Marpool Primary School

Prospectus

This is the prospectus for Marpool Primary School. If you wish to download a PDF copy,
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Welcome

On behalf of everyone at Marpool Primary School I thank you for your interest in us and extend a warm welcome. I hope this guide enables you to gain an insight into our successful school community. If you wish to find out more about us, we are delighted to arrange visits. It is our aim to provide for all our pupils a high quality education leading to achievement and success across the full primary curriculum and to develop in all children personal qualities and standards to enrich their later lives. We expect our work to create an effective partnership between home, school and the wider community; a relationship that has the needs of the child at its heart. To achieve the best for all our pupils, we have developed at Marpool a stimulating, secure and caring environment where we give high value to the good things that happen both in and beyond the school.

At Marpool we seek to share skills, knowledge and experience in an atmosphere of trust and understanding. Your involvement in school life is expected and welcomed. It is important to us that everyone is able to make a full contribution to both individual and school development and in doing so enjoy being part of our community.
To ensure that everyone’s efforts are appreciated and fully productive we maintain good order based on a clear sense of purpose, shared values and respect for others. Appropriate and acceptable behaviour throughout the school is founded on good relationships that develop selfdiscipline and foster high self-esteem and awareness of the needs of others. If behaviour problems arise with a pupil, we will work with parents and act appropriately to improve the situation and to safeguard the rights of others. Disruptive, unsocial or other forms of unacceptable behaviour will not be tolerated. Pupil and parent forums provide opportunities for both the children and adults to review and inform the work and development of our school.
Our school is situated on an extensive and attractive site that offers exceptional educational opportunities. The school grounds provide hard surface play areas, playing fields and well equipped recreation/play spaces. There are many different habitats including ponds, wetlands, wooded areas and meadowland. Our school grounds provide a resource that is used to promote quality in all areas of our work. Our accommodation consists of two main teaching blocks; one containing the nursery and infant classrooms (Foundation and Key Stage 1) Key Stage 1 Library and staffroom. The other houses the junior classrooms (Key Stage 2), hall, kitchen, ICT suite, fiction and non fiction libraries, study rooms, role play area and our administration offices. There is also a Community Room that is used for Breakfast and After school clubs and Parent Groups. Extra curricular activities are organised depending on time, expertise and the help available. Usually, opportunities exist for pupils to participate in sport, the arts and interest areas such as computers and literature.
There is also a strong tradition for concerts and shows within the school. Marpool has an after school care club on site. Links with local groups, societies and clubs are valued and encouraged We hope that the information in this document is helpful and that it gives you a feel of our school community. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you wish to know more. Thank you again for your interest.

Marpool Primary School’s Aims

We work to provide opportunities for all pupils to enjoy the five outcomes of Every Child
Matters, that is to:

• Be Healthy;
• Stay Safe;
• Enjoy & Achieve;
• Make a Positive Contribution;
• Achieve Economic Well-being.

In addition to fulfilling all our legal responsibilities with respect to the national curriculum, religious education, positive racial education, sex and relationships education, equal opportunities and the health and safety of our pupils, are aims are as follows.

• To keep the needs of children central to our work and decision-making and to provide
  for all according to individual need so that children develop as fully as possible their
  spiritual, moral, cultural, intellectual and physical abilities.
• To provide for all our pupils a high quality, broad and balanced education with
  opportunities to achieve high standards and success across the full primary curriculum.
• To use a range of appropriate teaching styles and provide a wide variety of learning
  opportunities to develop in all children lively and enquiring minds, powers of thinking,
  feeling, concentration, imagination and reflection to enrich their lives.
• To involve children in their education by giving them opportunities to contribute, control,
  direct and review their learning.
• To encourage pupils to participate and integrate fully in both the school and local
  community by developing high standards of confidence, social skills and personal qualities
  including an understanding of and commitment to care for and cooperate effectively
  with others.
• To create an effective partnership between home, school and the wider community
  based on shared values, a clear sense of purpose, trust, understanding and respect.
• To establish high standards of behaviour throughout the school and to create a
  stimulating, secure and caring atmosphere based on self worth, self-discipline,
  tolerance, and fulfilling our responsibility to one another and our environment.
• To recognise and celebrate achievement and to create a positive, optimistic view of the
  future for each individual and the school community.

We believe that the school’s aims are linked to each other and cannot easily be achieved in isolation; we give equal importance to all and have not listed them in any specific priority order.

School Sporting Aims and Provision for Sport

The sporting aims of the school are as follows:

• To involve as many children as possible in the widest range of sporting activities and to
  develop in pupils healthy sporting attitudes and habits;
• To help pupils achieve the highest standard of skill possible and recognise
  achievements;
• To provide through sports important lessons for an active and happy life, regarding
  health, relationships, social interaction and desirable personal qualities;
• To give positive and beneficial ways of using energy, competitiveness and aggression.
  Pupils participate in the following sports:
  Football, Rugby, Hockey, Basketball, Netball, Rounders, Cricket, Volleyball, Gymnastics,
  Swimming, Orienteering, Athletics, Tennis and Dance.

