St Margaret's church primary school

[EduCativ]

We have so much to celebrate at St Margaret's and we hope this site gives you a taste of the exciting and creative world that we provide for our school community. We are passionate that anyone who is involved in our community, in whatever capacity, receives a blessing through the atmosphere and ethos we strive to create. Our vision is to equip children with a foundation of core values and skills on which they can build a rich and fruitful life. We know God has amazing plans for our children and we have a part to play in preparing them for taking up that place.
We hope we are welcoming, caring, stimulating, enjoyable, and many other things! But St Margaret's is also a Church of England Voluntary Aided School. We are a partnership between the Local Authority, the Church of England, and the local community, working together to provide an excellent education for children. Through our explicitly Christian ethos, we aim to foster the growth and well-being of the whole child: physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual. We understand that such growth is best nurtured by a partnership between school, child, and home.
As the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of a Child puts it, ‘Children learn what they live.’ An education at St Margaret's still best to suit children and families who wish to embrace both the growth of the whole child and our living Christian tradition and ethos. Every year ninety new children enter the Reception classes at St Margaret's while several others enter other year groups as vacancies arise. St Margaret's welcomes all children from across our local community. Like all schools, St Margaret's has to prioritize admissions when more children apply than we have places available. When that occurs we use a list of criteria that are outlined in our prospectus. Once a child has been admitted we invite parents and families to be actively involved in school life supporting their child and, through that, strengthening and enriching our local community. Most schools have to prioritize places offered to children. There are normally more children wishing to attend St Margaret's than we have places available. For details of the criteria we use to allocate places, please see the admissions section of our school prospectus.
At St Margaret's C of E Primary school, we have recently updated our Eco code. Our code encourages children to inhabit 'green' behaviors from a young age. Eco-codes are displayed in every classroom in the school and the teachers regularly refer to them when reminding the children about making the right choices. Through regular contact with parents in the form of newsletters, questionnaires, and help with themed days, our long-term aim is to encourage children to help make small changes in their home environment to help save the world's resources.
Our curriculum ensures excellent coverage of the National Curriculum (Years 1-6) and Foundation Stage Early Years Curriculum (Reception Children). We have fully embraced the higher expectations set out in both curriculums and have devised our units of work for each subject area so that we can ensure a sound progression of learning. We also have a core team of specialist teachers who are passionate about their curriculum area these teachers work with different groups of children each year. Our team includes PE, music, art, and computing specialists.
Our Reception pupils learn both indoors and outdoors, experiencing a range of adult-led and child-initiated activities. We value and incorporate the children’s interests as they develop. As children approach their final half term of reception, they start to prepare for their transition to year 1 and begin to experience key stage 1 learning. In years 1-6, we ensure that this ‘active’ and ‘engaging’ learning continues, with teachers maximizing opportunities for talk time, active, visual, audio learning, and the use of the outdoors. At all times, we focus on learning being challenging, engaging, and enjoyable
The school was founded in 1649 and the present building was opened in 1968. The original one-form entry school was extended to a two-form entry school in 1994 to enable additional pupils to access the opportunities offered by the school. The school has it's own Foundation Stage 1 (Nursery) and the school can offer high standards of educational provision to 470 pupils.
St Margaret's school has an excellent Governing Body from a diverse background and each member brings a unique set of skills to our school. Anyone aged 18 or over can become a school governor. No specialist qualifications are needed and people from many different backgrounds volunteer for the role. Enthusiasm, commitment, and an interest in education are the most important qualities. You don’t need to have a family member attending a school or college to become a governor. As a school or college governor, your duties will include: assessing the strategic direction, policies, and objectives approving the budget reviewing progress against the budget, and objectives challenging and supporting senior staff playing a part in appointing staff.

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