We want the children at Dunmow St Mary’s to develop a strong understanding of their roles and responsibilities in relation not only to the school community but to the wider community within which they live and grow up.
In line with the government’s aims on improving community cohesion we aim for the children to develop a strong sense of belonging with positive relationships to people they come into contact with in their daily lives.
As well as working towards building a common vision this sense of community acknowledges and welcomes the diversity of people’s backgrounds and circumstances.
You can read more about the strong links we have with St Mary’s Church and Cambridge University and in addition the following are some of the ways we endeavour to continually promote a sense of community to our children.
We provide
- Opportunities across the curriculum especially in RE and PSHE to explore differences, challenge prejudices and stereotyping and to help pupils to value differences.
- Assemblies led by members of the local and wider community and curriculum based fieldtrips to broaden pupils understanding of the world around them.
- Opportunities for local people to come in to talk/give demonstrations to the children about their lives or their particular skills or interests.
- Local Community visits for example to the church, library, shops and Museum
- Time for involvement in local initiatives e.g. Dunmow Big Draw and working with local artists.
- Community based projects such as the River bank project where our children worked with church leaders to create a calm, nature walk and improve the condition of the church grounds.
- Sporting and academic competitions against other schools which teach the children the value of endeavour and perseverance.
Cambridge University
Dunmow St Mary’s has enjoyed fruitful partnership with the university of Cambridge for many years. Our work with the Faculty of Education has two main purposes;
- to train and support PGCE students at the very beginning of their careers
- to offer special “open days” each year to student teachers, to showcase our curriculum and support understanding of assessment methods
Many of our teachers act as mentors to students during three placements in the year, in October, January and the summer term. This is a valuable input to student teachers who learn from our experienced staff; it is also of benefit to the school, as the students’ fresh new knowledge, inspired by one of the finest teaching providers in the country, is of great value to school development.
During the Open Days we offer tours of the school, where we are proud to invite our Year 6 children to show guests around, then our School Co-ordinator works with the students during the day, exploring our special curriculum.
Many of our staff trained at the University of Cambridge and some even trained with us at Dunmow St Mary’s. Our School Co-ordinator currently works particularly closely with the Faculty, sitting on the Primary School Committee board, which meets three times a year at the University to discuss the strengths and developments of the course.
Community Noticeboard
This noticeboard contains details of events, activities and clubs taking place in our local area. These are arranged by third parties and as such are not endorsed by the school but may be of interest to you.
The Martial Arts Centre
LiveWire Rock Academy
MRFA
Sports Cool
Ollie Clark tennis