St Francis' 
Catholic Primary School 
 
 
A very warm welcome to St Francis' Catholic Primary School ~ inset days Friday 21 July and Monday 4 September, school closed to children. Children return Tuesday 5 September 
 

Church and Community 
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Church and Community 
 
 
Whilst being a Catholic School and therefore distinctive in our Faith commitment, we work very hard to be part of the wider Nailsea community. The headteacher and staff work with and attend regular meetings with local cluster and Catholic schools. 
 
The school enjoys strong and close links with both its parishes, with clergy playing an active role in school life. Children regularly visit St Francis Church, a walk away from school, and our Franciscan friars from Clevedon make regular visits to the school. We enjoy a special relationship with St. Bede’s Catholic College in Bristol, where it is hoped that children from our two local parishes will attend when they leave aged eleven. 
We also enjoy strong links with the local secondary schools and pupils attend a number of functions ranging from sport to music festivals and science. The children take part in sporting competitions with other schools in the area. Music festivals take place in Nailsea for Year 2 and lower KS2. We also celebrate in song and dance at the county-wide MAWS concert held at the Colston Hall each March, the Dance Festival at the Playhouse in Weston super Mare, and the Catholic Primary Choir Concert at St Bede's College. 
 
We are pleased to receive visits from the Police and Fire Brigade. We enjoy our high profile and status within the wider community and will continue to be an open, welcoming school. 
 
 
Catholic Education 
 
St Francis' is a Catholic primary within the Diocese of Clifton and is one of three Catholic primaries in North Somerset. Our feeder secondary school is St Bede's Catholic College, a beacon school with Science and PE as its specialisms. The College caters for pupils from 11-18 years and continues the work established at primary school for a broad and balanced education, enhanced throughout with the values of the Catholic faith. 
2016 Prayer Team Service of Commissioning 
Well done also to those children who applied to become members of the Prayer Team and took part in a Service of Commissioning at the Cathedral with Miss Parry and Bishop Declan. Bishop Declan presented them all with a badge and certificate and thanked them for helping him with his work. 
There exists excellent liaison between our schools and children achieve the highest of standards. Parents of children at St Francis' are warmly encouraged to visit St Bede's Catholic College and St Brendan's Sixth Form College when considering an upper school or sixth form education. St Bede's, enjoys excellent results year on year. Further details of our Catholic Schools are available from the school office. 
 
 
Assembly by Fr Anscombe 
Pope Francis announced that 2015 will be a year dedicated to the promotion of consecrated life. Fr Matt Anscombe (vocations director for the Clifton Diocese) visited the children to talk to them about his vocation, focussing on the theme of "Listening to God's Call" . Through story, song and prayer Fr Matt reminded them that God has called us to do Him some definite service. 
 
 
 
 

ST FRANCIS' ~ A FIRST CLASS CATHOLIC SCHOOL 

 
Everyone involved with St Francis' Catholic Primary School is celebrating the latest diocesan report on the school. 
 
The Nailsea school was visited by inspectors from the Clifton diocese in March this year and they concluded that it is a first class Catholic school: 'This is a school which knows itself very well, identifies priorities, secures improvement and thrives on challenge in all aspects of its work and mission.' 
 
The report says that the headteacher is 'an outstanding leader who commands confidence in staff, governors and parents alike. Her infectious enthusiasm and commitment act as an inspiration to all. All leaders and managers are excellent role models who strive to ensure that the Catholic nature of the school is clear, consistent and embedded in the mission statement. The teaching staff are talented practitioners who are ably supported by excellent teaching assistants.' 
 
A notably refreshing feature of the school, the inspecting team found, is the openness of all staff to learn from the children and be prepared to be awed and humbled by the spiritual clarity and insight that children often demonstrate. 
 
The report highlights three areas for the school to improve further: devote one full inset day per year to the Catholic life of the school for all staff and governors; provide planned opportunities for pupils to study other faiths in greater depth; and continue to embed systematic assessment and evaluation of RE data to ensure outcomes for pupils are consistently good or excellent. 
Interviews with a range of pupils by the inspector highlighted their huge pride and respect for their school and its strong Catholic ethos. A distinctive feature is the strong commitment of families from other practising Christian denominations and other faiths who are strongly supportive of the school’s ethos and who bring their own richness and enthusiasm. 
 
The report says that the school’s recent focus on curriculum re-design has provided excellent opportunities for staff to further develop more effective cross-curricular links between RE and other areas of the curriculum, with a particular focus on writing and the development of pupils’ team skills and ability to work independently. 
 
The quality of teaching and learning in religious education is outstanding resulting in high quality and purposeful learning. Pupils are highly motivated because of teachers’ good subject knowledge, enthusiasm and skills in facilitating excellent learning and progress for all. Chair of Governors, Martin O’Neill, said: “The Governors are absolutely delighted with the results of this report which has confirmed St Francis as an outstanding school within which pupils are able to thrive and grow in a caring and vibrant environment with high expectations. Governors would like to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to everyone involved in the school for their continuing hard work and dedication.” 
 
Head teacher, Caroline Hostein, added: ”We are delighted with the very positive outcome of this report which reflects the way in which pupils, staff, parents and governors all work together for the good of our school 
 
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