Bishop Gilpin CofE Primary School

Our children enjoy rich and engaging learning experiences, which promote ownership of learning and lead to high standards of achievement. Our children are at the heart of all we do here at Bishop Gilpin, and their successes are a credit to them, the staff, our governors and our parents and careers. Our rich heritage in creating ‘A Firm Foundation for a Lifetime of Learning’ combines the best of Christian values with the very latest in teaching methods and technologies.

In-year vacancies for places outside the normal admissions period will be co-ordinated by Merton Council.
You will need to complete an In-year Transfer Form, which can be obtained from Merton Council. If you are applying for a foundation in-year vacancy you will also need to complete a Supplementary Form, which can be obtained from our Admissions Officer.For prospective parents of in-year applicants we are happy to arrange visits throughout the school year.

Our Christian values of equality, caring, forgiveness and thankfulness support our spiritual and moral development as we grow and learn together in a happy, safe and secure environment.Children, staff, parents and governors are innovative thinkers, able to work collaboratively and independently in an exciting and supportive learning culture.A genuine love of learning is nurtured through vibrant and engaging, high quality learning experiences and excellent staff development.We have the highest expectations of each other and ourselves and feel a sense of worth and of contributing towards something extraordinary.

Each school has a governing body that acts in a similar way to the board of a company, providing a strategic overview of the running of the school. The Governors support, encourage and challenge the Headteacher and staff.Bishop Gilpin’s full governing body sets the remit and focus for the sub-committees. It meets twice a term to review the work of its sub-committees and evaluate the school’s overall effectiveness. The Headteacher presents a report at each meeting, commenting on the life of the school in general and on progress in relation to the targets in the school’s development plan.Sub-committees and working parties meet 2-3 times a term to discuss issues in greater detail. This recognises that there are some issues, such as monitoring the school’s budget and finances, which will require greater time and scrutiny than can be given at the meetings of the full governing body.

Our children consistently achieve outstanding levels of attainment at Bishop Gilpin.Our pupils also make outstanding progress during their time in our Foundation Stage, and by the end of Key Stage 1. We take additional actions to support progress of pupils with English as an additional language and our pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding.Pupil progress meetings are held termly by the class teacher and senior leadership team to monitor and support each child. Parents receive feedback about the progress that their children are making. Our tracking of pupils’ progress helps us to understand when pupils might benefit from additional help, and also helps the school understand the impact of teaching and learning.

Sport is a very important part of life at Bishop Gilpin.Our specialist Head of Sports, Alec Smail, co-ordinates teaching and learning of PE in addition to a wide range of competitions as well as friendly matches between year groups and against local schools.We are part of the Merton School Sports Partnership and compete against other schools in Merton and beyond. Over the last three years our school has achieved unprecedented success by winning four titles at the London Youth Games, which is the largest tournament for young people in Europe, amongst many other local and borough level titles.

E-safety is about how we protect ourselves and other people when we use the internet. It involves protecting information and images about ourselves, while being polite.We discuss e-safety regularly at school, and learn how to apply its principles to the internet resources that we are using. Make sure you stay safe while online by remembering these simple rules.

At Bishop Gilpin we know that our children’s education is a team effort. To this end we have introduced a Home-School Learning Agreement.This is a contract that sets out our Christian ethos, our mission and our school rules. All pupils, parents and teachers must sign an individual Home-School Learning Agreement. If you haven’t already done so, please click on Home-School Learning Agreement Leaflet, below, and print off a copy, sign it and return it to the school.

For more than 250 years, Bishop Gilpin Primary School has been delivering an outstanding education for all pupils in its care.In 2008 Bishop Gilpin Church of England Primary School celebrated 250 years of educating children, formerly as National School and then as Old Central School. Initially known as ‘National School’ it was later referred to as ‘Old Central’ in a document in 1893. This was possibly to distinguish it from the new schools that had been set up in Wimbledon since the Education Act of 1870 had extended elementary education to all children.