Why Choose Leigh Academy Hartley?

At Hartley, our aim is to provide a learning curriculum that ensures every pupil, regardless of need or background, acquires the knowledge and skills to successfully transition to the next stage of their education setting as well as to become a well-informed, globally aware young person who understands that learning is a lifelong process. At LAH, our curriculum uses the philosophy of the IB PYP as the framework to underpin a breadth and depth of coverage to ensure it:

• Provides access for all
• Promotes a positive, lifelong love of learning
• Encourages international-mindedness
• Challenges pupils to solve problems, show creativity and resourcefulness, and participate actively in our 21st century community
• Supports the development of communication skills to encourage inquiry, understanding and to allow pupil reflection and expression
• Emphasises, through the learner profile, the development of the whole pupil – physically, intellectually, emotionally and ethically

We are incredibly proud of our curriculum and of how we teach it. Read on to discover more about the implementation of, and how we monitor and measure the impact of, our curriculum.

Teaching & Learning practices at Hartley are constantly evolving to ensure that our curriculum is delivered in the best possible way for our children. We are incredibly proud of our wonderful staff and amazing children and families and how they are all on a journey of continual learning, facilitated by the curriculum at our school.

Through reading, research and staff CDP into working and long term memory, as well as cognitive load and dual coding, we have embedded the practices of low-stakes quizzing (to aid recall), regular ‘flashbacks’ and ‘look-forwards’ (so the children can make links between their prior, current and future learning) and reflection times throughout the school day (so children can, again, recap key knowledge and skills they have learnt and commit this to their longer term memory).

Teaching methods will be varied across the school; we fully celebrate our teachers’ individuality and personalities just like we do with our children’s. However, our teaching and learning policy sets out some key points which we know and celebrate as best practices. So, for example, you may see Knowledge being imparted through lecturing, e.g. Dictogloss, but also constructed through experiences e.g. outdoor learning and practical inquiry e.g. flipped learning on our Chromebooks. Both teacher-centred and student-centred approaches are employed depending on what best suits the learning activity and the children’s needs.

All of the children, regardless of their level of need, will access learning that is challenging and appropriate to their needs. For some children, this may mean their work is more scaffolded than others’ with sentence starters in English, for example, or word banks in geography, while for other children, the use of ICT is used to support their reading and understanding of subject-specific texts. We also know that some children will need more adult-led intervention in order to catch up with missed, or misconceived, learning. We are able to do this in small adult-led groups both in and out of main lesson time. Our teaching ensures that our most able pupils are challenged and stretched within their learning.

In light of recent research and practices on meaningful and effective marking and teacher workload, changes to feedback in writing have been developed and are fully embedded. Feedback will be verbal and ‘in the moment’ (wherever possible), and will focus on small next steps for the children’s learning. There may be short comments in books if it is meaningful and useful for the children and the teacher.

Since 2018, we have been developing a curriculum based on the IB PYP, which places a strong emphasis on inquiry-based learning in which the children are actively involved and take responsibility for their learning. Through lines of inquiry (generated by the children and adults together), they make connections across disciplines and integrated subjects. Our personalised curriculum provides the challenge that encourages pupils to embrace and understand the connections between foundation subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers. It also promotes a positive attitude to learning by encouraging pupils to solve problems, show creativity and resourcefulness, and participate actively in their local communities and within the academy.

Our curriculum is planned collaboratively within our phase teams, with collaboration across other Trust primary academies and professionals. Each Key Stage has mapped their appropriate curriculum frameworks (Development Matters and the Primary National Curriculum) looking for vertical and horizontal learning pathways. This allows for the transdisciplinary themes to be planned with rigour, ensuring the depth and breadth is covered whilst promoting pupil agency within the themes of the PYP programme.

Assessment of our curriculum is planned at regular intervals to ensure a depth of understanding in all foundation subjects in addition to reading, writing and maths. Assessment will be in the form of teacher assessment, real time pupil conferencing and feedback, summative tests as well as more frequent, low-stakes quizzing and inquiry work throughout each unit which allow the children to put into practice the knowledge and skills that they have been taught.

We don’t have a catchment area as such because it varies year on year. For the intake in September 2020 places were offered to families up to 1.011 miles from the school. Families from further afield also got places if they had a sibling link. The sibling link only applies if the family still resides at the same  address as on National Offer Day, or if they have moved closer to the school.

For September 2020 we had 76 families who put us as their first choice. We have space for 60 children so sadly not everyone got their first choice. In total we had 183 families who put us as one of their three choices. 

If more than 60 apply for Hartley we follow our oversubscription criteria. Children are ranked in order, starting with children in care or previously looked after children, then children previously in care outside of the UK, third is siblings (only if the sibling link has been maintained – it is broken if the family move further away from the school), after that we have children of teaching staff at the school, then health and special access reasons (if our school specifically is needed to meet medical or social needs that cannot be met elsewhere – evidence must be provided at the time of application) and finally nearness of children’s homes to the Academy – distance is measured in a straight line using the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) address data point and is not based on postcode.

Admissions Arrangements

Most years about half of our cohort is made up of siblings. In September 2020 we had 39 siblings.

