Thornhill Primary School - Gaborone - Botswana

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Thornhill Primary School website, filled with information which, we hope, will attract your interest and serve to give a sense of the rich flavour of life at our school.
We are proud of our strong academic track record, our sporting successes, our cultural enrichment and, not least, our musical prowess.
Established on our current site since 1966, Thornhill Primary is a nurturing family school where children from Reception to Standard 7 are educated in a caring and happy environment so that each child can fully develop his or her full potential. We are committed to providing a holistic educational programme and these are a few of the principles that we take into account:
The concern for individuality and independent thought.
The development of a positive self-image and respect for others.
The dedication of growth orientated, caring teaching staff.
The application of current educational principles to satisfy the needs of our children with a wide range of abilities in an inclusive atmosphere.
The value of communication with the entire school community.
The spirit of love, fairness, honesty and loyalty.
Our success is measured in terms of confident, happy children who are equipped to face the challenges of the contemporary world with courage and sensitivity.

We are a unique school in a unique situation and, as such, we have created a curriculum, which is relevant to our pupils. This provides them with the skills and knowledge to reach their full potential.
Thornhill has been awarded International Centre status by University of Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). The Thornhill curriculum includes the Cambridge International Primary Programme with input from the UK National Curriculum and other countries including Botswana, South Africa and New Zealand.
The Thornhill Curriculum is balanced, broadly based and aims to:
Provide opportunities for all pupils to learn and to achieve.
Promote pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development and prepare all pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of life.
These two aims are interdependent and reinforce each other. The personal development of pupils plays a significant part in their ability to learn and to achieve.
The curriculum provides all pupils with opportunities to acquire, develop, practise, apply and extend their skills in a range of contexts. These skills are also relevant to life and learning outside and beyond the school.
Skills include:
The key skills of communication (including literacy),
Application of number,
Information communication technology,
Working with others,
Improving own learning and performance and problem solving
Thinking skills (including information processing, reasoning, enquiry, creative thinking and evaluation).
In Reception, Standard 1 and Standard 2 the curriculum is essentially based around numeracy and literacy, with the opportunity for pupils to be introduced to motivating, stimulating and interesting work from elsewhere in the curriculum. Pupils learn through broad-based topics. Learning outcomes are taken from different subject areas but not identified as subject-based to the children.
In Standards 3 and 4 numeracy and literacy are consolidated and applied in other contexts. The children begin to develop knowledge, skills and understanding as defined in individual subjects. A theme is chosen but learning outcomes are organised and presented to the children in a more subject-based way.
In Standards 5, 6 and 7 pupils extend subject-specific knowledge, skills and understanding through an interesting range of contexts. Separate science, history and geography lessons are taught, which may or may not share a common theme.

ORGANISATION
Our school is a primary day school. The daily running of the school is in the hands of the Head Teacher who is assisted by a Deputy Head Teacher, an Assistant Deputy Head Teacher, and a Financial Controller. The Head Teacher is answerable to the School Council which comprises representatives from the major stakeholders of the school. An Annual General Meeting of the School Council is held in the 1st term.
COMMUNICATION
It is the policy of the present Administration to encourage and facilitate direct communication at all levels within the school so as to enable the establishment of sound educational policies and to solve problems as quickly as possible. Parents are encouraged to communicate with teachers on a regular basis and to attend Open Days each term to see the children’s work and to talk to the teachers. Parents, staff and children are always welcome to discuss problems or suggestions with the Head and Deputy Head.
ETHOS
The Thornhill ethos encourages honesty and transparency between the school and its stake-holders. Our staff are committed to improving the children’s learning in all areas.
As a result, our major purpose is to develop literacy and numeracy skills to allow lifelong learning. The school encourages the development of self-esteem, self-motivation, self-discipline and growth within a warm, caring and stimulating learning environment.
We have a proud record of providing a holistic education of excellence for children from all over the world; many successful academics, professionals and business men and women now working across the globe, can trace their steps back to their beginnings at Thornhill.