School Motto: ‘Together Everyone Achieves More’
Core Values: Resilience, Independence, Collaboration, Respect, Learning
At Larks Hill, our curriculum has been coherently designed to equip all pupils with the personal knowledge, skills and values they require to be successful today and in the future.
Our core values help and support pupils to develop their character in all aspects of their learning; to know that individual differences should be valued, to be resilient, to work collaboratively and to have empathy and respect for all. These values underpin everything we do and as a result, our pupils develop to be responsible, respectable, and confident citizens who contribute positively to society.
Our taught curriculum
Our taught curriculum is well-planned and thorough. The teaching of SMSC (Spiritual, Moral, Social, Cultural Development), British Values, Citizenship, RSE and Protected Characteristics is enhanced by weekly class discussions and assemblies where our pupils deepen their understanding of key topics through discussion and debate. By working in tandem with the school nursing team and local police, we teach our pupils to become well-rounded citizens who can manage online and offline risks, understand social dangers such as knife crime and know how to stay healthy both physically and mentally.
Through our extensive Religious Education curriculum, we offer opportunities for pupils to explore and develop their own values, beliefs and spiritual awareness. Our curriculum is enhanced by religious experience days; planning bespoke visits and by welcoming visitors into school from various faiths. At Larks Hill, our pupils demonstrate a positive caring attitude towards other people and have an appreciation of the diversity and richness of other cultures.
"I felt really proud taking a whole school assembly about Eid this year. I think it’s important for my friends to know how Eid is celebrated and why. I brought in a lot of sweet treats for my friends and the staff to share." - Harry, Year 4
Our Wider Personal Curriculum
Our wider personal curriculum offer at Larks Hill is vast. Through our many initiatives, we aim to provide our pupils with experiences that will remain with them as they move onto each new phase in their lives; preparing them to be successful in the modern world we live in.
Please click on the drop down menu below to find out more about our offer:
Larks Hill pupils are actively encouraged to apply for a variety of leadership roles across school. Our leaders are democratically elected in to positions by their peers, following their applications. All leaders take their roles and responsibilities seriously and wear their badges with pride. They play a large role in supporting and enhancing the leadership of the school; creating, promoting and organising whole school events, delivering whole school assemblies, meeting and greeting visitors and attending community events.
At Larks Hill we have:
Junior Leadership Team (Years 1-6)
Head Boy and Head Girl
Prefects
GALS and Mini GALS (Girls Active Leadership Squad)
The GALS initiative was set up five years ago to increase the participation of girls in sports, raise self-esteem and increase fitness. As a result of its success, we now have many more girls engaging in sports both in school and in the community, year after year. Our GALS are excellent role models for all girls, leading and coaching others with confidence and independence.
Sports Leaders
Our Year 6 Sports Leaders are trained to help organise and run Trust-wide sporting events, sports day and support with the teaching of PE. This leadership role allows our oldest pupils the opportunity to display a high level of maturity, preparing them for future roles in the next phase of their education.
Pupil Monitors
- Lunchtime monitor
- Library monitor
- Cloakroom monitors
Our Monitors actively support to ensure school is maintained to the highest standards; assisting with the younger children at lunchtime and ensuring that the environment is tidy and well looked after.
Ambassadors
- Reading Ambassadors
- Mental Health Ambassadors
Our Reading Ambassadors have been chosen to promote reading across school. They are reading role models to others and will happily share book recommendations with their peers.
Our Mental Health Ambassadors work alongside the Mental Health Lead committed to leading a whole school approach to mental health and well- being. They have been fully trained to deliver a bespoke programme across school.
The Eco Team
Planting Trees for the King's coronation.
Our Eco Team is an established team of pupils, committed to improving the school’s environmental footprint and raising awareness of local and global issues. The team is working towards achieving the nationally recognised Green Eco Award for Schools and leads on key initiatives across school such as:
- Improving biodiversity; restoring our nature garden, planting trees and growing vegetables.
- Saving energy; turning lights off, holding energy saving hours.
- Being global citizens; working with local charities, promoting Fair Trade, celebrating diversity, walking to school.
- Promoting healthy lifestyles; daily mile, mindfulness, healthy snack and packed lunches.
- Reducing litter; litter picking in school and around the community.
- Marine/water; limiting single-use plastics, beach cleansing, implementing water butts.
Clubs
We have an extensive range of clubs and activities available both after school and at lunchtime. Many of our clubs are pupil initiated as a result of requests posted in our ‘Pupil Voice Suggestion Box’ and are led by the pupils themselves.
