Welcome to our Primary Phase- Church Road

SCHOOL TIMES - 9.10am - 3.15pm

For many families their school journey with Grove Park starts at Primary. We pride ourselves on being welcoming, caring and supportive to both our pupils, their families and carers. Primary is a very happy, lively phase with lots of wonderful activities happening throughout the day.  We have a wide range of resources inside and out that we can access daily and opportunities to use other facilities within the community. If you would like to visit us we would be happy to welcome you.

We are based on Church Road and set in extensive grounds. We offer places to children from Reception (four year-olds) to year 6 (eleven year-olds) and currently have seven class groups. Many of our pupils continue into our secondary and further education (6th form FE) provision.

We follow the Development Matters Early Years Foundation Stage framework, carefully extending this curriculum through our primary phase to best support our pupils, and begin to work on National Curriculum guidelines, where appropriate, as pupils move into Key Stage 2, with work and resources differentiated to every pupil’s individual needs. We also use the Quest for Learning guidance and assessment to support our pupils with profound and multiple learning difficulties, supported by the Engagement Profile.

We are a Total Communication school, promoting use of all means of communication as our pupils develop their preferred way to communicate. Pupils can use visuals, PECS and communication books in close liaison with parents and carers. Our staff are Makaton trained- with key teachers and teaching assistants leading and modelling Makaton use. Some of our pupils use high tech AAC (augmentative and assisted communication) such as Grid 3 via a tablet or Eyegaze.

We are ambitious about reading: our pupils are encouraged at all times to engage and enjoy sharing books, stories and poems- with reading and phonics a priority. We are using the LIttle Wandle Department of Education validated phonics scheme. There is a link to this for parents on our home page. At a sensory level, through role play and drama, daily reading sessions after lunch, daily phonics lessons and through our Literacy lessons all pupils are expected to make good progress.

We work as part of a multi-disciplinary team alongside therapists from ESCITES (East Sussex Children's Integrated Therapy and Equipment Services) and incorporate individual therapy programmes into the pupil’s overall learning. Many of the therapists that support children in the community, either during their early years placements or within primary schools also come into school to support our pupils. You will likely recognise the team. We have use of our hydro pool located on our Beeches Road site and also use a pool based at a local primary school to support swimming skills, physical development and social skills. Children can also have access to community provisions such as trampolining and horse-riding lessons on a rota system, with horse-riding reserved for our year 5 and 6 pupils.  A music specialist works with a selection of our pupils each week enabling the pupils to have access to group and individual music sessions.

We like to take our learning out and about in the local community providing day trips based around our topics. We are also sometimes fortunate to be treated to day trips and activities through very kind donations from other organisations such as the Golden Lions and the local Rotary clubs. Some of these trips include Santa’s Special train at the Bluebell Railway, Drusillas and Blackberry Farm.

We use an app called Class DOJO to create a home-school link, with many photos and observations of pupils progress being shared with parents on a regular basis.

       Clare Lewis is our Assistant Headteacher 

         leading the Primary phase of the school.

                    There are two key stage leaders at our Primary Phase:

       Hannah Saunders is our EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) and Key             

          Stage 1 (years 1 and 2) lead teacher.

  Zoe Holland is our Key Stage 2 lead teacher (years 3, 4, 5, 6).