Mossfield Primary School

Mossfield Primary School is located in Swinton (part of the City of Salford), an area which is becoming increasingly diverse. Our area is ranked as an area of high deprivation and some of the families in our community struggle to make ends meet. Our curriculum seeks to remove the barriers that these circumstances might bring, and ensure that all of our children receive the best possible educational experiences, which promote high aspiration and ambition for their futures.

In our Early Years this means we have a clear focus on making sure our children are confident talkers and on developing the firm foundations of Early Reading through the systematic teaching of phonics and sharing our love of stories and books. We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, and use ‘Read Write Inc’ as our synthetic phonics scheme. The children are supported to learn and play together, manage their feelings and ask questions through skilled adult facilitated play. The children learn nursery rhymes and develop their mathematical thinking through direct teaching and exploration.

It is our strong belief that all our students deserve a curriculum that gives them improved life chances by enabling social equity and mobility. Aspiration and ambition for the future is a key theme for us. We start with a strong focus on the foundations of English and Maths throughout school, ensuring children experience a broad rich vocabulary; share wonderful stories and books; and are given opportunities to develop a deep understanding of maths concepts through systematic teaching and practical exploration. We use technology extensively to support our teaching and learning, and the school is very well equipped in this regard. We offer a very low cost loan scheme to ensure that our older pupils can access this technology from home.

As children progress through the school, we see it as essential to provide experiences some of our children might not otherwise have; trips to the beach, to theatres, to cultural events, forests, farms, and the amazing museums and art galleries of the North West. We want them to learn about and experience the unique cultural heritage of the North West, and especially Salford and their local area. Our extensive trips and visits schedule reflects this. We also want our pupils to experience the rural landscape and outdoor and adventurous activities. Our residential visits programme strongly supports this aim.

We are proud to be from Salford and want to learn about the rich heritage of our city. We learn how it has been part of the ongoing history of our country, and its influence through creative arts, music, sport and poetry. We study the lives of famous ‘Salfordians’, including LS Lowry, James Prescott Joule and the many sportspersons and actors which have originated in our city.

The children learn where the local history of both Swinton and Salford has interacted with British and World history, shaping our communities today. This is an important part of their heritage and identity, and as a school we have made conscious decision to integrate this into our planned curriculum wherever we can.

We are also proud to share many languages, religions and cultures in our school, and by definition, we must teach and encourage our children to respect others. They grow to understand what we have in common, to know about different faiths and to be accepting of all our school community. Our learning in this area promotes ‘British Values’ and respect for others, as well as the rule of law in a democracy. Our Modern Foreign Language curriculum allows us to explore and learn about a different language and culture.

Many of our families have not themselves had experiences of higher education. Therefore, one of our key aims is to inform and educate all our children about the options are open to them in their future life. All of our lessons in school start with an understanding of why this learning is important, and how it can help children in their future career paths. Aspiration and ambition are the key – we want our pupils to aims high, believe in themselves and then strive to meet their goals. Theme days in school and outside speakers support this aim.

Regular attendance is crucial and we place a high priority on this. We celebrate pupils who attend well, and challenge families where attendance is an issue. Continuity in learning is the key to good progress, which then allows children to achieve their aspirations and dreams.

The City of Manchester is synonymous with our two world famous football teams, and our children are rightly proud of their sporting heroes. We have high expectations of sport and the opportunities that might come from it. We want our sports curriculum to develop their skills and to give them the chance to compete and connect with others.  We work with the Manchester United FC Foundation and our local high school to deliver a breadth of sporting opportunities. We also work with Salford’s own Super League Rugby Team – The Salford Red Devils. This is supplemented with and extensive and well organised extra-curricular provision.

Police and crime statistics show us that it is an unfortunate reality that some of the children and teenagers in our local area may be vulnerable to criminal exploitation, gang culture, alcohol and drug abuse. In this context it is crucial that our curriculum teaches children how to stay safe and give them the tools to make choices for positive change in their community.

For example, we have annual visits from Greater Manchester Police and the Salford youth service make sure that our older children understand the implications of knife crime and gangs. Our exploration of carefully chosen texts and themes helps us make connections and ask questions about how things work in our own community and how we can contribute. We actively promote anti-bullying, respect for diversity, good citizenship and child safeguarding issues through regular planned sessions in our curriculum.