At Tuckswood we are pleased to call ourselves a Community School. As well as offering a broad, rich, interactive curriculum appropriate to the needs of the children who come to us, we work hard to serve the community in a variety of ways.

Parents

• Parents are welcomed in to school for the first 15/20 mins of the morning, if they are able to spare the time, to support their children in their early morning basic skills work.
• We always make time to talk with parents about anything that interests or concerns them. If it is likely to take a while then it is best to make an appointment, but sometimes parents will need to talk straight away and we will always try to accommodate them. Parents are often consulted about their thoughts & suggestions on the running of the school and we treat all suggestions for improvement seriously. At the moment we are negotiating with the Council to get traffic calming facilities in place on the road in front of the school.
• Our School Nurse, Mrs. Lesley Smith, runs 'Drop In' sessions regularly for parents ­ no appointment necessary.
• As part of our community provision we are committed to running a variety of groups for parents to enhance their own learning and help them support the learning of their children. These include 'Learning Together', Numeracy, 'Laptops in Schools' and Drama, funded by the Family Learning DfEE Grant, and also Parent Support Groups joint funded by Social Services and Education. Family Learning is also funding Tuckswood to run our own 'in house' course, tailor-made for our parent helpers. Please see separate section for more information.

Governors

• Our Governing Body supports the school in a wide variety of ways. Some of the Governors come from the immediate community and some from the wider community. The fresh perspectives and ideas that they bring to the running of the school are much appreciated and enhance the community aspect of the provision. They play a positive roll in promoting the school in the community.

Students

• As part of our commitment to education in the wider sense, we are happy to host a great many students. These include those on work experience from their High Schools, and those involved in courses at the local Norwich City College. They are encouraged to be part of the community of the school and discuss issues/ask questions in order to maximise their learning.
• We also host P.G.C.E. students in various stages of their Teacher Training.
• This year, to show our full commitment to the vital importance of excellent Teacher Training, we are part of the Graduate Teacher Training scheme. This involved having a graduate wishing to change career and become a teacher training in school. We have a grant from the DfEE and support for assessment from the CfBT. Our graduate has a mentor appointed from our staff, is non-class based, and works to identified and structured criteria. It is an exciting and innovative thing to be part of and is working well.

Local Business & Industry

• We were one of the two schools to pilot the 'Reading Partners' scheme, whereby people from local business & industry come in to school to help children develop their ability to read. It has been enormously successful. The original programme ran for 10 weeks, and, three years on, we still have four of our Reading Partners with us.
• Over the past few years we have been involved with local businesses, e.g. Tesco, Bennetts, Sainsbury, involving children in a variety of projects to enhance their learning about how community and business works.
• We have also benefited from the generosity of local Hotels who have donated furniture to us when refurbishing their own provision.
• We have been an active part of the Tuckswood Youth Action Group.

Trips into the Community

• Children are regularly taken out into the community, e.g. to the local Library or shops, to the park and to explore the local churches.
• Every Harvest and Christmas time our children visit the local elderly residents of the community, singing and performing, and taking gifts. It is always enjoyable for them and they have drinks, biscuits and are able to chat informally to the people they meet. The elderly come to school performances and support our Fairs and school events.
• When the children go out on their Summer Term visits the emphasis is always on ways of taking care of our environment.

A central thread of our curriculum is to provide opportunities for children to be reflective, creative & critical thinkers. We aim for them to develop the ability to play an active roll in their community and have a reasoned voice, being able to make a positive difference to the world they live in.