We are curious, unique and together

Welcome to Whiteshill...

Hello, I’m Miss Francis, the Headteacher at Whiteshill Primary School.

Thank you so much for showing an interest in our school. I hope that the photographs, information and video below will give you a bit of a sneak peak behind the scenes and allow you to find out what is important to us here at Whiteshill.

I know it is a really big step to choose the right primary school for your child and so I’m really pleased to say that this year we are able to offer visits to our school again. It is a real highlight of the year for me when families come to visit as I love meeting and getting to know the children and parents before you start as a family on your journey here with us. If you would like to visit the school, please do get in touch via email to admin@whiteshill.gloucs.sch.uk or by phoning the school office on 01453 762 949. I will take you on a personal tour of the school during one of our regular tours of the school in the Autumn Term or at a time that is convenient to you.

In the meantime, please do look through the photographs below and watch the video which takes you on a tour of Willow class, our reception classroom where your children would start their journey with Mrs Clarke and Mrs Fisher in their first year at Whiteshill. Please also visit the Willow class page on the website under ‘classes’ in the menu to find out a lot more about your children’s first year here.

Admissions

New entrants to the school can be admitted in the September before their fifth birthday. Please see the admissions policy below for details on our admissions criteria and the process to follow.

We currently have 103 children on roll at Whiteshill and we have spaces in some year groups, if your child is already enrolled at a different school please contact our school office to find out whether we have space in the year group they will be moving in to. If your child is entering reception next year, we have up to 15 spaces available in this year group each year.

If you would like to come and look around our school, we would absolutely love to have you. It is always a good idea to see the school for yourself, hear about our vision for the children at Whiteshill and ask any questions you may have. Please contact Mrs Angove in our school office to arrange a tour of the school. You can phone (01453 762 949) or email (admin@whiteshill.gloucs.sch.uk).

Once your child has been successful in gaining a place at Whiteshill, a series of transition sessions are planned during the summer term so that as a family you can begin to feel part of the school and to ensure the children feel comfortable and happy in the school surroundings ready for a smooth start in September.

We also run a buddy system where each new Reception child is paired up with a child in year 6 who they will have met during the summer term transition. The year 6 buddies will accompany the children to lunch and spend time with them out in the playground as well so that they have a familiar face to talk to during the initial weeks.

All reception children start school on a part-time basis, enabling them to gradually come to terms with school routine and not get too tired. For the first week, children are in until lunchtime followed by a second week where they stay for lunch and go home at 1.15pm. After these initial two weeks, the children are then in full-time.

Sometimes, you as parents may prefer a longer period of part-time attendance up until your child is 5. This can be arranged on an individual basis when necessary.

To find out about our school admissions policy and procedures as well as the appeals process, please see our admissions policy below and visit the Gloucestershire Primary School Admissions website.

We look forward to welcoming you to Whiteshill.

At Whiteshill, our goal is to ensure that all of our pupils become passionate, successful, lifelong learners. We want them to know that learning doesn't stop at the school gates but continues well beyond this - even when they are fully grown and have flown far beyond Whiteshill!

We want them to feel self-confident and be ambitious - knowing that their choices and opinions are valued and important.

We hope that we will give them the tools they need to create their own unique future, impacting positively on the wider world.

'We are curious, we are unique, we are together, we are Whiteshill.'

Our curriculum is designed to offer real-life experiences, ensuring that the learning is placed in context for the children and they understand how it relates to life beyond the school gate.

Our curriculum is linked to our vision for the school and therefore when we teach each subject, we introduce them to the children using our key phrase, We are...

When learning art, 'We are artists', during science weeks, 'We are scientists'. This gives the children a real feeling of ownership of the curriculum. They are learning to develop themselves, not just because we tell them to!

The children visit our forest school regularly throughout their time at Whiteshill. It is located up in Ruscombe Woods so they get the real experience of being in a forest and among nature. Sessions are taught by our experienced forest school teachers, Mr Pritchard and Mrs Clarke.

Willow class visit every Tuesday afternoon throughout the year, in all weathers. Our other three classes, Elm, Maple and Oak, visit on Friday afternoons. They go on a three-week rota basis. No matter their age, they all benefit from this wonderful learning resource in our local area.

