Fircroft Primary School, Tooting, is a well-established school with 430 pupils which has stood on its large Fircroft Road site since 1896.

Headteacher Anne Wilson says there is a good social and ethnic mix of families in the school which positively reflects the local community.

She said: "The children are our hope for the future and they benefit from the experience of living and working with a cross section of people.

"Our mission is to provide the very best services for every single one of our pupils and to expect and enable each of them to achieve their best.

"We do this by careful monitoring of their progress, their behaviour and the attendance of parents and carers at open evenings, and make an effort to actively encourage every one of them to show an interest."

There is a flourishing school orchestra which performs classics such as Yellow Submarine and Scarborough Fair at Christmas and children have the chance to learn a range of instruments at the school including the recorder, violin, cello, guitar and keyboards.

In Year 6, children perform in a large musical production and play a baseball match against the teachers.

About 40 per cent of children speak English as their second language and some parents also have little or no English. The school's Life Chances Group targets parents with basic English, with interpreters providing help. Two full-time tutors support the development of children's English fluency.

Pupils in each year group study a different world religion and visit places of worship in the area including churches, the Balham Mosque and the Sikh Gudhwara.

Year groups take part in assemblies where they celebrate different religious festivals including Eid, Diwali, Chunnakah and the Chinese New Year for which they made a big dragon.

Children receive punctuality trophies which encourage them to be on time and the class with the best record gets a gift at the end of the year.

The pupils also raised £463.67 for Red Nose Day by performing Stars in their Eyes and £200 for Comic Relief by paying 50p to wear casual clothes to school.

Every year 45 children go to Broadstairs for a week where they get room points for tidiness and pupils in their final year visit Marchants Hill Activity Centre, in Surrey, where they practice rock climbing, abseiling and archery.

They also pay frequent visits to the Nature Study Centre, on Wandsworth Common which is within walking distance and take swimming lessons at Ernest Bevin.

Ms Wilson said the school's thriving PTA, which raises up to £4,000 annually through summer and Christmas fairs, international evenings and quiz nights, is fundraising to install a new climbing frame for the playground.

"It is our dream to build two new classrooms next to the nursery, which are currently at opposite ends of the site, so we are trying to raise funds through sponsorship and donations.''

The school has good early years provision, teaching through play and using outdoor areas as much as indoors.

Most rooms are at ground level which is helpful for the proportion of children at the school with physical disabilities.

Ms Wilson, who has been headteacher since 1992, said the team of 25 support staff and 20 teachers worked closely together and enjoyed coming to work.

November 12, 2001 13:00