Welcome to Penny Bridge CE Academy

Penny Bridge CE Academy is a thriving Church of England school with its heart in the local community. We believe in high standards and deliver a skills based curriculum which is exciting and engaging, ensuring all children enjoy learning and make good progress from their starting points.   We encourage all our staff, governors and children to adopt our vision of ' Letting your Light Shine'.  Everyone at Penny Bridge takes pride in themselves, their work and their environment.    

Let your light shine!

We have strong Christian values which underpin everything in the school. These values help create a warm, supportive atmosphere where everyone is respectful and caring.  We deliver our values based curriculum through our daily lessons, collective worship, student voice, educational and emotional support and our reward system.

Our curriculum has been developed so the children are given opportunities to learn new skills and build on others, year-on-year, through a variety of inspiring topics and stand-alone content. We have a strong emphasis on teaching the basic skills of English and maths, with children often taught in small groups or given 1-1 support to ensure their needs are catered for.

To maximise attainment, children have to learn how to achieve. We do this through developing the growth mind-set. This teaches children that, through developing key skills such as co-operation, perseverance and challenge, they can be the best they can be. Celebrating these attributes, instead of attainment, helps raise self-esteem and gives the children an ‘I can’ attitude.  We also ensure that children develop good learning behaviours, which we are finding is especially important after two years of disruptive education due to COVID. Being able to socialise, play positively, work as a team and be successful independently are crucial life skills.

Our school is set in some amazing grounds.  We have two tarmac playgrounds, a wild area, climbing frames, a trim trail, a pond and a large field.  We like to get the children outside as much as possible and run forest school and outdoor learning sessions inside the school grounds.

A healthy school is central to our beliefs and we try to encourage the children to be active. This is achieved through active playtimes, a wide variety of after school clubs, team sports / competitions and whole school challenges.  We are also very successful in local sports competitions making sure we take part in a variety of sports from football, to skiing and many in-between. We have been awarded the Gold Star National Achievement Award for PE.

Music and the arts also play a central part in developing the whole child. As well as regular class music lessons there is the opportunity for all KS2 children to learn an instrument. Music lessons include harp, violin, piano, clarinet, flute and ukulele. The school choir currently has 30 members and we regularly perform in a variety of locations outside Cumbria.

Rated Outstanding by Ofsted and SIAMS (Church Ofsted) in 2017, we believe that Penny Bridge offers an exceptional education and gives children the best start in life.

Mr Graham Carrick
Headteacher

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