Our clubs on offer change termly and have a variety of foci from sports to creative arts, Lego, yoga and mindfulness.
The Breakfast Club runs from 8.00 – 8.40. There are many activities on offer during this time including the popular, ‘Wake Up, Shake Up’ session to start the day.
Trips and Visits
"I really enjoyed our trip to the National Space Museum because it helped me with my learning in History, which was about the ‘space race’ between the USA and the Soviet Union. We used Lyfta to explore the USA and the Soviet Union so I knew lots about these countries before we went." - Seb, Year 5
Throughout our calendar year, all classes have external trips and/or visitor experience in school. These experiences both enhance in class learning and support with the wider character development of our pupils.
- Pontefract Castle
- Financial awareness workshops through HSBC bank
- Local area walks/Yorkshire Wildlife Park/Yorkshire Sculpture Park
- National Space Centre
- Dental workshop/Healthy Lifestyle talks/First Aid workshops
- Church visits/ Diwali Dance workshop/Islam workshops
- Theatre visits
- York Chocolate Story visit
- Cannon Hall Farm
- York University
- Field work in Scarborough
- The Deep
- Leeds Museum (History)
Year 6 Residential visits
Year 6 have a two night/three day residential visit to Robinwood in June, where they pack in 15 exciting activities that challenge pupils physically and mentally, stimulate the imagination and promote teamwork and resilience.
50 Experiences Passports
Every pupil in school has a ‘50 Experiences Passport’ full of bespoke experiences pupils will access over an academic phase. The experiences are in addition to our general curriculum offer and support to enhance pupil cultural capital further.
"The Passports are a really nice way for us to remember our experiences, particularly when we’ve left school. I really like seeing all the stamps which show me how much we have done!" Zac, Year 6
Bespoke Experiences
Our curriculum is further enhanced through well-planned assemblies, bespoke teaching weeks and drop-down afternoons.
Young Voices 2024
- Christmas Pantomime, Wakefield
- Healthy Bodies and Mind Week
- Science Week
- Anti-Bullying Week
- Black History Month
- Women’s History Month
- Celebrating Difference
- World Religion Weeks
- What it means to be British
Forest School
"In Forest School we get to build things outside and toast marshmallows. I liked scraping sticks to make a wand and a sword!" - Harper, Year 1
The Forest School Programme provides outdoor learning opportunities in a natural environment. As a school we are very fortunate in having our own forest school area with all classes enjoying Forest School activities throughout the year both as part of our curriculum and as an after-school club. Our pupils experience activities such as: lighting fires, outdoor cooking, low ropes challenges, using tools to make things or to help with construction.
HSBC Bank
Through working with HSBC UK, we ensure that our pupils have access to financial education and our supported with overall financial awareness, understanding money, bank accounting and saving.
Classroom Kitchen
We invite ‘Classroom Kitchens’ into school every term to cook with the pupils, expose them to new foods and teach about food preparation and healthy nutrition. Bespoke cooking workshops throughout the year, support with introducing our pupils to new foods from different cultures and around the world.
Staying Safe
Learning First Aid
We have an abundance of initiatives in school to help and support our pupils to stay safe.
- First Aid workshops
- Road Safety awareness through BRAKE and the local Police
- Bikeability training
- Swimming lessons
- Stranger Danger talks
- Staying safe online sessions with NSPCC
Charity Work
We expose our pupils to the work of various different charities; acknowledging the important work that people do for others and recognising the power of caring and giving. Our work for The Prince of Wales Hospice in Pontefract, Children in Need and the Pontefract Food Bank are just some of the charities we work with and support.
Careers Week
"I always like learning about different jobs. We do have careers week but we also learning about different jobs all the time in class. I want to work with animals because we had a lady come into school with a dog who looks after a blind person. I want to work with animals when I’m older." Nia, Year 2
Through our bespoke Careers Week, we recognise the importance of exposing our pupils to as many different vocations as possible. We welcome a multitude of visitors into school to speak about careers and opportunities such as: charity work, careers in Law, the NHS, the RAF and engineering. We instil the mantra of, ‘No career is off limits, be what you want to be’, regardless of class, age, gender, race or disability.
LYFTA
Our pupils have weekly ‘Lyfta Time’ through an online platform that teleports the class to new places around the world. The sessions are delivered through storyworlds.
‘A storyworld is an immersive learning environment where students interact with 360° spaces and soundscapes, explore curriculum-aligned rich media articles and watch high-quality short documentary films. Each storyworld features an inspiring real human story, carefully selected to spark curiosity, empathy and compassion and open up conversations on important topics.’
