Best Primary In Accrington

peelparkparent · 20-07-2006, 10:22

Hi. First post on here. Do any other parents have any opinions about which is the best primary school in Accrington. My kids are currently at Peel Park but I am seriously thinking of trying to get them into another school. Can anyone give opinions of other schools in the area, such as St Johns etc. Badically, I want to know which school will provide them with the best quality of education possible. Many thanks.

those were the days · 20-07-2006, 13:56

Don`t know about Accy - though All saints is really good in Clayton.
though you could try this link
http://www.accringtonobserver.co.uk/...ancashire.html
for an idea of performance, but of course performance results don`t always reflect other important aspects of a school, such as discipline, opportunities etc..

Good luck though

KIPAX · 20-07-2006, 14:27

Its a difficult question to answer unless you have had kids in multiple primary schools.. Mine all went to Mary Mags and i would ahve nothing but praise for the school.. But how can I compare it having never sent them anywhere else?

entwisi · 20-07-2006, 14:31

We are hoping to get Siobhan into St Johns, Baxenden. In order to do this there is a great emphasis put on church attendance such that we sign a 'register' everytime we take her to church. This is made available to the school governers when they are deciding on who gets entry. I do know of one family who have lived in bash all their lives who did not go to the church and ended up not getting in. Whether this is a fair or right way of deciding entry is a controversial matter that I don't want to discuss here.

I don't think its that easy to just decide you would like to go to XYZ

Tinkerbelle · 20-07-2006, 15:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by peelparkparent

Can anyone give opinions of other schools in the area, such as St Johns etc.

Hi,

Mine go to St. Johns, they've been there a year after I had no faith in the primary school that they attended before. It's only my opinion but it's a great school, very friendly. Also very well run and lots of male staff, which was my main gripe with the the school they attended previous, it was all female staff. Education wise, mine have come on brilliantly since going to St. Johns, hope this helps.

peelparkparent · 20-07-2006, 18:22

Thanks for those replies. Until a year and a half I didnt have a problem with the school, but now there seems to be far to many non-teachers covering lessons and there seems to have been a high turn-over in staff over the last 2 years. From talking to other parents it seems to be the general opinion that standards have dropped, especially in discipline and rumours are rife that staff morale is very low. I do not want the education of my children being affected by this which is why I was looking for opinions on other schools (as mine have only ever been to peel park).
Just out of interest, do other schools have lessons regularly covered by non-teaching staff? I don't think this should be the case except in emergencies.

those were the days · 20-07-2006, 18:28

I can only speak for my son`s school, but he has his regular class teacher and a class room assistant that is there to assist the teacher, but not do the lessons themselves. The only teachers that actually do the teaching are the teachers. Although once when he was in year 1 the teaching was done by a trainee teacher on her placement, but that was with the guidance of the main teacher.
By non-teaching staff do you mean class room assistants?

peelparkparent · 20-07-2006, 19:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by those were the days

By non-teaching staff do you mean class room assistants?

Yes. It does seem to be worse in certain classes. At first I didnt think anything of it as my child just said they had been taught by a certain person that afternoon who I assumed was a teacher. This happened regularly (2-3 afternoons a week in some cases) but then I found out this person was a member of staff who was employed to work with a particular child. So if they are employed to work with one child (who I am presuming has some form of special needs), it seems wrong that they then take control of the whole class on a regular basis in the absence of the teacher who should be teaching in that class. I can understand this happening in an emergency, but when I see the teacher who was supposed to be teaching my child talking in the playrground while I am collecting my child, I cant see why they couldnt teach the class that afternoon. I did try to talk to the head about it but when I went, it turned out that both the head and deputy had gone with the older children to london! Thats another issue, but i thought one should remain in school!

those were the days · 20-07-2006, 19:47

I would have thought that too, re: the head and deputy, as deputy obviously in charge in absence of head!

It seems odd the special needs assistant person teaching the class,fair enough supply teachers etc..

There should be someone you can talk to during the hols, Local Education Authority? You deserve some answers as you are more than entitled to know that your Child is being well cared for and taught whilst in the care of the school

lindsay ormerod · 03-08-2006, 20:08

My daughter will be in her final year at Peel Park this Sept and the school have been fantastic with her.I would suggest that you make an appointment to discuss your concerns with the Head,Mrs Williams;she is a very reasonable and capable Head who will deal with your concerns straight away. As for the year 5 London trip;it's an annual thing and the deputy head,Mr Henderson has run it for years,I believe the Head went along on this occasion as it was her first year at the school and wanted to see how it was run.
I cannot reiterate how helpful the school have been during this last year especially;my daughter had both legs in plaster for 6 weeks and the school made sure she had access to all her lessons,help when needed and she wasn't excluded from any aspect of her education.

accymel · 03-08-2006, 21:43

I can only irriterate exactly what Lindsay has said here, yes i worked at Peel park last year on placement, which is reason for a lot of turn over of Teaching Assistants & to referring to Teaching Assistant taking over well only the very best & experienced was good that she was trusted to take over in extreme cases of staffing emergencies ie staff sickness & on proffessional level can say competant enough. I can say as a former pupil back in the day Peel Park has improved somewhat & are very inclusive to all pupils & knocked a few old ghosts to know they are better on the whole than when i was there despite most of the old staff still being there.

Suppose you know your own child[ren] & are better informed to judge whats best for them as far as you want in a school & education....each to us own.

mel3ft · 04-08-2006, 08:08

saint marys in oswaldtwistle has a high reputation and is very good my friends sister goes there and they are very strict with education as i had to go to that school for a week for my health and social care course at mountcarmel

Alvin the chipmunk · 13-08-2006, 17:39

St Nicholas in Accy. Headteacher Nick Walker is a legend!!!!

Nickelson · 13-08-2006, 17:53

im suprised none of you have mentioned my old primary benjamin hargreaves i am in my final year at high school and the primary did wonders for me. it has excellent grades in SATS in science,maths and english and has a cristian link with st.pauls across the road on plantation street.

peelparkparent · 07-12-2006, 08:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by lindsay ormerod

I would suggest that you make an appointment to discuss your concerns with the Head,Mrs Williams;she is a very reasonable and capable Head who will deal with your concerns straight away.

Thanks to everyone for the answers. I guess you have all seen the primary league tables: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/h...l/888_2099.stm
The overview is that over the past few years, Peel Park scored:
234 (2003)
254 (2004)
252 (2005)
217 (2006)
This drop bucks the Local authority and national average trend which have been going up. So standards were steadily going up under Mr Burkinshaw but then start to drop and then drop alarmingly after she took over. What an alarming drop in standards! Also, can anyone confirm if staff who are absent are suffering from stress? There seem to be some long term absentees and the rumour is it is due to stress. I think there are 3 off at the moment which is far too many.
Im going to be using these league tables to indicate where I should send my children as this confirms concerns I had over the way the school is going.