About Us


Welcome

Welcome to our school website which we hope you find useful and informative.  Although the website holds lots of information that may be useful to someone who is looking to find out more about our school, it is not the same as 'feeling' what Withinfields is like.  Mrs Helen York, the headteacher, is always keen to personally show prospective parents around our school so that they can experience Withinfields during the school day.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would like an appointment to experience the school and talk to Mrs York about your family's needs.


Character, Vision, Aims and Values

Character Education

 “The quality of teaching is great with emphasis not just on good results but on growing confidence and developing my daughter into a capable and happy child.” (Year 5 parent)

Withinfields recognises the importance of developing a child's character to prepare them for life in the future.  We do this through our strong ethos and values which are part of every day life at Withinfields.  Visitors to our school often comment on the 'feel' of the school due to the strong relationships that staff, children and parents have forged.  However, we recognise that some virtues also need to be taught to children which we ensure happens through our well-planned curriculum and we continually seek out opportunities for children to grow in character and have the confidence to step outside their comfort zone.

Vision

"Thank you so much for all your hard work and dedication.  Not only have you made our daughter’s education enjoyable, you have made her realise that she ‘can’ do it and you have filled her with the confidence and belief so that she is ready for high school.” (Year 6 parent)

Withinfields is a happy and inclusive school where inspiring teaching and learning supports all children in recognising and achieving their potential. Our School Motto is 'It's okay to be different' which demonstrates our determination to identify and nurture the skills and talents of all children and prepare children for life in a diverse society. 

In our school all children are taught;

  • To have healthy lifestyles
  • To keep themselves safe
  • To enjoy school and to achieve in everything they do
  • To make a positive contribution to their school and the community
  • To establish skills which will help them as adults

Strategic Aims

“We cannot thank the school enough for unbeatable support, helping our son achieve his potential.  Thank you for working with us and keeping us in the loop.  Our son is a different child comparing him to last year.  It shows, when parents and school work together, magic can happen.” (Parent of EYFS child)

We want the best outcomes for all our children regardless of their academic ability.  Our strategic aims ensure that every learner is happy, inspired, supported and challenged within an environment that welcomes all.  Our strategic aims are:

  1. All learners reach their full potential
  2. All learners take responsibility for their own learning and the learning of others and display positive learning behaviour
  3. All learners receive an exciting, appropriate and inspirational curriculum delivered through consistently good or better teaching
  4. All learners make healthy, safe choices
  5. All learners promote links between school and the wider community and build pride in the learning community
  6. All leaders challenge, support and inspire in order for learners to mould a positive future for themselves
  7. The school community and building promotes equality and provides accessibility for all

Core Values

“Our son has had a brilliant end to his primary school experience.  I really appreciate all the love and support given to him when he arrived and it’s great to see he is building his confidence back up and becoming the funny, outgoing character he once was.  Moving schools has saved him.  We will be forever thankful.” (Y6 parent who moved their child at the start of Y6)

We have six core values which are central to our school community.  Our behaviour systems relate to these and we include them within our assembly themes each term.  

The Core Values are:

  • Respect
  • Happiness
  • Friendship
  • Trust
  • Fairness
  • Forgiveness

Relationships

Withinfields is a community school which prides itself on the relationships that it nurtures between pupils, parents and staff. 

“Withinfields is a school for the whole community with helpful, friendly and supportive staff.” (Y6 parent)

We encourage pupils to form strong and lasting friendships with each other and support the older children to act as peer mentors, sports leaders and buddies to the younger children.  This means that our playtimes and lunchtimes are positive periods of the day when all ages of children play out together.

We operate an open door policy in that we are always willing to meet with parents to discuss any aspect of their child's development or well being.  For parents whose circumstances mean that they are less available to come into school, we are always happy to have conversations over the telephone, via email or through our class messaging service, Classdojo.  We also update Classdojo regularly with photographs and messages celebrating what has been going on in school and reminders for future events.

We are a school that recognises that any family can face challenging circumstances and need support.  Our Senior Leadership Team are dedicated and highly experienced and work alongside the teaching and support staff to ensure that all children have their welfare and pastoral needs met.   They are also available to support families with a wide range of wider issues including debt advice, support with benefits applications and housing issues.  We work well with lots of different agencies to ensure that all families receive any specialist support that they need which we cannot provide.


