School Report
- Name of school: Southam Primary School
- Type of school: Community Primary
- Address: St James Road, Southam
- Phone number: 01926 812520
- Name of head: Jennifer Jackson
- Chairman of governors: The Rev Wayne Hawkins
- Number of pupils: 246
Young pupils take part in fruit time - a school-led initiative to get children eating more fruit and veg now backed up by a similar government scheme. SEP218_19 |
Children at Southam Primary School are impeccably behaved - everyone thinks so.
People in the street often stop teachers on trips out to say how impressed they are and at the last Ofsted inspection, the lead inspector said it had been a long time since she had seen such a high standard of behaviour.
The last Ofsted report in January 2002 praised the school for its high quality spiritual provision - the irony being it is the only non-church school in the town.
The teaching was described as good or excellent and the positive attitudes in the school were held up as the reason why the standard of behaviour was so high.
The attitude of the school is that it is a learning one, for everyone from pupils to parents and teachers. A number of courses for parents have been set up including using laptops and controlling children.
It is also a friendly one with the first before and after school clubs in the district and special induction procedures such as bringing mums, dads and grandparents in for lunch.
Headteacher Jennifer Jackson said it is all part of making the school a fun and interesting place to be. She said: “I can remember being at school and being bored. The children here love coming to school and love learning - they are never bored.
“I think all children are entitled to that and I don’t see what we are doing here as anything out of the ordinary. But I talk to colleagues and they tell me otherwise.
“I hear nine-year-olds talking about Caravaggio and I see nine-year-olds sending emails to the Czech Republic and I think that is absolutely brilliant.”
The Commenius project connects children at Southam Primary to schools in other countries including the Czech Republic, Spain and Germany. They email each other and have compiled a project around the theme of Schools Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
Southam Primary is one of only 1,000 schools in the country taking part in the scheme with Brookhurst the only other one in the area. And even though it is in the final year of a three-year term, the government is actively encouraging them to carry on.
Miss Jackson said: “The children are all desperate to learn languages and they greet me in Czech when I take the register.”
The other big thing at Southam Primary is its connections to the arts. Sculptor Philip Cox and local artist Anne-Marie Cadman have both worked with the youngsters in recent months and the school was shortlisted to have work shown at the National Tate.
The English Touring Opera did a two-day workshop and children have visited the RSC. Musically, peripatetic tutors teach instruments and the school has its own steel pans.
Miss Jackson said: “Commenius is great but if you took it away, the school would not crumble. But if you take the arts away, the school would really struggle. The arts are tremendously important in this school and helps make it what it is.”
Back to School Report home
.
