Headteacher's Welcome

Welcome to St Bartholomew's Church of England Primary School. I was appointed headteacher in April 2017. We are an OFSTED rated GOOD school and our children achieve well, making good progress throughout their time here. The inspectors said “The school is a warmly inclusive place. All feel included and valued. Pupils are treated equally and fairly. Pupils who need extra support receive it.” – OFSTED Report, September 2018

St Bartholomew’s School is situated just at the beginning of the thriving North Laine area of the city – a popular area for artists and independent traders. We have all the advantages of a city centre school but also benefit from a vast amount of both indoor and outdoor space, which isn’t obvious from the outside – the likeness to the Doctor’s Tardis, has not gone unnoticed… The children at St Bartholomew's are so lucky to have such large play spaces for playtime, PE and outdoor learning.

Across all year groups, most pupils made good progress from their starting points and a significant amount made better than expected. “Provisional results from the tests at the end of key stage 2 and assessments in 2018 show a marked improvement in the proportion of pupils achieving the expected standards in reading, writing and especially mathematics.” – OFSTED Report, September 2018

I am proud of our wonderful pupils and the commitment they show to their learning and our school. They are a joy to be around and are so very kind and welcoming. "The school is a calm, orderly place where pupils and staff enjoy positive, mutually respectful relationships. This is equally true in lessons and at other free times. Behaviour in an assembly was described by an inspector as ‘impeccable’. Pupils listened carefully, sang well and joined in enthusiastically.” – OFSTED Report, September 2018

Our youngest children in Reception have a large classroom, a large outside space, and a further smaller role play space. Learning is very much play-based across the 7 areas of learning:

communication and language
physical development
personal, social and emotional development
literacy
mathematics
understanding the world
expressive arts and design

There is a focus on personal, social and emotional development in the first few weeks, however, all areas of the curriculum, including literacy and maths, are taught from day one.

“The leader of early years is enthusiastic and effective, providing strong leadership to staff. She has an accurate picture of the needs of individual children and has ensured that they have the right provision to enable them to achieve well. Consequently, children are well prepared to move on to Year 1 by the end of their time in early years.” OFSTED Report, September 2018

We welcome visitors to our school, especially potential parents. Please contact the office to make an appointment - I would love to show you our warmly inclusive school.

Katie Blood

Headteacher