary. 
  • The outdoor environment is to reflect the rich learning opportunities that are evident inside. 
  • Teachers are held accountable for the above through appraisals.
  • Make sure you are clear on the outcomes and expectations in the EYFS
  • Look at the investment in the EYFS outside spaces

 

  1. To continue to develop a curriculum that champions diversity and equality
  •   Sustaining and leading on our equality and diversity work for the school, wider community and local authority. 
  •   Focus on celebrating equality, diversity and anti-racism in our daily practice.
  •   Provide rich and broad experiences that develop resilience, self-confidence and raise aspirations.
  • Pupil voice is consulted on key decisions across the school. 
  • A values led curriculum that instils values such as ambition, kindness towards others, resilience, teamwork, respect as well as honesty and determination through the prism of British Values.
  • Maryland’s construct of education is one of inclusion and equality and we are a model of inclusion based on equality and unique characteristics.

 

MARYLAND CURRICULUM INTENTION

CURRICULUM GOAL 1 : To ensure every child is secure in English,
Maths and Computing
CURRICULUM GOAL 2: To deliver a broad, balanced and rich curriculum
that creates independent, resilient critical thinkers

CURRICULUM GOAL 3: Deliver a curriculum that champions diversity
and equality

    Core skills in English, Maths and Computing underpin all aspects of   learning and provide necessary skills to become ‘future ready’.

 

  Our six school values underpin this ethos: teamwork, respect, kindness, courage, ambition, resilience.

 

  Pupils have a global perspective and are well prepared for life in modern Britain.
     Our pupils see themselves represented in what they learn and the school itself so that equality, diversity and anti-racism are seamlessly interwoven into the curriculum.

 

 


HEADTEACHER’S VISION

REVIEW OF 2021-22

   Feedback from our School Improvement Advisor

   Outcomes were positive

  • EYFS 73%, above national
  • Phonics year 91%, above national

   Overall strengths

   The hard work and focus of the whole team in driving forward reading has been successful. The Literacy Tree scheme has been effectively led, managed and delivered. Displays throughout the school reinforce and highlight this focus on reading, leaving the 
   visitor in no doubt this is a school celebrating a wide range of diverse literature readily available for children to read. The focus has had a very positive impact on reading at KS2 with 82% at age related expectations and 28% of children exceed expected.

   The school continues to build on and champion diversity in the curriculum.

   Feedback from our School Improvement Advisor

   Outcomes were positive

  • EYFS 73%, above national
  • Phonics year 91%, above national

   Overall strengths

   The hard work and focus of the whole team in driving forward reading has been successful. The Literacy Tree scheme has been effectively led, managed and delivered. Displays throughout the school reinforce and highlight this focus on reading, leaving the 
   visitor in no doubt this is a school celebrating a wide range of diverse literature readily available for children to read. The focus has had a very positive impact on reading at KS2 with 82% at age related expectations and 28% of children exceed expected.

   The school continues to build on and champion diversity in the curriculum.

 

 2023-24

  1.NATIONAL FOCUS – Social Media and AI

    The school went through a trying time with a social media campaign against us in Spring 2023.The following point sums up my vision in this area.

   It is a priority for staff to be vigilant and knowledgeable about the pros and cons of social media, both public and private. Recognise that inappropriate use of social media is a safeguarding and possible criminal issue.

   We must also keep up to date with innovations such as AI (artificial intelligence). AI can answer questions, complete   written tasks, and respond to prompts in a human-like way but is it all good? What do we need to know?     

   Ms.Boreham, DHT, has done the following research:

Pros of AI Cons of AI
  • Less human error
  • Helps in repetitive/mundane jobs (e.g. admin)
  • Encyclopaedia at your fingertips
  • Data analysis
  • Fosters digital literacy skills
  • Potential to reduce workload
  • Ability to provide interactive and immersive learning experiences

      Ability to adapt and personalise learning to individual students (LbQ, Mathletics)                            increasing engagement and ensuring misconceptions are addressed

  • Lack of creativity and innovation
  • Over reliance means you become passive, lack the ability to be independent, think critically and problem solve.
  • AI can contain biases – perpetuate unfairness and discrimination
  • Transparency needed on how it is used so it is ethical.
  • When using AI we need to be fully aware of how AI systems work, what information is gathered
  • The content AI produces is not always accurate or appropriate as it has limited regard for truth
  • AI cannot replace the judgement and deep subject knowledge of a human expert.
  • AI can produce unreliable information, therefore any content produced requires professional judgement to check appropriateness and accuracy

      Schools need to be vigilant for malpractice

  So this year, we will:

 -support pupils to identify and use appropriate resources to support their ongoing education.

 -This includes encouraging effective use of age-appropriate resources (which may include generative AI) and preventing over-reliance on a limited number of tools or resources.

 – encourage the use of critical thinking and reasoning when using social media or AI.

 2. INTERNATIONAL FOCUS: Global Warming

 With climate change being a key focus of the Headteacher’s vision last year, Maryland will continue to embed   education about how to combat global warming across the school.

 This year we will focus on:

  1. Premises: All lighting in the school will be updated to LED in the Autumn term, which allows us to save money and energy, We will invest in water butts and investigate how to recycle, as well as conserve water.
  2. Parents:  organise a home project on sustainability and climate change, giving families opportunities to research how to live sustainably at home.
  3. Pupils:The eco-warriors will continue to provide assemblies to pupils, while researching how to make the school more sustainable, for example conducting an experiment on microplastics from scourers, and comparing them to natural equivalents,
  4. Service providers:  Work with Juniper, our food and cleaning providers, to implement further sustainable practices. They will  work with Newham council to reduce food waste, eliminate plastic containers and take part in further projects regarding reducing electricity wastage.
  5. The community: The eco-warriors will also demand a greater focus on sustainability in the community from our local representatives. A £2,500 grant has been awarded to Maryland, allowing for a polytunnel to be built, meaning we can grow food all year round, while an adult eco-warrior team will be established, to help to maintain and improve the garden.
  6. National: The school will join the Green School Project https://www.greenschoolsproject.org.uk/about-us/

 

 

            

 

                                                                    

 

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