We have all worked together to identify how our school community promotes British Values. Our school council led this work with each class and also had an extremely fruitful meeting with the Governors to outline the children's views and ideas about this important aspect.
All schools in England have a Governing Body that is responsible for overseeing many of the strategic decisions of the school. A key role is to act as a ‘critical friend’: to support, to challenge, to ask questions, ultimately to represent the school community.
The Governing Body works in close partnership with the headteacher, staff, and the local authority. Whilst the headteacher is, of course, responsible for the day-to-day running of the school, the governors are involved with such things as staffing, curriculum, school buildings, and finance. It ensures the school functions well and maintains the proper range of academic and social objectives.
St Francis RC Primary School is a voluntary aided Catholic school provided by the Salford Diocese and maintained by Manchester City Council Children’s Services Department. For the school year 2016/17 the Governing Body’s planned admission number is 30. Admissions are the responsibility of the school Governors acting by agreements reached with the Diocese and the Local Authority. Admissions to the school will be made by the Governing Body. Proof of address, Baptism Certificate, and evidence of attendance at mass will be requested before the offer of a place being made.
Good behavior is central to all we do in this school. High standards of behavior will be expected and promoted at all times in lessons and throughout every aspect of the school’s life. We ensure that St Francis Primary School is a safe place in which to learn, work and play by referring to the articles in the Convention of the Rights of the Child. All members of staff will set high standards and learners will be given clear guidance on what is expected of them. The school rules will be learned and followed by all. We will work in partnership with parents to ensure that the school’s values become central to the lives of learners. Home and School Agreements will promote this policy. The school has fulfilled its duties under the Equalities Act 2010 regarding Safeguarding and pupils with SEND.
With serious/repeated incidents of concern, the staff is requested to enlist the support of Senior Staff, including the school’s designated teacher for special educational needs. Staff monitor concerns by recording incidents in the Daily Record Book. In the final instance, the Head Teacher will deal with serious incidents of a disciplinary nature. The School reserves the right to exclude pupils on a temporary or permanent basis, by the guidelines laid down in new Government legislation. In such processes, the Governing Body has established an Appeals Panel to adjudicate in matters which go to the level of an appeal. The Catholic Church is rightly proud of its network of schools, and how schools operate in clusters. One alternative sanction to continue to include a pupil within this network is to assist in making a fresh start in a neighboring Catholic school.
At St. Francis’ we provide a broad, balanced, stimulating, and challenging education set within the context of the National Curriculum. Central to all we do in school is the spiritual, moral, social, cultural, intellectual, and physical development of the children. Our aim is always to help each child perform to his or her full potential.
We have a wide range of clubs running after school. Some clubs run all year such as Judo and Spanish. Some clubs run on a termly basis and some sports clubs are run to prepare for tournaments. A Termly timetable is sent home and is available from the office. It is very important that, if your child registers for a club, they do attend it each week. We have waiting lists for places for many of the clubs and also need to know how many children will be attending each club to staff it.
A new National Curriculum was introduced in 2014. With the introduction of a new National Curriculum in 2014, we took this as an opportunity to refresh our school approach and provision for pupils. As part of this work, we decided to implement the Cornerstones Curriculum, a nationally-recognized approach for delivering outstanding cross-curricular learning opportunities for children.
The Cornerstones Curriculum is a creative and thematic approach to learning that is mapped to the new 2014 Primary National Curriculum to ensure comprehensive coverage of national expectations. Our curriculum is delivered through Imaginative Learning Projects (ILPs) which provide a rich menu of exciting and motivating learning activities that make creative links between all aspects of our children’s learning. We believe children learn better when they are encouraged to use their imagination and apply their learning to engaging contexts. Our curriculum provides lots of learning challenges throughout the academic year that will require children to solve problems, apply themselves creatively, and express their knowledge and understanding effectively across the curriculum. Cornerstones also provide a rigorous essential skills framework that outlines the end-of-year expectations in all subjects. These essential skills are tied to activities and are age-related so that staff can track children’s progress and identify their individual learning needs.
