It’s been a really busy time at Bitham Brook Primary School since September, with staff providing many wonderful learning opportunities for the children and the school growing to 12 classes and building on its past successes.
With the completion of the first phase of our new extension during the summer break, we have been able to enjoy a larger hall, two new classrooms, a new learning area and improved office space. The expansion means that we currently have spaces in most year groups and we expect our numbers to rise as the new housing developments in the vicinity are completed.
We had only been back at school for a couple of weeks when Ofsted inspected us (on 19th September). I am very proud to say that we were once again judged to be a ‘Good’ school with cohesive leadership, effective safeguarding, good teamwork across the school and high parent satisfaction.
The Ofsted report included the comment, ‘Senior leaders are ambitious for pupils’ academic achievement. They couple this with a genuine care for pupils’ personal development. Consequently, pupils develop self-esteem and readily take on responsibilities. Parents express great satisfaction with the school. One parent’s comment is typical of many, “This school has helped my shy seven-year-old flourish and grow in confidence and independence over the course of his school journey.”
Many of the classes have been out on visits since September. Highlights include our Year 3 and 4 children spending the day as Victorians at Sevington Victorian School and our Year 6 pupils meeting the Schools Minister Nick Gibb and MP Michelle Donelan at the Wiltshire Festival of Engineering in November.
We achieved the Artsmark Award at the beginning of the term in recognition of the excellent artistic learning opportunities that children are given at Bitham Brook. We also achieved the Healthy Schools Silver Award in November and part of our work towards this was to encourage children to bring in healthier lunchbox food, to cut down on unnecessary food packaging and to raise children’s awareness generally about healthy eating and lifestyles.
In keeping with our Travel Plan we now have a much improved, covered cycle and scooter storage facility as we encourage more families to leave their cars at home. To this end we have held Bikeability and scooter training sessions this term and are one of a handful of schools in Wiltshire taking part in the HomeRun pilot scheme, which involves parents using an app to monitor children’s journeys to school and encourages more active school commutes and a better understanding of the impact of the school run on the environment.
Sporting highlights include our Boys Football Team, who have performed better than at any time since 2014 and reached the West Wilts semi-finals and our Girls Football Team, who have seen a return to past form and have qualified for the County Finals in January. Children have participated in such diverse sports as fencing, boys’ dance, badminton, gymnastics, tag rugby, cross country, netball and football this term and Bitham Brook has been shortlisted for the School Sports Participation category in the Wiltshire Sports Awards to be held in January 2018.
Our pupils have been active in the community, performing at All Saints Church in October for the Westbury Music and Arts Festival and in December for the Rotary Carol Concert. Six of our classes attended concerts during the WMAAF. Two of our classes visited Westbury Court Care Home in November and showed residents their work, sang to them and recited poems. One of our classes painted some poppies for Co-operative Funeral Care to use in their window for Remembrance Day. We were also proud to report that two of our pupils won the Mayor’s ‘Design a Christmas Card’ competition for their age groups and that one of them turned on the Christmas lights!
Following feedback from parents, we launched our Breakfast Club at the end of October. This has proved popular and I am really pleased to see numbers steadily growing, so much so that we are extending it to start at 7.45am from January.
There have been many successes and achievements but above all we continue to be so proud of the way in which our children respond so positively to all the great learning opportunities and the terrific support from our children’s parents and carers. The children do us proud! We are looking forward to another great year in 2018!
David Ross, Headteacher
