School Tour

A warm welcome to Chawton CE Primary School.

We are a small school nestled in the beautiful, historic village of Chawton, in the South Downs National Park, Hampshire.

A place to take inspiration from, to enjoy and to learn.

Central to our school are our core values of Love, Courage and Fellowship. These are values we enquire about, read about and use as tools for our Learning Quest approach to the curriculum; these are tools we hope to equip our children, and families, with as we prepare them for what lies ahead: 'Be kind, Never Give Up and Work Together.'

Our Beautiful Building

There is an outdoor learning space for the Early Years, as well as two further playgrounds. The front playground has a trail, designed by the children for the children, as well as magnetic board games. The back playground is a larger space and is large enough for small team games to be played there.

We are incredibly fortunate to have continuous use of the open space opposite the school. This is owned by The Parish Council who fully support the use of this area to enrich and engage our pupils' learning. This includes an immaculate cricket pitch which is used all year round for sports teaching, a wooded area which supports our use of Forest School activities and Outdoor Learning and for some months of the year, a beautiful stream which is used for geography and science led learning.

We are very fortunate to have excellent links with Jane Austen's house and Chawton House. Both of these facilities are available for all our children; to support their learning, to provide engagement and enjoyment opportunities. We currently have a vegetable bed which we tend to at Chawton House as well as the full use of their grounds. 

During their time in Oak class, children are encouraged to explore, find things out for themselves and to practise the Characteristics of an Effective Learner.

Three characteristics of effective teaching and learning identified by the EYFS (Early Years Foundation Stage) are:

• playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’;
• active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements; and
• creating and thinking critically - children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things.

The process of this is about how children learn rather than the outcome.

Children spend much of their day exploring through continuous provision; using the outdoors and natural materials to support their learning as well as receiving short teacher input sessions.

Children learn to read and write using phonics. They learn a sound a day so that by the end of their year in reception, most children can read and write anything they want to using the sounds they have learnt.

Children in Oak class will have a weekly Forest School Activity session, led by Mrs Ross. This experience gives children and adults of all abilities regular opportunities to gain confidence and self-worth. Forest School is a great place to relearn about play and self-discovery which are then brought back into everyday life and learning.

We feel proud of our links with the clergy team of St Nicholas' Church. We have visitors in regularly who lead us in prayer, worship and support us with our learning about the Christian faith. Our community works together to ensure that our core values of Love, Courage and Fellowship is a reflection of our special partnership and our community ethos. 

A short walk away, we visit the church of St Nicholas often; joining in with celebrating special events, such as Harvest Festival, Christmas, Easter, Leavers' Services and many others.

We support others who are less fortunate than ourselves throughout the year, such as collecting for the Winchester Night Shelter at Harvest, leading a Reverse Advent Calendar for the Alton Food Bank at Christmas and supporting various charities of the children's choosing throughout the year. 

Our classrooms are a reflection of our Learning Quest approach to the curriculum. Each classroom contains a learning journey board for English and maths as well as other areas of the curriculum. These are often 'work-in-progress' to support children in their learning. 

Our classroom display boards, and the display boards across the school, are all backed in natural materials to show the children that we value and celebrate their efforts in learning. The result is a learning environment that looks coordinated and calm, ready to celebrate and focus on the learning. A bit like an art gallery!

We focus on the skills of our Learning Dispositions: perseverance, collaboration, enquiry, creativity, connections and reflection throughout our learning quests, focusing on one each half term. These are celebrated as part of our Celebration Worship which is held weekly on a Friday afternoon.

Our brand new library has been designed with 'Reading for Pleasure' in mind. It is at the heart of our school and boasts new soft seating to lounge on whilst enjoying reading.

School libraries are fundamental to developing engaged readers who have the capability and inclination to read and learn beyond their years at school. School libraries help children learn to find and use the information they need, to succeed now and in their future life and work.

There are a wide range of books available in our library, from newly published authors to some more heritage authors.

We are working with our school support group to fund raise money this year to purchase more books for our school library.

As part of our on-going commitment to ensure that every child receives the best education possible, our virtual learning offer consists of a combination of video tutorials and the occasional 'live' streamed lesson with the class teacher and the LSA. 

Our contingency plan for virtual learning, should we need to close any bubble/the school, can be found here:

https://www.chawton.hants.sch.uk/covid-19-related-information/

These clubs are for children attending Chawton CE Primary from Years 1 to 6.

Children in Reception may be admitted to the clubs but this is at the discretion of the Head Teacher and dependant on numbers for staffing purposes; parents will need to request permission from the Head teacher for Reception aged children before making a booking.

Mrs Williams is our out of school care club leader and all our normal school routines and systems will apply e.g. first aid, safeguarding, the use of medicines etc.

Morning Sessions: 8am – 8.30am, cost £3.00, one week = £15 (5 sessions)

After School Session: 3.15pm – 4.30pm, cost £6.00

                                    3.15pm -  5.30pm, cost £9.00

Sessions can also be paid for on a half term and termly basis.

Each year group, from year 1 onwards, will experience music tuition from Hampshire Music Service as part of the Listen2Me programme. Children learn a range of  instruments from clarinets to drums to ukuleles throughout their time with us.

Children can also choose to learn an instrument of their own choice and currently Hampshire Music Service provide small group tuition for woodwind instruments, guitars, violins and ukuleles.

We have a school choir which regularly performs at events, both at school and at church. We also take part in a nationwide event called Young Voices where school-aged children come together at a large venue and sing together.

We hope that this short virtual tour has helped you to see why Chawton is such a great place to be and we hope that, very soon, you will become part of the Chawton family and join our adventures.

In the meantime, we hope that this has helped you to gain a bit more of an insight into life at Chawton. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01420 544381 or adminoffice@chawton.hants.sch.uk

With very best wishes,

Mrs Zoe Doyly

Interim Headteacher