Keep up at the back, it's almost term time again

With only a handful of days remaining of the summer

holidays, Wells parents’ thoughts are turning to helping their children gear-up

mentally for the rigours of a new term.

There’s a distinct association with archetypal autumnal

weather of crisp blue skies and spider-webbed plants with the concept of ‘new

beginnings’.  Also the earnest mental

pledges of ‘this year I will give school my best” which were usually forgotten

well before the half-term holidays.

Teaching staff at the local schools have been busy planning

the new curriculum and soon after welcoming the children back, are planning

opening evenings to tempt future generations to chose their school over the

other local alternatives.

In Wells parents have an excellent choice of primary schools

with all of them receiving high praise from Ofsted. In the city itself we have: St

Cuthbert's Church of England Infants School, St

Joseph and St Teresa Catholic Primary School, Stoberry

Park School and Wells

Central CofE Junior School to chose from.                                                            For those wishing their children to have a more closely-knit

school experience at a local village school you could also consider: Coxley Primary School, Croscombe Church of England Primary School, Horrington Primary School, Priddy Primary School, St Lawrence's CofE Primary School, or Wookey Primary

School? 

In terms of public schools in Wells there is the fabulous Wells Cathedral School which caters from pre-school age through to A-level students also specialising in music studies. 

There is a lot to be said for supporting the village schools

because a number of them exist on a knife edge – St Lawrence’s and Priddy share

a head teacher and federation status and this year the fabulous St Lawrence’s

has only two classes, one of which comprises Key stage 1 years amalgamated and

the second class that of Key stage 2 years. This almost certainly means the

class teachers might be working at an even higher capacity than a teacher who

has just one academic year at a time, but I have no doubt that the high

teaching standards at St Lawrence’s will remain unaffected until take-up

increases again.

On the other side of the coin, city school Stoberry Park is

filled to capacity yet again which means that families moving to the area

during the academic year will be unlikely to secure places for their children

unless a local family moves away. This is often also the situation at St

Teresa’s and St Joseph’s as the locality’s premier Catholic School.

The local secondary school The Blue School is a popular

choice for towns and villages within commuting distance and last year was

oversubscribed. The latest Ofsted report can be read here.

Is this your child’s first year at a new school or do you

have any comments to make on any of the local schools regarding exceptional

performance or opportunities for improvement?

We wish all pupils a productive year and don’t forget, if

you want to try-out a little bit of reporting on your school, you can post your

articles on Wellspeople.co.uk for the benefit of other local readers.