Equality and Inclusion

We are a school that is well-known locally for its inclusive provision which promotes equality for all.  This has led to us being chosen to host two classrooms from one of our local special school, Highbury School.  They run their Highbury Hive (KS1 provision) and Highbury Hub (KS2 provision) at Withinfields so that their children can engage with our Withinfields' pupils and vice versa.  This partnership arrangement also means that we have access to high quality training through Highbury for our teaching and support staff.

Inclusive provision for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

We are able to cater for the needs of children with a wide range of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities.  Our SENCo, Miss Roxanne Rothery, is a very experienced and highly dedicated professional who works tirelessly to ensure that staff are trained effectively to meet the needs of all children.  As a school which has a building which is all on one level, we are accessible for children with physical difficulties and have a number of disabled toilets in school.  We have a positive track record for meeting the needs of children with Social, Emotional and Mental Health difficulties and we have support staff trained in the needs of children with visual and hearing impairment.  Due to investment in training, we are able to deliver specific programmes for children with Specific Learning Difficulties, Autistic Spectrum Conditions and Communication and Language difficulties.

Further details of the provision that we can offer can be found in our SEND Information Report and in our SEND policy.  We are continually reviewing our provision and details of our future plans to improve further can be found in our Disability and Accessibility Plan.  We have governors who have a specific interest in SEND who meet with Miss Rothery on a termly basis and report back to the full governing body.

Equality Objectives

We evaluated our provision to ensure that we have considered all aspects of equality and set objectives to improve it further.  These objectives are reviewed annually.  The evaluation and latest review can be found in the documents.


Withinfields' Nursery Provision

We have Nursery provision at Withinfields which admits children from the term after they are three years old.  The provision is led by our deputy head, Mrs Barton, and the pastoral teacher is Mr Blackburn.  Mrs Dee also teaches in Early Years along with a large number of support staff who take responsibility for specific areas or intervention. 

Children can attend using their Nursery Funding and we offer up to 30 hours for those children that are entitled to this.  Parents can also pay for additional sessions on top of their entitlement if they require this.  Nursery funding can be utilised in our Nursery Class as well as in our Out of School Club meaning that we can offer childcare for 3-year-olds from 7.30am until 5.55pm during term time.

Nursery class opens at 8.40am with the morning session running until 12noon which includes lunchtime.  The afternoon session starts at 12noon and finishes at 3pm.  Lunches can be purchased at £2.50 a meal or children can bring their own packed lunches.  Some families may be eligible for Free School Meals for their nursery child.  Please see this part of our website for further details.

For further information, please contact: admin@withinfields.calderdale.sch.uk

 


Before and After School Provision

Out of School Club

We run our own Out of School Club which offers childcare for Withinfields' pupils before school from 7.30am until school starts and after school until 5.55pm.  It is staffed by adults who also work during the school day in school meaning that communication is strong between school and the Out of School Club.  

Before school, the children are offered a light breakfast including cereal, toast and a drink and after school the children are offered a snack comprising a range of choices including sandwiches and fruit.  

Current prices for the Out of School Club are £6 for a morning session and £9 for an after school session.  Bookings can be made through our online booking system.  Access for this can be acquired by emailing admin@withinfields.calderdale.sch.uk

Get Set Go

We also offer a 'Get Set Go' club in the morning from 8am which is predominantly for children who are eligible for Pupil Premium funding.  Children are included in activities and are offered a light breakfast of cereal, toast and a drink. 

If you think that your child should be eligible for this, please contact: sian.barton@withinfields.calderdale.sch.uk

Extra-Curricular Activities

The school offers a range of after school extra-curricular.  Recently these have included football, multi-skills, athletics, hockey, card games, board games, cooking, singing, healthy living and woodland story telling.  Details are provided to parents at the start of the half term so that they can book their children into the clubs via our online system.  If further support is needed to book these, please contact the school office.   