Yes you can add your child to the waiting list. In most years there have been one or two places that have become available, with people choosing to move out of the area for example. It is always worth putting your child’s name on the waiting list! The waiting list is ranked in the same order as our admissions criteria.

If you know that an error has taken place in the ranking of your child and this error was down to the school or to Kent then yes you can appeal; for example if your child is fostered or adopted, has a sibling in the school and you have not moved since applying for their place or you have submitted evidence for health and special access reasons. Appealing because you are not happy with the school you have been offered is a costly and time consuming process for the school and does not result in your child being given a space. 

Uniform:

• Grey or black trousers/tailored shorts/skirt or pinafore dress/summer dress – red check.
• White shirt/polo shirt – which must be worn tucked in.
• Red sweatshirt/cardigan/fleece.
• Black shoes – not trainers. No open toed or backless shoes.
• Grey/black/white socks or red/grey/black tights.

For Outdoor Learning – please ensure children have wellies and waterproofs/outdoor coat, thank you.

PE & Games Uniform

All children are expected to change for P.E., which is a compulsory subject and your child will need:

Indoor Kit*:

• Plimsolls – preferably elasticated sides for younger children.
• Black shorts.
• P.E. T-shirt in House colours: Leopards – Green, Lions – Red, Pumas – Blue, Tigers – Yellow

* Foundation Stage need only an indoor PE kit and trainers are not required – velcro fastening on plimsolls please.

Outdoor kit for all children:

• A dark tracksuit
• Suitable sports trainers. (For Infant children these should fasten with Velcro.)

PE kits should be kept in a named bag, which should be in school every day. All kit should be named. Jewellery such as watches and stud earrings must be removed and hair must be tied back.

Trainers are not allowed except for P.E.

School uniform can be purchased online via Brigade Uniform.  New customers will need to register on the site; please select Leigh Academy Hartley from the drop down menu.  Delivery direct to your home is between 14 to 21 days and the cost of delivery is £2.95 (free for orders over £50.00).

All children in reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to a ‘Universal free school meal’. We also provide a fruit/veg snack for each child in these year groups. Children in Years 3-6 can have dinners if parents choose to pay for them. The current cost is £2.40 per day. We use Parent Pay to book school meals, even if you do not need to pay for the meal you still need to book it. You may be entitled to Free School Meals if you are in receipt of income support. Please make sure you claim for this, even if your child gets Universal Free School Meals anyway, because it means the school will get additional funding to support your child’s education.

We take advice from the nurseries on this and will separate children that do not work well together. Our priorities when organising classes are making sure we have a balance of boys/girls, older/younger and SEN needs in each class. We try to ensure children have a familiar face in their class where possible but cannot guarantee they will be with their best friend.

Please look at our Behaviour Policy and our Anti-bullying policy on the policies page.

We open our doors at 8.35am. Children in Reception finish at 3.15pm, children in Years 1 & 2 at 3.20pm and those in Key stage 2 (Years 3-6) finish at 3.30pm.  For a full breakdown of timings of the academy day, please visit our dedicated page for term dates and timings of the academy day.

For full information on the clubs and activities at Leigh Academy Hartley, please visit our dedicated page.

Yes we do. Squirrel Breakfast Club runs five days a week for children in Years R to 6. The current cost is £3.50 per day. Ordinarily our breakfast club starts at 7.30am and children can arrive anytime between 7.30 and the start of the school day at 8.45am, although they need to arrive by 8.15am if they wish to have breakfast. Please see our website for the parent contract and registration form.

Our email address is info@hartley.latrust.org.uk and the phone number is 01474 702742.

Yes, providing you have let us know who will be collecting them. When your child starts in reception you will be asked who you are happy to collect your child. The staff keep a list of the people you have named and will not let your child go with anyone else unless you have sent in a note or spoken to a member of staff. 

Ordinarily we speak to the nursery/pre-school that your child attends and try to visit your child while they are in their setting, in the summer term. Children who attend our nursery will come over for play sessions in the summer as well. We have a transition morning for the children in July,  where they will come in, in half class groups, to meet others who will be in their class and get used to the environment and staff. In September the teachers and TAs will visit you and your child in your home so that they can ask and answer questions and get to know your child a little more. 

We have a gradual start to the Reception year. Usually the children will do a few half days (half the children in the morning and half in the afternoon), followed by about a week and a half of staying for the morning and lunch and then around the end of September they start to stay all day. This academic year the children started full time on 24th September.

In Reception we don’t give the children ‘homework’ but do ask that they share reading books daily. Your child will be able to change their reading books everyday and will have one book for you to read to them and one for them to ‘read’ to you. We also send home phonics sheets so that you know what phoneme they have learned each day. The children can colour the picture and practise the letter formation but we do not collect the sheets back in. Most importantly we ask that you talk to your child a lot to develop their speaking and listening skills and play games to help them develop turn taking skills and to cope with losing!

During your child’s time at Hartley there will be trips, swimming lessons, residential trips and shows/visitors to the school that do cost us money. We ask for parents to make a contribution to these events. In Reception we have a Forest School ranger who comes to run Forest School sessions in our woods. The children participate in 6 sessions, twice a year. It is approximately £20 per 6 sessions. Reception also usually go to Godstone Farm, which costs about £16.