Wider Community
One of our school values at Pinner Wood is 'Heart of our Community' where we will endeavour to make links with and support our local (and further afield) community.
Oracy Centre of Excellence
In June 2024, we were honoured to received the prestigious Centre of Excellent in Oracy award by Voice 21. We have enjoyed building on this success and sharing our work through Oracy days and collaborative projects with other schools, both local and further away. Through these, we have showcased our learning and provision to over 50 different schools. We have also run Inset sessions, Twilights and other professional development with individuals, SLT and schools across the borough and beyond linked to embedding oracy strategies in lesson, progression and oracy assemblies.
Our Oracy Project, supporting between 11 - 15 other Primary Schools, is just one example of how we are using our knowledge and skills within Oracy to support others. Within this project, schools attend three twilight sessions at Pinner Wood, led by our Oracy team, which focus on our Oracy journey, the pedagogy around Oracy, progression of Oracy within school and the different types of talk that children can be taught. From this, our Oracy team then 'coach' the schools to complete their own Oracy project within their own schools. A celebration and feedback evening is then shared with schools showcasing their best practice to each other.
Sustainability
Sustainability is woven into our school ethos, curriculum, outdoor learning and is overseen by our popular and extremely committed Earth Friends group. Alongside our commitment to reducing waste, taking less coach trips and and reusing where possible, as a school we have supported our local community by:
Litter picking in our local community; individually, as a school trip and as part of the curriculum
Running our Eco Refill shop which opens once a month with the aim to prevent plastic waste and pollution, inviting our families and local community to attend to purchase their refills
Holding termly clothing collections where families donate unwanted clothes which can then be reused and repurposed to our local community
Holding termly Swap Shops where families can swap books, clothes, toys and other items
Following our Level 5 RHS award, we have also supported other schools with outdoor learning and sustainability, including showcasing our own garden area and how our lessons are taken outdoors.
Big Education
As a school, we have worked in collaboration with the Big Education, with lots of our staff members and SLT being involved in a number of different projects, working groups, seminars and workshops. These have included Sarah Marriott (Headteacher) showcasing leadership at Pinner Wood and Emily Thomas (Oracy lead) talking about Oracy showcases. We also have staff members involved in Rethinking Education groups linked to learner profiles, a primary national professional qualification project and AI.
More information on the Rethinking School projects can be found here.
Members of our staff have also written blog posts for the Big Education, showcasing the work they have done alongside them to support other schools and share best practice.
Life skills in early years - Teaching life skills in Early Years
Learner profiles for assessment - Why Learner Profiles are the future for assessment in primary
Learner profiles - beyond the curriculum - Learner profiles: beyond the curriculum
Food Bank Aid
Every year, through our Harvest Collection, we donate foods, cereals and other goods to the Food Bank Aid who collect and distribute them to the local food banks.