Ofsted Report

Ofsted inspected our school in October 2021 and we were delighted that they recognised our school as good in all areas.  Our report can be read by following this link: Ofsted report

“We just wanted to say a massive congratulations to yourself and your amazing team for all your hard work that has finally been reflected in your Ofsted report.  In our eyes, you deserve nothing less than an ‘outstanding’ but nevertheless we are over the moon that you have finally got the recognition that you all deserve.” (Parent of Y1 and Y4 children)

We were particularly proud that Ofsted recognised:

"Relationships between adults and pupils are friendly and respectful. Pupils receive generous praise and rewards. They smile when adults greet them. They follow the example adults set them, saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’. Adults manage pupils’ conduct positively and maintain an orderly school. Pupils enjoy their lessons. Leaders prioritise pupils’ personal development. All this helps pupils, with few exceptions, to behave well, develop positive attitudes and feel safe."

"Nearly all parents responding to the online questionnaire, Parent View, were effusive in their praise of the school and staff."

"Staff are vigilant. They are well trained to recognise signs that pupils may be at risk, for example from harmful online activity. Staff rightly report even the smallest concerns to the right people. Safeguarding leaders keep meticulous records. They are persistent in seeking help. They work closely with other agencies, so pupils are protected. The governing body takes its safeguarding duties seriously."

"Leaders make learning to read a high priority. Well-trained teachers and support staff are highly effective in teaching the youngest pupils to read. Teachers make sure pupils have carefully chosen reading books to practise. As a result, most pupils learn to read with speed, fluency and confidence at an early stage."


Statutory Assessments

End of Key Stage 2 Assessments

At the end of Year 6, children are assessed using KS2 SATS in Reading, Maths and Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling while teachers use the evidence that they've collated whilst teaching in Writing and Science to formulate their teacher assessment in these areas.  Our results in 2022 reflected the progress that we made in improving the quality of our teaching and learning despite the effects of the pandemic and this has been further proven in our 2023 results.  We were delighted that many of the measures are above National Average for the last two years.

 

2019

2022

2023

Withinfields

National

Withinfields

National

Withinfields

National

Reading at Expected

65%

73%

85%

75%

81% 73%

Reading at Greater Depth

19%

27%

37% 28% 31% NYK

Average Scaled Score for Reading

101.5

104.4

106.5 104.8 106.2 105

Writing at Expected

73%

78%

74% 69% 79% 71%

Writing at Greater Depth

4%

20%

4% 13% 3% NYK

Maths at Expected

69%

79%

80% 71% 86% 73%

Maths at Greater Depth

17%

27

24% 22% 26% NYK

Average Scaled Score in Maths

102.0

105.0

104.8 103.8 105.4 104

All 3 at Expected

50%

65%

70% 59% 69% 59%

All 3 at Higher Standard

4%

11%

4% 7% 3% NYK

GPS at Expected

85%

78%

83% 72% 90% 72%

GPS at Greater Depth

17%

36%

43% 28% 50% NYK

Science at Expected

88%

83%

82% 79% 86% NYK

Progress measures consider the progress made from the end of Key Stage 1 to the end of Key Stage 2.  A score of zero would be equivalent to the National Average.  A positive progress score means that children have made better than average progress compared to everyone nationally.

 

2019

2022

2023

Withinfields

Withinfields

Withinfields

Reading Progress

-0.6

+1.6 +1.6

Writing Progress

-1.1

-0.2 +0.2

Maths Progress

-0.8

+1.4 +1.6

Further information can be found in the Performance Tables by following this link:

Performance Tables

The government will not publish KS2 school level data for the 2021 to 2022 academic year although we have chosen to publish this information for prospective and current parents to see.  The government have archived data from the 2018 to 2019 academic year because they recognise that the data from that year may no longer reflect current performance.


Partnership Links

We are a feeder school for Brighouse High School meaning that children that have attended Withinfields Primary School are given priority over children who have not attended a feeder school.  For more information about Brighouse High School, please follow this link:

www.brighouse.calderdale.sch.uk

We are also a partner of the Valley Learning Partnership.  This is a strategic learning partnership which enables us to collaborate with primary and secondary schools with a similar ethos and character to ours.  For more information about the Valley Learning Partnership, please follow this link:

www.valleylearning.org.uk

We work alongside a number of local providers of teacher training routes to enable trainees to learn and hone their skills in teaching within our classes.  This is important to us as it contributes to the strengthening of future generations of teachers. We also support our local schools and colleges in offering opportunities of work experience and other placements where relevant to their students.