Teaching and Learning at Kingswood Primary School

We have based our approach to teaching and learning on The Learning Rainforest by Tom Sherrington. The staff were inspired by the idea that each tree was representative of each child's learning experience. All the trees in a rainforest then support each other in creating a rich, diverse environment where there is room for individuality, but support for all. At Kingswood Primary School, we liked the metaphor of our school being like a beautiful wild, English forest, where mighty oaks shelter and nurture saplings to grow and thrive.

Our Headteacher loved the idea, within the forest metaphor, that leaders want to nurture the individual talents of staff and students. Each person in the forest (Kingswood School) has their own values, goals and priorities, but they are all in line with the school values.

Each learning tree has routines and conditions at the roots, knowledge as the trunk, and a wide variety of learning experiences within the leaf canopy.

At Kingswood Primary School, we love learning and challenging ourselves. Our school values of Kindness, Perseverance and Success reflect the ideas that Tom Sherrington explores in the 'establishing conditions' (roots) part of his book. Our school awards are Kingswood Crowns which celebrate where a child has been able to achieve these values. 

We believe that we have strong 'roots' at Kingswood School and that these have grown through a mutual love of learning and respectful relationships. Our 'trunk' (focus on securing knowledge) is well under way and we have combined some of the ideas in The Learning Rainforest with the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) 'Five a Day' principle in order to develop this. The picture below is a visual representation of our teaching and learning policy. 

In the academic year 2026-27 we will begin work on 'exploring the possibilities' which is reprsented by the canopy layer of the forest.

Key Concepts

Our key concepts are the threads that run throughout our curriculum and enable us to make connections across the different subject areas. They are sometimes taught explicitly, or are sometimes held within our curriculum, for example through our choices of famous and influential people, or the texts that we read. We believe that these concepts will enable our children to make sense of the world around them and to prepare for their future lives in our modern world.