Welcome to the Kelvedon St Mary’s Church of England Primary Academy, Autism Support Centre and Nursery website.

St Mary’s is a group of single storey buildings comprising 14 class teaching bases and a nursery. Each base has bright modern furnishings, up to date ICT equipment and every resource a teacher requires to support learning in the best way that they can.

Around the school we have a dedicated safe learning space, The Mosaic Room, for supporting children with autism and social and emotional needs. We have a computer suite, a well-stocked library, a music room, a sensory room, several meeting and training rooms and learning booths.

Our school has a large hall which is used for assemblies, physical education and as a restaurant at lunchtime. The hall is hired most evenings by local community groups.

Outside we have a range of play spaces, two large playing fields, an all-weather playground, a covered playground, an adventure garden, a pond, an outside classroom, allotments, an archaeology area, an adventure playground and a ‘chill out’ space. We fully take advantage of all of our outside space as extra learning environments.

Our school has its own kitchen where a range of wholesome and nutritious hot meals are prepared daily.

On our grounds we have an independent pre/after school care facility.

Our school is a two form entry primary school and we aim to accommodate 58 children in each year group. This means that we able to have two classes in each year group and no mixed year classes.

We support learning by dividing our school into learning phases:

• Phase 1 is our early years, Year N and Year R. They learn through play and are challenged to make progress through interaction with adults and other children.
• Phase 2 is Year 1 and Year 2. These year groups work closely together in the same style to develop solid foundation skills across the curriculum. By the end of Year 1 the children are confidently learning their curriculum through more formal teaching and by the end of Year 2 the children are fully assimilated into whole school life.
• Phase 3 is Year 3 and Year 4. Children experience a broad range of new experiences across the whole curriculum and start to develop their own unique learning styles and personalities.
• Phase 4 comprises our Year 5 and Year 6 classes. Here the children consolidate all of their learning of the past five years and are prepared for their end of Year 6 National Tests and more importantly their transition to secondary school. They also focus  on developing their independent learning skills through a broad and varied curriculum.

All children build their learning power through the development of our 6Rs. Good learners are Responsible, Resourceful, Reflective, Resilient, Reasoning and Risk taking.

It is the policy of Kelvedon St Mary’s Primary Academy that every child has equal opportunity to participate in every aspect of the curriculum regardless of race, ability or gender.

Each class has a teacher who is responsible for the organisation, planning of work programmes and the monitoring and assessment of progress of the children in their class. Learning and Inclusion Support Assistants further support year teams and groups of pupils. We share our expertise and skills to give maximum benefit to the pupils in our school.

We work in close partnership with our church (St Mary’s) and diocese to educate our children within the context of Christian beliefs and practices. We encourage children to develop an understanding of faith, and its significance, through the promotion of Christian values throughout our learning.

In our Christian community, we place a high value on establishing close links between home and school so that we can effectively work together to achieve the best for each child.

Parents and carers are encouraged to share in their child’s progress at open door and evening events, sharing assemblies, learning conferences with their child’s class teacher, viewing their child’s learning and through an annual pupil self-evaluation and teacher report.

Parents and carers are always welcome in the school. There are many opportunities to share in special events throughout the year such as assemblies, workshops, concerts, church services and sports events. We keep you informed about school life through our newsletter and website. The Parent, Teacher and Friends Association are a group of volunteers who support the school with special projects and events that directly benefit your children.  They will be organising a range of social events, we hope you will be able to join in.

At Kelvedon St Mary’s Primary School we believe all children are entitled to develop towards their potential – academically, socially, emotionally, physically, morally, spiritually and artistically, enabling each child to grow in confidence, and able to participate in the wider community.

Kelvedon St Mary’s is an integral part of the local community and is committed to developing this role.

Our Core Values are:

Our vision is to create an environment where every learner has the opportunity to amaze us (Luke 2:33).

Our aims for learning and teaching are that all pupils will:

• develop a broad range of communication, mathematical and worldly knowledge and skills
• become confident and independent learners
• be motivated learners and find enjoyment in learning
• develop physically and emotionally to become self-resilient members of society and good citizens