May I take this opportunity to welcome all of you who visit our website and thank you for your interest in our school.
St. Christopher's Catholic Primary school opened as recently as September 2002 after the junior and infant schools amalgamated. This successful coming together of two well respected but separate departments, each over 50 years old, has made an even stronger school community which has achieved much in its short and recent history.
Our nursery offers 26 morning and 26 afternoon part time places and has become steadily more popular each year. By the Spring term we are usually full and parents are advised to register their children as early as possible to guarantee a place.
For more information click here to visit the nursery's own website which is funded by Sure Start Speke
From Reception to Year 6 there are two classes per year group averaging about 25 pupils per class. Each class has a teaching assistant as well as a teacher to offer as much support to the needs of all ability levels and our pupils' needs are also supported by two learning mentors.
Consequently, the academic successes of the children have improved each year since amalgamation, both at Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, and the ambition and expectations of the children and staff is that this will continue to be the case.
We are pleased to say that these academic successes, which now includes Spanish as our Modern Foreign Language, are not the product of a narrow curriculum but of one that is broad and creative and which caters also for the children's artistic and physical development. Fundamental to all of this is that the daily life of our school is set within the context of the children's need to develop spiritually, morally and socially.
Our aim, therefore, is to treat each child as an individual and to develop their unique skills and talents not just for their own needs but so that they will become good citizens within their own community and the wider world.
Two very strong recent Ofsted reports (June 2003 and September 2007) bear testimony to the many achievements that the school can be justifiably proud of and these include a wide range of both national and locally accredited awards such as:
The assessors of the awards recognised not just the quality of teaching and range of provision that occurs during the school day but also the extra curricular activities that the staff so generously offer to all of the children. As the Ofsted inspectors said : at St. Christopher's 'the staff are prepared to go the extra mile' to support the children's needs.
For instance in the area of sport the school annually participates in numerous competitions and has been extremely successful over many years winning leagues and cups in football, cricket, athletics, cross-country, netball and rounders at both local and national levels.
In the performing arts we are very proud of the high quality of our termly musical productions and our choir and drama group also perform for our parishioners at Christmas and Easter.
Our Children's University modules, which also take place after school, guarantee that all of our younger pupils are involved in art, music, dance, sport and Funky Food clubs.
Our school playground and playing fields have been developed recently with the installation of adventure trails, table tennis tables, tennis nets, multi-sport goals and a variety of playground markings which the children have been delighted with.
As part of our School Travel Plan (which recently won another prestigious award) we will soon be locating shelters and cycle storage sheds within our grounds and hopefully each year we will add more facilities for our children.
I hope that you have found the above information both informative and interesting and please know that we are happy for prospective parents to visit our school to find out more about us.
Peter Price
Headteacher