Sparkwell Primary School - Learning to make a difference

Situated just over a mile outside Plympton, Sparkwell Primary school is in an enviable location with woods on the doorstep, lots of birdsong, clean air and a rural setting. There can’t be many schools where you can hear the lions from the Zoo nearby roaring as you arrive in the morning! We have a purpose built school that we relocated to in 2016 (from the older cramped Victorian school), with modern, airy classrooms and a large playing field.

We can take 15 children into Foundation each year and classes from Year 1 to Year 6 have two year groups per class. We have a growing number of families that live within Sparkwell or outlying rural hamlets, but the majority of our children live in the Chaddlewood area of Plympton. We have 98 children in the school across four classes, which enables us to keep a family feel and know all of our families really well.

We are a Single Academy Trust, which means we are not part of any large multi academy trusts and can make the decisions that are right for our children. The school has a headteacher, four class teachers, two office staff, caretaker and cleaner, a school cook and seven teaching assistants (including two forest school leaders). We also have a school dog, Luna the cavapoo!

We have a Board of Trustees who are the governors for our school and meet half termly. Children join us from a wide range of pre-school settings and childminders and we have good links with the Little Orchard Montessori Nursery in the village. At the end of Year 6, most of our children move on to Plympton Academy or Ivybridge Community College, but we also have children going onto Heles, the grammar schools or further afield to Totnes or into Plymouth. Since opening as a free school in 2015 we have had two ‘Good’ Ofsted reports - the last in 2019 stated: ‘The school environment is calm and purposeful. During lessons, pupils across the school are focused, respectful and attentive. The innovative curriculum motivates and engages pupils.’

Our mission statement is ‘learning to make a difference’ and we do this by making sure children are put at the heart of all we do, while also preparing them for life in a global society. We teach the core values of respect, resilience, responsibility and creativity through a broad and balanced curriculum and ensure we give children of all ages opportunities to go out on trips and to enjoy visitors, especially artists and musicians.

We enjoy PE and sports and take part in inter-school competitions and offer a range of sports clubs. We teach Forest School to children from Reception to Year 6 and were the first school in the UK to be accredited as a recognised forest school provider by the Forest School Association - we have successfully renewed this three times and we attract students coming to visit from other parts of the UK as well as international students.

Research shows that time outdoors supports mental health and builds resilience and communication skills. Last year we were ready to take part in Junior Ten Tors and have fingers crossed it will go ahead in 2022, as the children have been disappointed to miss out.

We believe it is important to make children environmentally aware; we were the third school in Devon to achieve Eco School’s highest award, the ‘Green Flag’ and we have the Plastic Free schools award. We have an eco committee who help plan events such as World Ocean Day or Switch Off fortnight and this term we have completed a virtual tour of the Energy from Waste plant in Plymouth where all your non recyclable rubbish gets burned and converted into energy.

As with all schools, the last year has been challenging but we are pleased to be coming out the other side and back to some normality. During lockdowns our families did an excellent job of supporting learning at home, teachers worked incredibly hard to deliver online learning and all staff worked well together to support the children of key workers who were in school.

In the summer term we are looking forward to visits from a musician and an author and hopefully trips to the beach, Dartmoor and a residential visit to Dewerstone Cottage. We are also practising our maypole dancing for a May Day celebration, hope to hold sports day, organising a litter pick and planning a sleepover.

Although we are over-subscribed for this September we have some spaces in other year groups and we welcome enquiries from families wanting to find out more for entry to school in 2022. You can also find out more about us at www.sparkwell.devon.sch.uk or www.facebook.com/sparkwellschool

By Fran McLoughlin, Headteacher, Sparkwell Primary School