Music and performance are very important to us at Whiteshill. Please visit the music page of our website by clicking on the button below, to find out more about our approach.

Music at Whiteshill

From year 1 upwards, all the children at Whiteshill receive 10 weeks of specialist whole class instrument tuition through our partnership with Gloucestershire Music.

They try out a range of instruments which can include brass, violins and samba drums! Each year is different and over their time at Whiteshill, the children become confident in reading musical notation, following rhythms and performing in front of an audience.

At Christmas, Willow and Elm classes perform a nativity for parents, including songs and dancing. In the summer term, our year 5 and 6 children put on an end of term play which involves drama, singing and dancing and is a wonderful way to build their confidence and celebrate what makes them unique as they head off to secondary school. We also hold our annual 'Whiteshill's Got Talent' and Summer Rock Concert where the children get to show off their 'unique' performance abilities!

At Whiteshill, we do everything we can to ensure the children's health and wellbeing are always at the forefront. Sport and exercise play a big role in this. To find out more about our approach to sport, please click on the link below.

Sport at Whiteshill

Our ambition is to ensure that every child from year 1 upwards has chance to represent the school in a sporting event at least once each year. We attend events organised by Atlas Sports which include football, tag rugby, swimming, mountain biking, panathlon, handball and many more! This real range of inclusive activities help to involve as many children as possible.

The children have weekly PE lessons where they are introduced to the skills and knowledge they need in order to play a range of sports as they grow, as well as working with specialist coaches to enhance our sports offer. We also offer sporting after school clubs each year to the older children, giving a range of opportunities which have included indoor rowing, handball, netball, football and yoga.

A further part of our health and wellbeing approach is to encourage the children to take part in gardening in the school grounds, linked to our science curriculum. Each class goes out on a rota basis, having a session once a half term where they look after plants and grow vegetables, through the different seasons.

It is vitally important to us that all the children who leave Whiteshill Primary School are ready for the next step in their education. A focus on reading, writing and maths skills is important so that children can access the whole curriculum confidently and independently as they move on to secondary school.

Please click the link below to see how we have impacted positively on the attainment and progress data for children in the school since my arrival as Headteacher in 2018/19.

Attainment and Progress

A big part of this focus on key skills is how we encourage a love of reading in school - reading is the key to all other learning and as such it is so important that the children love books and have the skills they need to access all the exciting books out there as soon as possible!

Each week, the children visit our school library which is a wonderful space for the children to get excited about books. We teach reading from week one in school, with our phonics taught through Essential Letters and Sounds and with levelled books which match each child's individual needs throughout their time in school.

We also look for opportunities through the year to engage the children with books and authors. Each year we attend the Stroud Book Festival, seeing a range of diverse authors speak as Joseph Coelho, Onjali Q Rauf, Lydia Monks and John Agard. Every two years, the whole school visits the theatre with our last trip to see the Snow Queen with Key Stage 1 at Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and Nativity the Musical with Key Stage 2 at the Birmingham Rep. On alternate years we are visited by Sea Legs Puppet Theatre who perform a classic story to the children in school and we also arrange an author visit, our last of whom was Lucy Hope author of 'Fledgling' and 'Wren' published by Nosy Crow.

At Whiteshill, children are taught to read through daily phonics lessons from week 1 in Willow class. In 2023, 100% of our children in year 1 who took the phonics screening test in year 1 passed with an average score of 39 out of 40, demonstrating how successful this rigorous approach to the teaching of reading is. To find out more about our phonics teaching, click on the link below to visit the Willow class page.

Phonics in Willow Class

A tour around Willow class...

Mrs Cripps has narrated a tour around our reception classroom so that you can see where your children will be spending their first year at Whiteshill. We also have a large, covered outdoor area at the back of class which you can see in the video. The children use this daily to free-flow outside and extend their learning through play in an outdoor environment.

I hope that this has given you a glimpse in to life at Whiteshill. Please do get in contact with the school office if you would like to speak to me further at all. We look forward to welcoming you to our Whiteshill family!

Miss Francis

Headteacher