Education Business

Graded as outstanding in its last Ofsted report, St Antony’s Catholic Primary School in Woodford Green, Essex, knows the formula for a successful school. Providing education for three to 11 year olds, the school has a strong catholic ethos which is at the heart of everything it does. It enjoys an excellent standing in the community, with children happy to go there, staff happy to work there and parents proud to send their children there.

What do you put the success of your school down to?
It’s very much a joint effort. There is a real community feel to our school where everyone – teachers, pupils, parents and governors – all work together for the same outcome. Parents are heavily involved in their children’s education and strongly support the school. And because our children live in the local area and most belong to the same parish, this heightens the sense of community.
    
Being a faith school also contributes greatly to our success; we have a strong catholic ethos which influences everything we do – from our teaching methods to how we treat each other.
    
Furthermore, we have excellent committed teachers who have been at the school for a long time and understand our stringent assessment standards.

Why did you decide to use the International Primary Curriculum?
The International Primary Curriculum (IPC) was created to standardise the curriculum in English speaking international schools. We adopted it because we felt it gave us more freedom than the national curriculum, which we found to be too prescriptive.
    
Although the national curriculum was introduced to stop subjects from getting repeated or missed out, we found that, alongside the use of QCA, it crushed the life out of lessons. The IPC, however, allows you to be a lot more creative in your teaching. It uses a more topic-based approach and is taught cross-curricula. We can be assured that core objectives and key skills are planned in, but we have the freedom to change activities to suit the needs of the classroom.

How do you ensure pupils eat healthily at meal times?
The majority of our children have packed lunches. These range from the traditional sandwiches to thermos flasks of hot pasta or soup. We promote healthy eating through science and PSHE lessons. We also have an annual Healthy Eating Week where the children learn about food and eating and their effects on the body.
    
Catering can be a challenge for us however because we do not have a kitchen. Instead we have a servery – a type of hot plate where we serve food which is delivered to us.
    
Unfortunately we did experience some problems with our former catering company. Food was not well-balanced and the company often sent the wrong meals. But now we have switched to a new company and things have improved massively. Food is a lot healthier and varied, the portions are better and the company is reliable. With the previous company we only had about 60 children opting for school dinners. Now we have over 100!

What are your views on school trips?
We believe that school trips are vital as they bring learning to life.
    
As one example, we take our year five children to a field studies centre every year where they stay for four days and get involved in many outdoor activities such as orienteering, river studies and mammal trapping. But perhaps the biggest lesson they take home with them is learning to think for themselves; by staying away from home, making their own sandwiches and packing their own bags, it teaches them be responsible for themselves.

How do you ensure the security of your pupils and staff?
We are fortunate to be in a safe area, but you can never be complacent when it comes to security. We have therefore invested heavily in our security systems. Before the main gate was only locked with a pad lock, but now we have installed new security gates which are locked all the time accept for when the children arrive and leave school. We also have new fencing around the car park, new CCTV cameras, and a security code to get in and out the school. Nameplates have been introduced for staff, and visitors have to wear badges as well as be signed in and out.

How do you approach teacher training?
We are firm believers that a school should be a learning environment for everyone – for staff as well as pupils. Teacher training is therefore a high priority. However, paying for a teacher to attend a course, as well as arranging the necessary cover, can be a big expense. You also run the risk that what is taught will not work for your school. This led us to try a different approach to training.
    
We have a lot of expertise in school and decided to maximise on this by bringing inset days in-house. This involved taking different themes such as numeracy, reading and writing, working with children to try different approaches and then meeting up to discuss the impact. This has proved so successful that we are now working with the Institute of Education to develop a Masters programme based on the research we are doing within the school.

For more information
www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/redbridge/schools/st-antonys