Headteachers Welcome
A message from the Headteacher
The warmest of welcomes to our school website and Ravenstone Primary School, situated in the heart of the community in Balham.
It is my privilege to be the headteacher of such a vibrant and nurturing school and to be leading a wonderful team of dedicated and caring staff who put the children at the centre of all they do.
We pride ourselves on providing a caring, happy and loving environment for young children to learn, thrive and flourish. We are committed to inclusion and take the view that everyone can succeed given the right support. We use a range of strategies to support behaviour management and we are proud to be a values based school. We always have high expectations of our children and our staff.
High quality teaching in Reading, Writing and Mathematics underpins all we do and while we proudly provide a broad and balanced curriculum, these core academic subjects are the essentials with which children need to be proficient in. We believe in giving the children the best possible start in life and equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills in order to achieve and be successful in each step in their primary education. Making good choices, being empathetic, developing good interpersonal skills, being curious about unfamiliar things, caring for the environment, challenging injustices. These, we hope, will lead to them becoming well rounded human beings who can interact and succeed in an ever changing society and world. One in which they can become an astute, global citizen as well as a nice person. No easy task, but one we are incredibly privileged to be a part of.
As an innovative school, we continually strive to improve our practice and that begins with teachers and support staff as learners. We learn from each other and from other schools and reflect on our practice in order to provide the best quality education for the children in our care. We use ‘Talk for Teaching’ to learn from each other in our classrooms as well as ‘Teach Like A Champion’ techniques by Doug Lemov to improve many aspects of our classroom practice and children’s learning. We are proud to be a part of the Wandle Learning Trust, working in partnership with other schools, the Wandle Teaching School, English and Maths Hubs as well as Little Wandle Letters and Sounds. Together, we are stronger and achieve greater things. We are excited about the journey ahead.
We very much value your input in the education of your child, recognising your role as their first educators. We want to continue to strengthen the partnership between home and school and are always open to feedback and receptive to suggestions.
Ravenstone is known for its special ethos, culture, values and strong community feel. We have excellent facilities and resources within our characteristic Victorian building and expansive grounds to assist in outdoor learning and sports. We hope a visit to our website gives you a flavour of what we offer and welcome you to contact the office to make a visit to our school to see what we are all about.
Mr Francis O’Kane