Every Child in the world has the Right to a Quality Education and at Howard everything we do is to ensure each child has this Right and achieves their full potential through working in a quality learning environment with a carefully structured curriculum.

Our school vision:

Howard is an inclusive and effective learning community with high expectations of its staff and pupils.  We want our school to reflect the rich, diverse, multicultural community of Croydon, to welcome diversity and to provide a high quality learning environment that is stimulating and supportive for both children and adults.  We want children and adults to feel valued, safe and able to make choices that will contribute to a healthy lifestyle.  We want members of our community to be responsible, confident people who are able to contribute fully to society.

Our school aims are:

Enjoy and achieve

• To provide a broad and balanced curriculum that will develop lively and enquiring minds, aspiring to achieve high standards and maximise potential
• To promote, facilitate and enable the inclusion of all children
• To develop a sense of pride and achievement in being part of our school community
• To provide an increasing range of creative experiences that will enable children to make full use of their imagination, thus gaining a sense of the responsibilities that their own creative engagement with the work can bring.

Make a positive contribution

• To develop the ability to co-operate
• To nurture a sense of care for others
• To encourage our children to be ‘participating as caring citizens in a rapidly changing technological world’.

Be healthy

• To provide a wide range of experiences that will encourage our children to make positive choices about their own well-being.
• To support the adult community in our school to help them make choices that will enhance their well being and assist them to support the children’s development.

Be safe

• To provide a safe, supporting and caring environment

Achieve economic well-being

• To work in full partnership with all stakeholders
• To promote aspiration and innovation throughout the school community

By the end of Key Stage One (year 2) we hope that children will have developed a firm grounding in the basic skills which will be built on at Key Stage Two (years 3 - 6).  By the end of Key Stage Two (year 6) we hope that each child will have achieved a level of competence which will prepare them to benefit from the next stage of their learning when they transfer to secondary school.

Rights Respecting School 

Howard Primary School is currently working towards achieving its UNICEF Rights Respecting School Status.  We are a school where we continuously refer to the universal moral values set out in the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Child (UNCRC).  This gives the school and its whole community a strong set of shared moral values.  UNCRC provides everyone with a common language and moral framework for considering the consequences of many of our actions for the right of others and for our own rights.  This belief gives Howard Primary a firm basis for promoting equality and community cohesion and for respecting and celebrating our diversity. We encourage all members of our community to see themselves as active global citizens who will challenge injustice wherever they meet it and take action for a just and sustainable world.

We hope that while understanding that they have Rights the children of Howard Primary realise that with those RIGHTS go many RESPONSIBILITIES!

Monitoring Progress and Achievement

In order to ensure that our children are achieving their full potential we are continually assessing what they have learned so that we can plan what they need to be taught next.  All progress is recorded against the National Curriculum levels of attainment and careful tracking is done so each child’s needs can be addressed.

At the end of their Reception year the teacher completes end of Foundation Stage assessments based on observations, photographs and work which has been collected throughout the year.  These assessments show us how each child has developed in each area of Early Years Foundation stage.

All children receive a report which is completed at the end of each year and shared with parents.  This informs everyone what progress each child has made and highlights areas for development or the need for additional help.

In addition at the end of Key Stage One (year 2) a more detailed record is compiled using Teacher Assessments, the Standard Assessment test, in keeping with National Requirements.

At the end of Key Stage Two (year 6) the children also complete the Year 6 Standard Assessment tests then all the child's records are passed to their secondary school, to ensure continuity and progression in their learning.