Listed below are 10 reasons why Team Gomer and our community think we are great.

Listed below are 10 reasons why Team Gomer and our community think we are great. These areas of success are underpinned by strong and dynamic whole-school leadership and a team committed to ensuring the best possible outcomes for its community. Go Gomer!

  1. Academic Outcomes – Children at Gomer do well socially and academically. Our 2023 SATs scores were above national average in all subjects. Go Gomer!
  2. Computing – We provide excellent learning opportunities through a carefully planned computing curriculum which covers coding, word processing, programing, desktop publishing, APP design, CAD and multimedia editing. The learning is resourced through a contemporary ICT Suite which provides stand-alone computers, touch-screen laptops and iPads. To enhance the gSTEM curriculum, blue-tooth enabled floor robots (Ollies and Spheros) are available to support and motivate learning. Other programmable stock, used in clubs and in class includes BBC Micro Bits and class sets of  ‘Crumbles’. We also now have a 3D printer to support Computer Aided Design (CAD), funded by the National STEM Centre’s CERN Bursary.
  3. Curriculum – The Gomer Junior School curriculum is carefully structured to ensure that is an enjoyable and fully inclusive learning experience for all pupils. The core subjects are planned and delivered in a way that gives excellent coverage to National Curriculum requirements and aims to develop mastery within the subjects. Opportunities for greater-depth learning opportunities are an integral part of the planning and delivery. Foundation subjects are planned meticulously by subject leaders and sequenced in a way that allows learning to be built upon and pupils to see relevance in what they are learning. There is a conscious effort to link learning across subject areas and to use the outdoor learning environment as an invaluable resource. The school has accredited beach school status and uses the local beach to enhance many areas of the curriculum. We are in the process of developing our curriculum in line with the Forest Schools initiative.  Gomer Junior School promotes STEM subjects through an innovative gSTEM curriculum. The school is pioneering the subject at the primary phase. In 2018 we were awarded the prestigious TES STEM Team of the Year Award. Engineering skills are developed through the RAEng’s ‘Engineering habits of mind’, to design solutions to relevant and current world-wide problems. gSTEM has attracted national interest, with high-profile visitors/educational advisers and leaders commending its delivery and impact across the curriculum to improve learning in core subjects. Engineering Habits of Mind – Alongside the Royal Academy of Engineering, Gomer Junior have developed an ethos, that supports integration of the learning of the habits of mind inherent with successful engineers, within primary education. Gomer Junior have developed their pedagogy, initially introduced through weekly STEM sessions, to ensure children have the opportunity to develop core skills, integral to developing learners for the future. This engineering ethos is now better integrated and can be seen enhancing learning throughout the curriculum. The school’s Learning Powers and Gosport Futures, celebrated weekly, are explicitly linked with the EHoM skills, ensuring that recognition of success when applying them, can be motivate all to apply them. Both the EHoM and Gosport Futures are built upon in the GFM KS3 and 4 curricula, ensuring skills can be transferred and developed throughout our pupils’ education.
  4. Gosport Futures – are a valued part of our curriculum and underpin the curriculum endeavours for all GFM schools. They help embed the fundamental stepping stones of effective learning, through a cross-curricular approach. Pupils are provided with opportunities to develop skills. This enables pupils to foster the skills needed to be ‘lifelong learners’. The Gosport Futures are used and taught to pupils across the age phases within the MAT, and are monitored to ensure progression. Gosport Futures link explicitly with the school’s use of EHoM, and together they provide a foundation and ethos suited to a purposeful, broad and relevant curriculum.
  5. Music Provision – Music is a high-profile area of the curriculum at Gomer Junior School. All year groups benefit from a carefully planned and delivered music curriculum that ensures all pupils receive a balanced diet of practical work – ukulele, recorders and African drums – theory work – notation and time signatures and creativity – and composition, using a range of percussion instruments. Year 4 is part of the Hampshire Music Service ‘Listen to Me’ initiative; in this year group pupils are taught strings (violin and cello), brass and voice, over an academic year (instruments may vary from one year to the next). The school has a choir is led by the choir-master of the local church. The choir performs at various community events across the year. 40% of our pupils participate in peripatetic music lessons.
  6. Parent/Carer Partnerships – Gomer Junior School has fostered and maintained excellent links with parents/carers. The school has a range of accessible communication media including: a comprehensive web site, social media profiles (FaceBook and Twitter), electronic newsletters, a ‘Gomer App’ and teacher-to-parent text/email services. ‘Gomer Learning Community’ (GLC) meetings are used to keep parents/carers up-to-date with current initiatives or educational thinking.  The school is keen to develop further links with parents and carers through an active and committed PTA – FROGJS.
  7. Safeguarding and Pastoral Support – The Learning and Pastoral Support Team (L.A.P.S) consists of Learning Mentors, who have had specialised training in supporting SEMH needs e.g. FEIPS,  ELSA, family Links and bereavement. Each mentor is assigned to a particular year group for 4 years, to ensure consistency of approach and support. Individual and group pastoral work delivered by the Learning Mentors, enables pupils to develop a more positive approach to education, and alongside the TA team helps to ensure that an inclusive environment is very well supported. In addition to TAs, The LAPS Team are used in classes to help enable all children to have access to high-quality education. They also supplement and reinforce learning through intensive structured interventions in addition to QFT.
  8. SEND – Including Inclusion and Pastoral Support – At Gomer Junior School we value and implement an inclusive curriculum. We recognise that there are a number of pupils who need a degree of support to make the most of the learning opportunities offered to them. We aim to remove barriers to learning. All children are supported within the classroom through Quality First Teaching (QFT), with the support of fourteen Teaching Assistants and two Learning Mentors.
  9. Sporting Prowess – The school is renowned for participation in and success at various sporting festivals and events. Many trophies have been won – sport, gardening, STEM and more. This school is proud to have entered teams into the Hampshire mini-games  and is the proud holder of the Silver School Games Mark accreditation.
  10. Smartness and Attendance – Gomer Junior School is proud of its standard of uniform and attendance of pupils. The wearing of smart uniform is reinforced by all staff and pupils take pride in looking the best that they can. The school also sets a target of 96.5% weekly attendance (it is common for classes to achieve 100%).