Through Lyfta, our pupils get to experience the world beyond their locality and travel to places they may never go or think of going. Pupils are able to connect with real human stories and be introduced to diverse cultures and new perspectives; building personal knowledge and cultural capital.
"I love my Lyfta lessons because I get to see the world! It helps us learn about different people and places that I may never get the chance to visit. It makes me want to travel when I am older." Amelia, Year 5
Picture News
Through Picture News, our pupils are exposed to current National and International news stories. Each week, we are provided with online resources that have been carefully selected to be thought provoking, relevant and informative. These sessions allow pupils to be reflective, engage in debate and offer opinion. Through this platform our pupils develop respect for other’s beliefs, feelings and faiths.
At Larks Hill, we support with nurturing and developing talent and interests from the youngest age. Pupils have the opportunity to play musical instruments, sing in the choir, attended a multitude of sporting events and develop creativity through drama. We celebrate all talent in our end of year, ‘Larks Hill’s Got Talent’ production.
- Pontefract Academies Trust Games, Multi-Skills, Cross Country, West Yorkshire School Games, UK Athletics Indoor Championships, Wakefield School Games, Active Curriculum Festival, Dodgeball Championships
- Young Voices, Music Concerts
Exploring musical realms: a pupil mastering the guitar.
- Guitar, Drums, Violin, Trumpet, Piano
- Blue Peter Awards
- Photography, Reading and Writing Competitions
- Bake Offs
- Drama Productions
PAT Games
The mission of the PAT Games is to give every single one of our primary school students the opportunity to represent their school. The games are inclusive and suitable for pupils of all fitness levels.
The PAT Games are planned and hosted across Pontefract Academies Trust and are in the form of a competition of festival. By participating in the PAT Games, schools collect points which are then tallied up across the year and the winning school receives a trophy at the end of each term.
The games teach pupils important life skills such as determination, passion, respect, honesty, self-belief, teamwork, and developing skills - all of which, belong to our 'Spirit of the Games' characteristics.
British Values
Here at De Lacy Primary School, we recognise the multi-faith and multi-cultural make-up of the United Kingdom, and believe it is important to promote the inclusive values that make Britain great.
We are an inclusive school. We welcome all pupils entitled to education under British law, whatever their faith, ethnicity, gender, political viewpoints, sexuality, or gender.
Here are some of the ways that we seek to promote British Values at De Lacy:
We ensure that children are given a voice. They are empowered by being given opportunities to make choices about things they believe are important. Our school behaviour systems encourage pupils to respect the idea of democracy and respect the views of others.
Children are taught to understand the principles of rules, which enable a community – like a school – to work well. This is supported by our Community Police Officer. Children understand our behaviour systems and the rules we must follow, this helps pupils to make decisions and choices that are acceptable to the school community and society at large. We help pupils learn to manage their behaviour and take responsibility for their actions. We teach them to recognise right from wrong and why we have rules in school and society.
Within PE lessons and in the range of sports clubs which take place at Larks Hill, children learn and follow the rules and regulations of the sport being undertaken. Pupils understand and follow the rules, insisting on fairness and sportsmanship. They then extend this to the games they play in their free time in the playground as well as when taking part in sporting events across the Trust as part of the PAT games.
We encourage pupils to become good and valued citizens. We do this by supporting each pupil to become as independent as possible. Some pupils will be able to take responsibility for particular roles, such as Junior Librarians, School Council Representatives, hall monitors or playground leaders. They understand that with certain rights comes a level of responsibility.
We celebrate achievements in assemblies and with certificates and encourage children to be proud of their achievements, both in and out of school. We encourage children to take responsibility for their behaviour, to challenge stereotypes and to spread an anti-bullying culture.
We promote each pupil’s inclusion in a range of activities, settings and locations. Our pupils go into the community to meet with a range of people in a variety of situations which include sports events, community events and shared participation with other schools. It is important for our school to be part of the community as the pupils, families and staff have much to offer in the development of community cohesion.
As we live in a multi-faith society, we promote the belief that each person is respected and valued equally without regard to ability, gender, faith, heritage or race. Cultural appreciation and development forms part of our curriculum. We celebrate faiths throughout the year with assemblies, workshops and drop-down days, where parents are actively encouraged to participate. We celebrate our differences and pupils are mutually respectful of these.
We teach Religious Education (RE) in each year group at Larks Hill. Our RE curriculum offers a broad and balanced education on a range of faiths, religions and cultures.
Throughout school, we encourage children to discuss the differences between people, such as their faith, ethnicity, disability, gender and sexuality. We also help them to explore different kinds of lifestyle, including relationships and families and bodily choices.