Saint Aidan's Catholic Primary School

St Aidan’s School, together with Parents, Governors Parish and the wider school community provides a high quality, broad and balanced education for all children, so that they develop their full uniqueness and potential. We have high expectations for all children in all areas of school life. The vision at St Aidan’s Catholic School is inspired by the Spirit of Christ, so that we continue to build on our strengths and seek ways in which we enrich every child’s experiences and achievements through our positive and caring ethos, rooted in Gospel Values.

We will endeavour to provide the best and most memorable learning experiences to help the children we serve achieve their potential and aspire to ever greater heights: to give them skills to build on and expand their knowledge and understanding of a rapidly changing world; to prepare them for life in modern Britain and the global society beyond: to inspire a lifelong love of learning; to foster in them imagination, independence, confidence and resilience to deal with life in a positive and productive way: to help them grow and learn together in their love of God. We foster a real family atmosphere which has deep foundations within a strong and caring Christian Community. The Catholic Faith is central to the day-to-day life of our school and to all aspects of the curriculum which regularly features Mass and Collective Worship in all its forms. The school caters mainly for Baptised Catholic children but we also welcome families of other faiths in our school. We place great importance upon prayer and living out the gospel values in the spirit of charity as well as RE lessons, attending the celebration of Mass, acts of worship and assemblies.

Saint Aidan’s Catholic Primary School was founded by the Catholic Church to provide education for children of Catholic families. Whenever there are more applications than places available, priority will be given to Catholic children in accordance with the oversubscription criteria listed below. The school is conducted by its governing body as part of the Catholic Church in accordance with its trust deed and instrument of government and seeks at all times to be a witness to Our Lord Jesus Christ.

As a Catholic school, we aim to provide a Catholic education for all our pupils. At a Catholic school, Catholic doctrine and practice permeate every aspect of the school’s activity. It is essential that the Catholic character of the school’s education be fully supported by all families in the school. We therefore hope that all parents will give their full, unreserved and positive support for the aims and ethos of the school. This does not affect the right of an applicant who is not Catholic to apply for and be admitted to a place at the school in accordance with the admission arrangements.

The governing body is the admissions authority and has responsibility for admissions to this school. The local authority undertakes the co-ordination of admission arrangements during the normal admission round. The governing body has set its admission number at 30 pupils to be admitted to the reception year in the school year which begins in September.

The admission of pupils with a Statement of Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan is dealt with by a completely separate procedure. Children with a Statement of Special Educational Needs or Education, Health and Care Plan that names the school must be admitted. Where this takes place before the allocation of places under these arrangements this will reduce the number of places available to other children.