School Information
Padiham Green Church of England Primary School is an average sized, one-form entry primary school serving the local community of Padiham with 197 on roll. We provide an exciting and stimulating environment in which children can learn and grow within a real sense of family and community spirit, offering a wide range of opportunities to learn in our beautiful setting at Padiham Green. Our opportunities for learning outdoors are excellent.
Padiham Green consists of seven primary classrooms ranging from our Reception class for our youngest pupils up to our oldest pupils in our Year 6 class. We run a ‘Seeds and Gardeners’ programme where YR and Y6 pupils work together (Led by Y6!) within a mutually supportive, learning atmosphere. Our YR pupils love it…. but so do the children in Y6!
All members of our staff have a strong focus on good, old-fashioned ‘manners’ which all our children respond well to. We get regular feedback from many visitors and members of the community stating how well-mannered our pupils can be. This is always good to hear.
Each year group has its own classroom with no more than 30 pupils. All of the class teachers in a key stage work very closely together to ensure all the children enjoy the same quality of teaching and learning which has improved rapidly over recent years.
The school consists of four departments – the Early Years (Reception), Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2), Lower Key Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4) and Upper Key Stage 2 (Years 5 and 6). The teachers work well together and share excellent facilities that include a hall area which is available for P.E. lessons, assemblies, performances and creative activities; we have three separate play spaces: YR Outdoor Classroom; the infant playground; and the junior playground available for the pupils’ break times, outdoor games activities, sports and lunchtimes.
Each play space has its own features appropriate to the age of the children using it. The YR Outdoor Classroom has a soft-floored shape area with plastic grass, a climbing wall, other climbing and balancing structures, a stage area, planting areas, basketball and target hoops, seating benches, a garage for YR resources and a road marking area for large-vehicle play. We also have a ‘Secret Garden’ for our YR where lots of strange but wonderful things can be found! This place raises many questions!
The infant playground has creative and interesting floor markings, a playhouse, picnic tables, garden planters, seating and benching areas, a den area, small trees to climb, a slope, a pen for our chickens, a solar system (to scale!) and a Pirate Galleon.
The junior playground has a 200 metre path (which is exactly 200m!), a tree island (which is the future location of an outdoor classroom), a stone circle (with easy circumference, radius and diameter measurements for data collection), an apple orchard with buddleia for attracting pollinating butterflies, a problem-solving bar, a willow tunnel and a willow arch, a large snail mound, communication platforms, a meadow area, den areas, wild zones, pathed areas through the trees, a number of log-seating areas, six large garden planters with a three-stage compost area, a huge log pile for mini-beasts, bug hotels, a 5x5 pole area (with easy length, width, area, height, volume and perimeter measurements for data collection), creative and interesting playground floor markings making a sport circuit, a large MUGA (Multi-Use-Games-Area with markings for football, basketball, cricket and rounders), a hard-surfaced garden shed area with composters and water butts including bird, bat and hedgehog boxes, a huge football playing field, an environmental area with quiet seating areas around a huge log, a stone circle with circular bench seating, 8 x fractions poles and a cycle and parent shelter.
Padiham Green has a well stocked and really creative school library space (… guarded by Buzz Lightyear!) that we call ‘The Discovery Pod’ which houses our very own Padiham Green Rocket (!) containing many visual, interactive gadgets. We also have a fully-mirrored Dance Studio that doubles as a community base for our Before and After School Clubs – The Early Birds and The Night Owls. And probably because they are not normally allowed, our children love gaining entry in small groups into The Red Room which is a teachers’ and Governors’ work and meeting room dominated by a large, oval table. We also have a very cool and contemporary, attic-style ITC Studio that offers inspirational and panoramic views across Padiham from Memorial Park to St. Leonard’s Church and Padiham over to Pendle Hill. Our children ‘LOVE’ being in there! So do we!
Our ICT facilities are excellent as we have a range of laptops and tablets both in KS1 and in KS2 that our children can access throughout the day. All our classrooms have been recently extended and fully refurbished making inspirational learning spaces for all our children. The infant classes are decorated as precious gem stones in bold primary colours – Amber Yellow for YR, Sapphire Blue for Y1 and Ruby Red for Y2. The junior classes are designed across the seasons from Y3 to Y6 and themed with appropriate colours as the children journey through the spring, summer, autumn and winter of their primary school lives. The ‘conditions for learning’ are now really excellent at Padiham Green.
Our teachers offer a wide variety of exciting extra-curricular activities with our creative and passionate Teaching Assistant staff also leading groups - which we really appreciate! We have strong links with the community including St. Leonard’s Church and Parish, local nurseries, local high schools, Padiham library, Burnley Football Club and local industry. We also regularly take the pupils on various school visits in order to extend their learning opportunities and life experiences to make their classroom work even more interesting and relevant. Alongside these, the school takes every opportunity to invite a wide range of visitors to work with our children at Padiham Green.