St Ambrose Barlow Catholic Primary School

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St Ambrose Barlow is a voluntary aided primary school with an average of 210 pupils. There are seven classes, one for each year group. Our community is shaped by our Catholic faith and values and it is within this context that the growth and development of our children take place. Our school has a strong Catholic ethos and we are all learning to live, love, and work together.

Our partnership with the parents, parish, and our Parish Priest is very strong indeed, and together, we aim to help the spiritual and moral growth of all our children as well as their intellectual growth. Here at St Ambrose Barlow, a love of learning is promoted within a safe and happy environment in which everyone feels valued, ideas can flourish and pupils can realize their full potential. Christian values and spirituality are at the heart of all aspects of school life. Every child is welcomed and valued as a unique member of God's family and all staff is dedicated to providing a stimulating, nurturing, and exciting environment.

Our aim is for our children to live confident, healthy, fulfilling, and safe lives. We want them to grow to be responsible citizens, living the Gospel values and able to make a positive contribution to society. We believe that working in partnership with parents, carers, governors, and our parish community is critical to ensuring our success. A family atmosphere is fostered within which children feel confident to express their individuality, their talents and know that success in any aspect of their lives will be rewarded and celebrated.

Parents have a very important role to play in the education of their children and we actively encourage close co-operation between home and school. We value and build on the experience and knowledge which pupils bring from their home lives. We are blessed to have the Friends of St Ambrose Barlow School (FOSABS), our Parents' Association which not only raises funds for the school but also provides fantastic social events for parents and children throughout the school year.

We offer a broad and balanced curriculum enriched with visitors, visits, events, and activities to inspire in each child a joy for learning. Our Catholic ethos focuses on our expectations that our children are honest and respectful, care for others, develop their self-worth and work hard to develop skills that will allow them to be good citizens and achieve success now and in the future.

The school has a very strong academic record as well as an excellent reputation for pastoral care. We were delighted with our last Ofsted report which commented on many outstanding features of the school, and our SAT results are consistently well above average.

Our vision at St Ambrose Catholic Primary School is to provide an excellent standard of education, within a stimulating Catholic environment, by committed and caring professionals. Inclusion of all is our central goal based on our belief that we are all created in the image of God.

Aims of the School:

• To develop a Christ-centred community in which the Catholic faith is nurtured and where respect for other world religions is fostered.
• To establish an environment and ethos (clearly understood values and attitudes) in which each pupil develops self-awareness and self-discipline to accept social responsibility within the school and society at large.
• To provide a safe, happy and caring environment in which individuals have the opportunity to develop their spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, social, cultural, and physical potential.
• To recognize and meet the needs of our pupils by promoting the highest possible standards of achievement for each child.
• To provide a broad, balanced, relevant, and differentiated curriculum, including the requirements of the National Curriculum, to develop each child's potential.
• To encourage and nurture independence in children which forms a strong basis for them to become life-long learners.
• To foster in children a sense of awe and wonder for God's created world and to have an awareness of their unique place within it.
• To develop our pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of adult life.

As a Catholic School, our religious ethos is to be found across the whole curriculum and not just within religious education lessons. The aim of the school is the Christian growth of the child. Parents are closely involved in the preparation of their children for the Sacrament of the Eucharist through the parish-based program. The school follows the Birmingham Diocesan religious education program, 'Learning and Growing as the People of God.

St Ambrose Barlow School is committed to the fostering of a spirit of justice and universal brotherhood, by the message of the Gospel and the teachings of the Catholic Church. In particular, it recognizes the need to prepare pupils for life in a multicultural society by fostering respect for and understanding of rich cultural diversity, and by seeking to counter racist and discriminatory attitudes.

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