Extra curricular activities offer approximately 6 hours sporting activities per week with opportunities offered early mornings, evenings and occasionally at weekends.

Staff hold recognised coaching qualifications in:
Football, Rugby, Athletics, Gymnastics, Volleyball, Orienteering and Moor land Walking,
Swimming and Life Saving, Sailing.

The facilities offered by Marpool are:
Playing Field, Hard Play Area, ICT suite, Libraries, study rooms and Hall.

Links are established with local sports clubs including:
East Devon Tennis Centre; Exmouth RFU; Exmouth Town FC; Exmouth CC Gym Club; Exeter
Olympic Gym Club; Exmouth Cricket Club; Exmouth CC Hockey Club; Exmouth Swimming and
Life Saving Club; South West Volleyball Association.

In addition, Marpool enjoys a close association with the University of Plymouth, Rolle Faculty of Arts and Education.

Recent awards

The school was awarded the DfES Healthy Schools Award for its work in 2007. It achieved the Investors in People Award in 2002 and we were successfully reviewed against the standards in 2008. Marpool was presented with a Certificate of Distinction for its out-ofschool-hours learning and commitment to the enrichment of young people’s education by Education Extra. The school has achieved an eco schools Silver Certificate in 2004 and a Devon County Council Travelwise Silver award in 2006.

Marpool School Association

On behalf of the parents we represent I would like to welcome you and your family to our school community. The Marpool School Association (MSA) is a member of the National Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA). As a parent with a child at Marpool you are automatically a member of the MSA. The aim of the MSA is to support the work of the school in whatever way we can. Obviously fund raising is of vital importance and MSA funds are used to purchase and maintain equipment that is not provided from Local Education Authority (LEA) funds. We have traditionally organised two main fund-raising events each year: the Marpool Market usually held on the first Friday evening in December and a Family Fun Night (a Summer fair/barbecue) held on an evening in June. Where possible, we run smaller fund-raising events throughout the year as well as helping staff with the school’s fund-raising event held each Spring. The MSA also arranges social events for children and adults, organises meetings on topics of interest to parents and helps (usually by providing refreshments) at parents meetings and school events such as sports day. The MSA is run by a committee elected at our Autumn AGM. We are always happy to welcome new parents, you are most welcome to attend our meetings and find out more about us and our work. You will find that we share the same hopes and concerns as you and are determined to secure the best education we can for all our children. Please contact us through the school; we look forward to meeting you.
Yours sincerely,
A.Dabreo

Chairperson

Marpool Primary School

Arrangements for Admission

If you wish to apply for a place for your child at Marpool, admission forms are available in the Devon Primary admissions booklet, “The First Step” or on line at www.devon.gov.uk/admissionsonline. Please complete and return the form to us as early as possible once you have made your decision, we will forward it to the DCC School Admissions Team for
you. Information on admission to the Nursery can be found on the following page. The standard number for admission to the Reception class at Marpool is 45 pupils in each new
academic year group. The following admission criteria is applied to the School by the Devon Local Education Authority:

Priority

1. Children living in the school’s designated area with a sibling who will be attending the school
at the time of admission. A map showing the designated area is available in the school
office.
2. Other children living in the school’s designated area.
3. Children living outside the school’s designated area, but with a sibling who will be attending
the school at the time of admission.
4 Other children living outside the school’s designated area.
If it is necessary to differentiate between children in a particular category, priority will be
determined on the basis of distance between home and school along the shortest available
walking route except in the case of children below statutory school age when priority will be
determined by date of birth. Priority may be given to the admission of pupils for whom a
particular medical or social justification is demonstrated.

The Right of Appeal

If parents wish to appeal against the decision to refuse admission of their child to the school they have the right to do so by contacting Devon LEA at County Hall, Exeter.

Full Time Admission Dates

Offers of a full time place for a child in the Reception Year will be made during March each
year in line with the LEA’s standard admission policy as shown below:

Your child will become five years old between:

1 September and 28/29 February, they will start in the Autumn Term
1 March and 31 August, they will start in the Spring Term

Any application for earlier admission must be sent to Devon LEA. If you feel that your child has special educational needs, please contact us.

Marpool Primary School’s Nursery Unit

Our Nursery Unit opened in April 1997 in the premises previously used by the Marpool Playgroup. The Unit moved to purpose built premises, attached to classrooms used by Marpool’s reception class, in September 1997. The Unit provides 26 places at each session. Both morning and afternoon sessions last two and a half hours. The times of the Nursery Unit are:

Morning

8.45am – 11.15am

Afternoon

12.45pm – 3.15pm

The Nursery has a minimum staffing of a qualified teacher and a nursery nurse. Often other staff, parents, students or other adult helpers work alongside the regular staff. The Unit enjoys all of the available school facilities such as the school hall, play area, grounds and playing field. Families play a full part in our school community.