At Foxfield Primary School, learning goes beyond lesson objectives to create experiences children will remember long after they leave. Co-head teacher Megan Minnett and her team deliberately balance academic excellence with moments of pure joy, understanding that engagement comes from both meaningful curriculum and memorable experiences.

The school recognised that children's lasting primary school memories often come from special moments rather than specific lessons.

"What do we all remember as primary school? I remember being in year two bouncing on a bouncy castle... They're not going to remember the fraction lesson... they're going to say I loved bouncing on that castle."

In response, Foxfield introduced three annual events focused purely on enjoyment: inflatables day in autumn, a whole-school bake off in spring, and Foxfield’s Got Talent in summer.

"This year in the school development plan, we're just going to have three events where it's not linked to curriculum, it's just linked to enjoyment of school."

The curriculum itself is designed to reflect and celebrate the school's diverse community. History lessons include perspectives that children can connect with personally.

"When we're doing typical history lessons, it's representative. So we'll do the black Tudors. We have a huge Nepalese community. So in part of our history we'll look at Nepalese soldiers."

Geography learning connects directly to the local area, with children experiencing their community in new ways.

"We're in the Borough of Greenwich... We have so much history... Year three, we do the Thames barrier. That's really close to us. We walk down to the barrier and see that."

The school has achieved Silver Rights Respecting School status, embedding global citizenship throughout their approach.

"We want our children to be change makers. If you really believe in that and our curriculum's representative, then you come and work for us."

Student leadership opportunities are designed to reach beyond the usual confident children, deliberately seeking out quieter pupils.

"Is it always the children who are the most confident or extroverted who get chosen for those roles or do we need to be aware of those corner children who probably really want to do it but don't have the confidence."

The engaging curriculum directly supports behaviour management by keeping children interested and connected.

"Because of our curriculum design, children are engaged, they want to learn. The curriculum's amazing for them... it isn't boring. It is a lot of fun."

The school ensures children see themselves reflected in what they learn, building cultural pride and personal connection.

"We've really fine-tuned our curriculum to ensure that children see themselves as part of that curriculum, which I think is amazing."

This is reflected in Foxfield’s TEP scores from Summer 2025:

Key strategies:

• Three annual joy-focused events with no curriculum objectives (inflatables, bake-off, talent show)

• Representative curriculum reflecting community diversity in history and geography

• Student leadership opportunities targeting quieter children alongside confident pupils

• Curriculum designed as engagement tool to support positive behaviour through interest