St. Thomas Primary School is an inclusive school. We value all children for the contribution they can make to school life, regardless of their ability, and no-one is precluded from any school activity.

During any child’s school life, support may be required with learning, with emotional development, or with social needs. Whether children have special talents or particular learning difficulties, they are given support throughout their school career, and a variety of strategies are used:

• differentiated work for a variety of abilities
• individual education plans (IEPs), which help a child with particular learning difficulties
• teaching in small groups or on a one-to-one basis
• drawing on our own specialists in school
• intervention programmes
• extension activities / focused questioning

We work closely with parents to ensure children’s needs are met to the best of everyone’s abilities. The school also links with many other agencies in the day-to-day support of our children. The school’s Child Protection Co-ordinator’s responsibility is to see that procedures are followed, and all incidents of suspected child abuse are reported to the appropriate authorities.

Homework

Although we acknowledge the importance of children using out of school time for pursuing interests, hobbies and play, we also believe that we are helping to develop an effective partnership between school and home by setting regular homework. As children move through the school, they will be expected to take more responsibility for their own learning. Homework will, at different levels, take the form of:

• Reading
• Investigative work and research
• Numeracy / literacy tasks
• Topic related activities
• Our Homework Policy expands our thinking on this matter.
  

Sex And Relationship Education

The Governing Body has agreed that sex and relationship education should form part of our school curriculum. We follow an agreed policy, which is delivered through our personal, social and health education programme.

Drug Education

Our staff follow an agreed policy for drug education, which is delivered through our personal, social and health education programme.

Healthy Schools

St. Thomas Primary School encourages children to lead an active and healthy lifestyle, teaching the value of exercise and healthy diet. We promote:

• regular daily fitness activity breaks
• participation in a varied programme of sports and PE activities
• healthy eating – only fruit, raw vegetables or hard cheese can be brought in for break time snacks
• healthy lunchbox foods are encouraged
• children are encouraged to drink water throughout the school day to prevent dehydration
• children are encouraged to wear sunhats against extremes of heat
  

Collective Worship And Religious Education

We follow the Devon Agreed Syllabus for religious education. Collective worship takes place every day, and is broadly Christian in character. Assemblies can either be whole school, individual class or shared class times. We promote spiritual and moral development, giving time for reflection, and for encouraging children to celebrate their own and others’ achievements.

Multicultural Society

We firmly believe that our curriculum should reflect the fact that we live in a multi-cultural society, and that we should promote respect for other cultures and educate against racism.

Enrichment

During the school year a variety of opportunities are available to allow children to widen their understanding of topics, and to gain greater enjoyment, by learning through different experiences.
These can be:

• visits from theatre in education groups
• working with artists
• subject weeks
• special visitors
• residential visits
• visits of historical interest
• taking part in instrumental lessons
• taking part in extra curricular activities, including sport

Some of the activities are sponsored by our Parent Teacher Association, and some rely on contributions from parents and carers.