What are the benefits of attending Blackboys School?
- A culture of kindness and an expectation to do your best. Staff know the pupils well enough to celebrate individual milestones so know what is a huge achievement for one child may not be for another. Children are taught to embrace opportunities and try new things.
- Strong leadership and encouraging my child to be the best they can be. They feel valued by teachers and pupils. They are very happy.
- The Christian ethos is very good and the fact this is incorporated into daily life at the school is very good. The children are generally good to each other and I’ve never really had any concerns about bullying or anything like that. It’s good that the school is very small and so everyone knows each other regardless of year group.
- It’s a fantastic school led by caring, talented teachers and staff. There is a strong Christian ethos. There are many opportunities to join competitions and events off site. Excellent school trips.
The support, teaching and additional activities that are offered free of charge. They offer both breakfast and after school clubs. - The holistic approach- not only education, but sporting opportunities and attention paid to character development- encouraging integrity.
- This is a small school in a great location with good teachers. I love this school.
- It is a happy, nurturing environment, full of opportunities for the children. We are so impressed by Mr Sullivan’s leadership and the staff’s passion. We are very happy with the school!
- Smaller classes.
- The small personal Classrooms.
- Good education, leadership, staff and a safe and friendly environment.
- Size staff know children well, lots of school trips and sporting opportunities, music/singing opportunities, targeted intervention catchup, it is a kind school.
- Head teacher and teachers listen to what parents are in need and try their best.
- School is managed by an outstanding Head who has high expectations and standards of the children. All staff extremely approachable and my children have always enjoyed their time at Blackboys.
- Nurturing. Small, safe, welcoming.
- A small but responsive and thoughtful learning environment. Excellent teaching and leadership. A sense of community spirit and an “extended family” within the school for my child. A school that has high expectations of its students and their behaviour. A school of strong, human-centred, moral principles.
- Lovely Christian school, very supportive of views.
- Excellent primary school.
- Small classes, a family like environment where children and teachers know each other regardless the class they attend/ teach, friendly and approachable teachers, clear expectations regarding children’s behaviour.
- Incredibly well led and this reflects in all the teachers across all the classes. Excellent standard of behaviour.
- A strong community feel about the school. Nice class sizes. I like how the older children embrace the younger children and they all know each other.
- So many. I can honestly say we are so thankful to all the staff at Blackboys school. You care so much and that comes through. My children are flourishing and I can feel so assured that they are having the best education at Blackboys. Thank you.
- The school is warm and welcoming & my children have always enjoyed coming to school. The teachers are firm but fair. The teaching is of a very high standard and the topics taught are varied and interesting.
- Always pushing the children to do the best, and such a friendly team who seem to know every child.
- All children and families alike are valued and treated amazingly. Each child grows in confidence and receives 1-2-1 attention. We are so lucky to have been given the opportunity to attend the school when we were relocating. The school and how it is run is now our main pride of living in this area. All of our kids have flourished in Blackboys.
- Friendly community, supportive attitude to different levels of ability while maintaining high expectations and encouraging to try their best.
- Within walking distance, well behaved children, a respectful learning environment, dedicated teaching staff, wrap around care.
- Friendly community feel. Superb staff. Children taught strong moral foundations.
- There are involved and considerate responses from the Headteacher to the individual child’s needs and concerns. Being a small school allows for a more supportive and nurturing environment where each child is given the opportunity and encouragement to thrive and excel. Children are treated as individuals and not carbon copies of each other.
What improvements/developments could be made at Blackboys School?
- More art, fairer forest school weeks for older children and a cleaner canteen experience.
- More communication on progress for pupils not meeting age related expectations and clarity on how they will be caught up as it is not great to find out your child is behind in their end of term report, less external religious programmes this should be kept to teachers and local church only (or where funding comes from).
- If there is any PTA or other events for joining, it would be good to inform a month in advance for us to join in 🙂 But I do appreciate for everything that had been provided so far!
- Offer a wider range of after school clubs/ activities (tennis, chess, cooking, Lego club, foreign languages, drawing, etc…).
- It doesn’t always feel like the homework gets considered both when wrong or right. If there are spelling mistakes the child hasn’t been asked to work through them or correct them, nor has the teacher even corrected it for example. This may happen in class but it’s not shown in the piece of work.
- I know it’s tricky with extra curricular activities for key stage 2 and we are fortunate our child enjoys football but there isn’t much variety for the younger ones-I appreciate this is the downside of a small school plus they do get tired easily. As a school I think we need to continue to work on parent engagement both for events supporting the school and also re the curriculum.
- Maybe more of a variety in terms of clubs, as my children for example would like to try different sports other than football. Also clubs that involve crafts or art would include those children that are not sports focused.
- One more parents evening in term 5/6.
- Wider range of after school activities other than sports such as arts and crafts, science/nature/STEAM, for KS1 etc
- Parking at drop off and pick up could be improved as it causes very unsafe conditions for pedestrians. In addition, pedestrians can often be forced to walk through the grass/mud to avoid cars. On several occasions cars have driven so far onto the pavement as they swing into School Lane from the High Street that I have had to move to avoid being hit.
- Our child is currently studying for the 11+ tests and we have been surprised to see what he is able to achieve, and the contrast with the level of work he is given at school and for homework. We wonder if enough is being done at school to stretch our child and support the level that they could achieve. Sometimes homework isn’t marked, which leads us to question the importance placed on it.
- More after school activities in the summer term.
- Different caterers.
- I wish there was more choice of classes after school, maybe lessons in the pool, big tennis. I don’t always get weekend homework for the kids. But that’s probably my problem. I have to talk to the teachers.
- The continued expectation to pick children up before official school close for some activities discriminates against working parents. It puts them in a awkward situation having to hunt out lifts or ask the school. I don’t think working parents should be put in this predicament. Arrangements for kids of working parents should be transparent on form.
- Providing further learning at times.
