Prospectus

See the Newbridge Primary School Prospectus for an overview of the school.

Please note that the online prospectus is a PDF file which can be viewed with the Acrobat Reader. Paper copies of the prospectus can be obtained from the school office.

We welcome enquiries and will do our best to respond quickly and effectively.

Ethos and aims

Statement of intent

I would like to be the best that I can be
A happy, confident and caring person
Who is content to be me
I want to love learning
And be inspired to learn for life
To discover and develop my interests and talents
And be ready to use them for the benefit of others
I will treat others as I would wish to be treated
With kindness and respect
For the uniqueness of each person
I will care about the environment
And my place in the world around me
I will know that with rights come responsibilities
And I will always be proud to have been at our school
I want to be ready to take on new challenges and opportunities
And continue to make a difference

Core principles

Our values

• We will know and value each child and look for the best in them
• We will value and respect every member of the school community and everyone will be encouraged to take responsibility, to make a contribution and to achieve their full potential
• The core values of integrity, courtesy, trust and care will suffuse every aspect of school life and all will be expected to treat others as they would wish to be treated
• We will be an open, welcoming and responsive school with clear lines of communication
• We will have high expectations of ourselves and each other
• The school will be at the heart of the local community

Teaching and learning

• We will ensure every learner experiences success
• We will be an inclusive environment in which we are all learners and one where the learning needs of the individual are recognised
• We will make learning vivid and real
• We will strive to ensure that the whole school is an excellent learning environment which inspires, excites and celebrates effort and achievement
• There will be a broad curriculum of high quality that gives the children opportunities to make links, to make choices and take responsibility for their learning

Our school

• Through a rich curricular and extracurricular programme, and strong links with the community, we will help each child discover and develop their talents and interests
• We believe in collective ownership and developing leadership throughout the organisation
• We will use every appropriate opportunity to unify our new school and develop a whole school culture

Teaching and learning

Our curriculum

We aim to put our children at the centre of their own learning and place great emphasis on nurturing skills and attitudes such as resourcefulness, resilience and co-operation. Our teachers bring the National Curriculum alive by making links between the individual subjects and applying them to topics. Themes have included Jamaica, Space, Romans, Britain Since the 1930s, Natural Forces and All About Me.

Specialist tuition

Every week, each class teacher spends half a day outside of their teaching duties to concentrate on lesson planning and evaluating their pupils’ learning. All of the teachers who provide cover for these half days are experts in specialist subjects. This allows our children to benefit from weekly specialist tuition in music, PE, art, drama and languages, or specialist early years’ support, according to which year they are in.

Outside school

We enjoy strong links with local schools (both primary and secondary), our nearby hospital, community churches and local businesses. This, along with the fact that we are in the historic city of Bath, gives us plenty of opportunities for local projects. We also enjoy going on residential and day school trips. Recent adventures have included visiting the Roman Baths in Bath, the ss Great Britain in Bristol, and residential trips to Kilve Court in Somerset and St Rhadagunds Conference Centre on the Isle of Wight.

School and home

Our school has an ‘in it together’ attitude to learning. We believe in letting parents and carers know what and how we are learning. We encourage two-way dialogue between school and home and support this through Parents’ Evenings, workshop meetings, curriculum information, ‘learning diaries’ such as Reading Record Books and invitations to many of our assemblies. We also believe that homework can help reinforce what we learn at school. All our children get homework, but our teachers are careful to make sure that it is kept to an appropriate level.

Community

Our local community

Our school is at the centre of our community. Many local businesses and people give us their support and are always very generous when we fundraise for school equipment. People in the community, including local fire crew, police officers and authors often visit us and tell us about what they do. We also visit people outside and take part in community activities such as singing carols at our local hospital, or enjoying the harvest festival at our local church.

Our school community

We are a friendly school; we like to collaborate with each other. The older children often act as ‘buddies’ for the younger children, helping them with House Activities, reading and playground activities at playtime. And even parents and carers make friends with each other when they come to collect our children at the end of the school day. Our Parent-School Association and Governors are very busy and include mums, dads, grandparents and other local people who care about our school.

Activities

Extra-curricular activities

A large number of our clubs and activities are run free of charge by our teachers. Others are offered for a small charge by outside coaches and teachers. Clubs vary depending on demand and the season, but regularly include:

• After-school club
• Brass club
• Breakfast club
• Cheerleading
• Chess
• Choir
• Cricket
• Dance
• Drama
• Drumming
• Football
• French
• Gardening
• Green club
• Guitar club
• Hockey
• Maths
• Music
• Netball
• Orchestra
• Recorders
• Robotics
• Rugby
• Science
• Scrabble
• Sports skills
• Table tennis
• Tennis
• Violin club

We enjoy exciting activities during our residential trips in years 5 and 6 such as abseiling, archery and grass sledging. We also get the chance to do things like exploring coastal walks, hunting for fossils and looking for red squirrels in woodland on the Isle of Wight.

Facilities

Outside

We enjoy lots of space at Newbridge. The Upper and Lower School are housed in separate buildings and have their own playgrounds. Midway between them is the administration block. Many of our buildings are joined together by covered walkways. We have big playing fields and a large conservation area, which we use as an outside classroom.

In addition to our conservation area, we have a spiritual garden and a horticultural garden (where we grow everything from flowers to vegetables). We also have plenty of apparatus to play on in the playgrounds including a wooden train and climbing frames.

Inside

There are computers and a book corner in each classroom. Our main library also has an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) suite, which is used by children throughout our school. Other multimedia facilities include interactive white boards in each classroom and a lighting and sound system in our Upper School Hall that can also act as a computer and DVD projector.

We have whole school assemblies in the Upper School Hall, which is also used for PE, plays and music recitals. The Lower School Hall acts as our Dining Hall in addition to hosting some assemblies, performances and Lower School PE.

Well-being

Being happy and healthy

Ensuring a happy, healthy environment in which our children enjoy learning is central to our ethos. We do our utmost to make it easy for children to approach staff with their problems or concerns. We teach that bullying is never acceptable behaviour. We promote healthy eating, provide fruit snacks for children in the Infants and encourage everyone to drink water throughout the day. We make the most of our wonderful outdoor space and, weather permitting, head outside as often as we can.

Supporting each other

Collaboration and caring is encouraged at all levels, in both the staff and the pupils. Older children help younger children in the playground and the classroom. This happens both spontaneously and more formally through organised activities such as our House Challenges. In these, a group of children who share the same House but not the same age are tasked with completing a teamwork project. A happy, supportive working environment is further promoted through our traffic light system. This is a school-wide approach to classroom discipline, where red means stop what you are doing.