Welcome to St Peter's

It is a pleasure to welcome you to our website! The site will keep existing parents fully informed of events at the school, and help them support the learning of their children. Alongside this, for those of you who might be considering sending your child to St Peter’s, we have also endeavoured to provide you with enough information that you begin to get a feel for the school, for our values and our ethos. If either existing or prospective parents can’t find the information you require, please let us know and we will be happy to provide it.

St. Peter’s is a small, delightful, village primary school with GOOD Ofsted (October 2024) and SIAMs (October 2019) ratings. We are rather unusual. In an age when schools are increasing in size and becoming more corporate and business focused, St Peter’s remains a very traditional primary school. Previously, our Published Admission Number (PAN) was just 24, although this was increased to 30 for our last few intakes, a move which is likely to be made permanent. However, our school site cannot be developed to increase our PAN further. We will remain a one form entry school. With a current total of just 202 pupils, we are a small family, where everyone knows everyone else and we can focus on the individual needs of the pupil.

The school governors are determined that our children receive a fully rounded education. Unfortunately, over the past 20 years, schools have been pressured to have an ever increasing focus on achieving success in SATs tests. In many schools this has led to a narrowing of the curriculum. At St Peter’s, we feel the opposite is correct. We value the creative subjects such as Art, Music, PE and Modern Foreign languages, just as we do English and Mathematics. Please be assured that we are dedicated to ensuring that our children achieve to the highest possible level in English and mathematics. It is crucial that they do so and we work extremely hard to maximize their progress in these core areas. Our academic results in both the 11+ and national SATs testing are high. However, we won’t sacrifice the quality of the wider education we provide to our children in order to focus on SATs success.

Each week we have a ‘Creative Thursday’, when we teach Art, Music, PE and MFL. Although we are not required to do so, we teach Modern Foreign Languages to our children from their first year at school. Professional musicians deliver music lessons to our children and qualified, specialist sports coaches deliver our PE curriculum. Our Key Stage 1 children have forest school sessions with a trained practitioner. We run annual residential visits for our children in Years 5 and 6, including one to France. St Peter’s is a good school, with highly experienced teachers. We don’t deliver a narrow curriculum in order to chase SATs success. Real academic success comes from children who feel confident about themselves, their abilities, and who know they are valued and supported by their teachers.

The Church of England’s vision for education emphasizes the importance of developing the character of our children and imbibing in them the values and traits which will ensure they can succeed in their later life. We wholeheartedly support this view. Our curriculum and values are underpinned by our Christian ethos and we enjoy strong links with St. Peter & St. Paul’s church, which adjoins the school site. Our Christian ethos is explicitly reinforced to our children both during formal occasions, such as the act of worship, and informally whenever their behaviour may warrant it!

Our village setting and small size enable us to provide a unique, nurturing environment. St Peter's is a school where the talents of each individual can flourish. If your child doesn’t already come to St. Peter’s, we would be proud to show you around our wonderful school. More details can be found on the admissions page of this website.

Jim Holditch – Headteacher

Our School Prayer

Dear Lord,

Loving God, you call us all to be like St Peter and to follow you with our whole hearts: help us to do that, and bless our school, that we may be an exciting, caring and joyful community. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.