Deputy Headteacher

Croftway came into existence on 1st September 2003 when Crofton and Kingsway First Schools amalgamated. These schools had worked closely together for a number of years and had already been successful in attracting external funding through the national “Space for Sport and the Arts” scheme that allowed a new sports and community facility to be constructed. This opened in January 2003. We serve a mixed catchment area and currently have around 30% of children taking free school meals. Raising standards is a priority for us. We had an OFSTED inspections in October 2007 & 2011 that recognised our many strengths. We were judged to be a good school in 2007 and in 2011 we were also judged as good and had several outstanding features.

When the two existing schools amalgamated a considerable sum of money was invested by Northumberland County Council to re-model the new school. In September 2009 we retained our Y4 cohort into Y5 as we became a ‘primary’ school for the first time. We had further capital investment to provide additional teaching spaces. We now have excellent facilities for young children and their teachers to work and learn together. An outline plan of the school is included.

We have:-

An integrated Foundation Stage Unit with individual classrooms, shared working areas, small group spaces and a satellite staff room.
A 2 badminton court sized school hall that doubles up as a dining space at lunchtimes.
Changing rooms (with shower facilities for community groups).
An ICT suite with 20 PC’s and interactive LED screen.

A Multi functional Community Education room.
A smaller school hall.
Small group and SEN rooms.
A central library and resources room.
Central admin area and staffroom.
School is organised into 3 teaching teams: Foundation Stage, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. Each team is managed by an experienced and senior teacher and KS2 has an upper Y5-6 and lower Y3-4 split as well.

The Foundation Stage has a morning and afternoon nursery, led by the Foundation Stage manager and 2 reception classes. A team ofHLTA's and classroom assistants complete the team.

The Key Stage One has 2 classes in each year group and Key Stage Two have 2 classes in each year group. There are HLTA’s and classroom assistants in each team as well as class teachers.

We have a relatively high proportion of children with statements of SEN. Our part time SENCO helps teachers manage SEN and also supports our team of SEN classroom assistants.

We are a forward thinking school, have supportive governors and over the years we have embraced change. We are committed to offering the very best experiences for our children and staff and have invested heavily in ICT infrastructure. All teachers are provided with a laptop computer and an iPad. All classrooms are equipped with Interactive whiteboards and there is a comprehensive range of software to aid teachers with lesson planning and preparation. The whole school can access broadband internet via our LAN and via the “wireless” LAN.

We have strong links with other schools in Blyth and work cooperatively with our LEA. We have access to a Locality Inclusion Support Team (LIST) in Blyth to support children with SEN issues. We operate a service to effectively support child mental health issues through our partnership with “Place 2 Be”.

Our school is a welcoming and friendly place to work as is testified by our recent award of Investors in People Status. We are a Healthy School and were one of the original 15 schools in Northumberland to have been successful in bidding to become part of Northumberland Creative Partnership working with arts organisations to increase creativity, excellence and enjoyment within the curriculum. We have become skilled in using film making as part of the full and active curriculum. One of our films gained national recognition this year through the COOP Young Peoples Film Festival. It was selected for showing at the festival and was also selected to go on a ‘showreel’ of 6 films from the entire festival. High praise indeed!

We will be looking for newly appointed staff to join us and share responsibility by actively contributing to the life and work of school in a positive and supportive way. We always try to be “can do” people who work hard and have fun together and will be looking for similarly minded staff to join us!

In September 2010 we began CPD provision for other schools. We employ 2 AST's for Maths and PE and we are a training school for Edge Hill University's Maths Intervention Programmes.

Croftway Primary School is to form part of The Blyth Quays Trust which is a multi academy trust with Morpeth Road Primary School and Malvins Close Primary School with effect from 1 June 2013. This post will be to work at Croftway Primary School only and the post will be recruited on 2012 School Teachers Pay and Conditions.