St Mary's

Catholic Primary School

Welcome from the Headteacher

 

A very warm welcome to St Mary's Catholic Primary School, and thank you for visiting our website.

 

I am very proud to be the Headteacher of St Mary’s School, and feel privileged to be part not only of the St Mary’s School community, but also of the community linked to the parish of St Mary’s Catholic Church in Chippenham.

 

We are a happy, friendly, caring School, where every child is valued and matters to us. All staff working in the School love working with our children, and we believe that this is reflected in the way the children approach their daily lives. Our goal is to give children the best start in life; we aim to develop not only their academic skills, but also the wider skills needed to be active and valued members of the community. As a Catholic school, we also recognize the importance of truly nurturing children’s spiritual growth and do all that we can to help children walk in the footsteps of Jesus. We encourage our children to reflect Jesus’ love through the kindness and compassion we show others.

Although our School was put into Special Measures in July 2018, we no longer see this negatively. At the time, it was a huge disappointment, but we now see this as part of a journey where each day we see improvements. All staff are highly committed to turning this assessment round and we are proud of the progress we have made to date and in particular being recognised as a school that provides Good Catholic Education, (March 2020).

 

Our leadership and structures are stronger, safeguarding awareness and actions are consistent, and learning activities are going from strength to strength. We had good outcomes in the EYFS, Phonics and Key Stage 1 assessments. Although not quite where we would like them, our Key Stage 2 assessments have also shown improvements.

We have only just started to revamp some of our School structures, one of which is this website.

 

I do hope, however, that this website will give you a positive flavour of St Mary’s School and of our well-behaved, inquisitive and hard-working children; our talented, dedicated and supportive staff; and the caring and positive parents and friends who make this school a special  place.

 

We would be delighted to show prospective parents around . We welcome children of all faiths, but in particular those who are practicing Catholics. I hope you enjoy looking at our growing website and seeing all we have to offer.

Mr Paul Bacon

Headteacher

We are a hardworking but fun loving team, in a well resourced and attractive school, where the look and orderliness of the environment are considered vital elements in creating the right environment for learning and working.

Our children are delightful and this was the accolade given by our HMI Inspector and our RE Inspector.

St Mary’s is a place where Christ and the child are at the centre of all we do.