Luttons Primary School: Small in size, but big on encouraging pupils (From Gazette & Herald)

Luttons Primary School: Small in size, but big on encouraging pupils

12:57pm Thursday 9th July 2009

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FOR a small rural village school with only two classes and a roll call of 35 children, there’s plenty happening at Luttons Primary School in West Lutton to keep staff and pupils busy.

With a range of fantastic facilities, the run of gorgeous grounds and dedicated staff, there’s plenty to involve everyone in this community, where each child is seen as an individual who is encouraged to do what they can, according to headteacher Tracey Gilbank.

This philosophy not only extends to each child’s academic capabilities, but to every area of school life and the activities it involves.

“We live in a fantastic area where the children are encouraged to cultivate nature and care for the environment,” said Mrs Gilbank.

“The school’s grounds are incredible and we are currently developing them.”

This development includes an outdoor area next to the year-old, state-of-the-art early years foundation learning centre in a portable classroom for key stage one pupils.

“This new classroom is a key feature of the school,” said Mrs Gilbank.

“We visited an early excellence centre for ideas, which we personalised for our new classroom. Now teachers from other schools throughout North Yorkshire come and visit ours.

“One of the reasons we chose to build it was that lots of our children don’t have pre-school experience, and we want to start a nursery at some time.”

The school already runs a range of activities and classes in their hall aimed at children of pre-school age and their parents.

On Monday and Wednesday, there’s Tea and Tots, which Mrs Gilbank says is a very friendly group and a great starting point for helping them to gauge how many children in the local area might want nursery facilities. They also run Belly Tots, which involves belly dancing for toddlers, and Story Super Sessions, when a drama teacher visits the school, dramatising tales and bringing them to life for the children.

Mrs Gilbank is a teaching head, and, alongside Mr Reed, who is an ICT and PE specialist, tutors the 23 key stage two pupils. The 12 key stage one pupils are taught by Miss Ellis and Mrs Bates, and there are also two graduate teaching assistants.

“This provides a real mix of personalities – it’s a fantastic team and our skills complement each other,” commented Mrs Gilbank.

There’s a large focus on developing communication skills at Luttons Primary School, especially speaking, reading and listening skills, and there are lots of teaching activities geared towards these areas, including plenty of role playing.

As such, the library, which is currently being upgraded, has a staged area and whatever piece of literature the children are studying – this term is the Iron Man – is acted out and not just read through, so it develops thoughts and ideas about the work and also allows pupils to interact with it themselves.

The outdoor, covered area connected to class one, is being transformed into an outdoor play zone, where children are encouraged to develop role-playing skills.

“There are several different areas to work in,” said Mrs Gilbank.

“If the children are studying vets, for example, they can set up a veterinary surgery and role play that. There are also sand and water areas and another with musical chimes and a further staged area outside, too, where children are encouraged to speak and act out scenarios.”

This development of communication skills is further enhanced by encouraging children to perform in the concerts held in the school, and there’s a weekly parents’ assembly, when mums and dads are invited to celebrate the pupils’ work. There are also plenty of extra-curricular clubs and groups that children are encouraged to partake in, including a choir, recorder group, sports club, board games club, creative workshop and a gardening club, whose members care for the gardens, growing produce and then selling it – the proceeds of which are invested back into buying more seeds to plant.

There’s also a homework clinic, where staff are on-hand to support and help children with their homework.

“We provide good packages of homework designed to support learning in school, so we want to make sure that children get it done. We don’t want it to hold them back,” said Mrs Gilbank.

Holder of the Healthy Schools Status, Luttons Primary School hosts an eight-mile walk each term, exploring the changing seasons, which the children also study in the classroom.

According to Mrs Gilbank, the governing body at Luttons Primary School is a supportive and proactive group which works closely with the local community, and she meets with the governors every half-term to exchange ideas. One ex-governor even bequeathed £1,000 to the school, which has been used to create a quiet garden where children can stop and reflect.

The school has good connections with the local community, and recently took an active part in the flower festival in the village church.

Next term, the key stage two children are studying the Second World War, and have been offered lots of help from people in the local community who lived during that time, and others with whom they hope to organise a village street party.

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