Welcome to
Parkdale Primary
School
Welcome to
Parkdale Primary
School
Welcome to Parkdale Primary School
We are a busy but friendly school, with lots going on. This website aims to give you a taster of the school, as well as providing regular updated information for both parents and pupils. It is the place to come to for catching up with Newsletters and finding official information, policies and reports. Our classes all have pages here and these will give you a flavour of what they have been up to and what they are currently learning about.
We hope that you enjoy your visit to our website, and that you find any information you are looking for. Please feel free to contact the school directly with any queries you may have.
As it repeatedly says in the video below…. “All Are Welcome Here”
Thank you for visiting!
Pete Hillier – Headteacher
Parkdale Primary News
Weekly Bulletin 09.01.2026
Welcome to Bulletin #16... ...the first of 2026. On behalf of all the team here, a very Happy New Year to everyone! At the time of writing, we're getting away with the worst of the weather locally and all bar two of our staff have been able to get here. The...
We have migrated from Twitter/X to Bluesky. You can find and follow us there at: https://bsky.app/profile/parkdaleprimary.bsky.social
Dinnertime Update
The changes to our dinnertime provision are going well and we are ironing out the snags as they arise. It's a learning process for all of us. This week has been wet and muddy and some children have ended up with very muddy footwear and outer layers. Of course, most of...
Year 6 Spring Term Reminders
Wednesday 21st January - Galleries of Justice Trip. We will be leaving school promptly at 9am and plan to be back in time for 3.30pm pick up. You will be notified if we are delayed. Children will need to wear school uniform including a coat and bring a packed lunch...
Performing Arts Classes
If your child is interested in the performing arts - musical theatre and drama to film and TV making, then they may be interested in some Saturday morning classes taking place at Bluecoat Trent Academy. Further details can be found on the attached flyer.
School Diary
Events
Term Dates
| 2025 / 2026 | First day of term | Last day of term |
|---|---|---|
| Autumn Term |
Monday 1st September 2025 Note this is an ADMIN Day and Tuesday the 2nd is INSET. School starts for pupils on Weds 3rd |
Friday 24th October 2025 |
| Autumn Term-2 | Monday 3rd November 2025 | Friday 19th December 2025 |
| Spring Term | Monday 5th January 2026 |
Friday 13th February 2026 Which is an INSET Day |
| Spring Term-2 | Monday 23rd February 2026 | Friday 27th March 2026 |
| Summer Term | Tuesday 13th April 2026 | Friday 22nd May 2026 |
| Summer Term-2 | Monday 1st June 2026 |
Monday 20th July 2026 Friday 17th and Monday 20th are INSET. School ends for children on Thursday 16th |
INSET Days: Monday 1st September (Admin Day); Tuesday 2nd September, Friday 3rd October, Friday 13th February, Friday 17th July, Monday 20th July.
Downloadable (pdf) of calendars:
Prospectus
Our website is packed with information, news and views. If you are new to our school and would like a summary of ‘what we are all about’ our Prospectus is a good place to start!
Curriculum
Our curriculum was designed in consultation with stakeholders, our community, and was launched in 2019. We base much of our learning around 3 themes: Environment & Sustainability; Equality, Diversity & Identity; Peace & Social Justice. These reflect the values our stakeholders told us matter to them.
Within these themes, we aim to develop positive values, whilst learning skills and knowledge broadly comparable with the National Curriculum, against which our teaching and learning sequences are mapped.
New from September 2023, we have adopted our approach. We have returned to topics, now called Learning Projects, rooted very strongly in the subject discipline, with a focus on knowledge. Within each Learning Project, we look through the ‘lenses’ of the three themes.
A Green, Clean Sustainable World
Through this lens we learn positive, caring values and key Geography skills and knowledge. We start with personal and local issues in Early Years and build up towards a global picture as we progress through school.
Identity & Cultural Capital
Through this lens, we learn about where we come from, celebrate our diversity and our similarities. A lot of our History is about migration, systems of government and how society and technology change. We develop a sense of belonging in Nottingham, the UK and the World. We learn a lot about Cultural Capital and positive values.
Peace & Social Justice
Through this lens, we develop our History and Geography skills and knowledge through learning about wars, conflict and their effect on people. We learn about famous campaigners for justice in a range of countries.
Equity and Diversity
This lens is present in all of our learning. It runs as a thread across all Learning projects. Some curriculum content may be discretely covered, such as through Black History Month. All Learning Projects include themes of equity and diversity, for example the roles and contributions of women, people from different backgrounds, people with disability/neuro-diversity and so on.
Holistic Development
Our school vision relates to development and wellbeing of the whole-child. This is central to all we do.
We have daily assemblies, currently a blend of virtual and ‘face-to-face’, which reflect our values and the compostion of our community. One of these per week is delivered by a Christian Reverend, another by a representative of a local Mosque. In all, we always strive to find common ground and similarities between people of all faiths and none.
For 2021-22, assemblies will regularly address the Universal Declaration of Human RIghts, using teaching resources from the Youth For Human Rights organisation
Our school day is specifically designed to build-in Wellbeing time, such as meditation, yoga, mindfulness and reflection.
A dedicated Pastoral Team is available to co-ordinate support for children with Special Needs, including those with social and emotional needs. Locally, we have a very psitive reputation for our provision in this respect.
The nature of our community means we admit a significant number of children with Langauge and Communication needs. Another dedicated team, including our own Speech & Language Therapist, co-ordinates support. Our work in this area won us a national Communication Trust ‘Shine a Light’ Award in 2017. You can learn more about each of these areas in their own section below:
Language & Communication
This is an important area for us as lots of our children arrive with delayed communication. We have a dedicated Communication and Language Lead and access to our very own Speech and Language Therapist who works with children and trains our staff. In 2017, we were the Communication Trust’s National Primary Setting of the year, winning a prestigious Shine A Light Award
Pastoral
Our school day is espcially structured to include dedicated Wellbeing and Mindfulness time. Our children learn yoga, breathing techniques and much, much more. Out Pastoral Team work closely with individual children for whom Wellbeing is a concern. Some of our Y5 and Y6 children are trained as Wellbeing Champions, to support other children. We formally test and track Wellbeing, using Leuven scales. Our Assemblies focus on Values, Faith, Mindfulness and understanding Human RIghts.
Special Needs
We have a great reputation locally for our provision. We do all we can to be inclusive and have successfully supported children with very high levels of need. Our SENCo is supported by her colleagues in the Pastoral Team. We aim to include children with additional needs in the mainstream classroom as much as possible, but also have a recently established nurture space, The Rainbow Room, which they can access when needed too.