St. Helen’s Catholic Primary School

St Helen’s Catholic Primary is part of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Academy Trust, which the school helped to establish in 2015, and is situated in the London Borough of Newham and in the Parish of St Margaret’s.

Where we are makes us very conscious of the diversity of backgrounds that our children come from. What we are makes us work hard to provide the best possible all-round education for each one of the children in our care.

In recent years we have been putting much effort into improving our physical environment. The original building of the school, founded in 1908, was destroyed in the heavy bombing of London during the Second World War.Rebuilt by Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in 1951, the school was by the beginning of the 21st century in need of major attention, suffering as it was from subsidence and complex building issues. The decision was taken to start from scratch and our new, award-winning building was officially opened in July 2010 by Bishop Thomas of the Diocese of Brentwood, members of our multiacademy trust.

As a Catholic primary school, St Helen’s aims to promote Gospel values in our work together and learning. This is encompassed in our mission statement.

United by its Catholic faith, St. Helen's is a multicultural school, committed to developing the spiritual, academic and social potential of each child.

St. Helen's is a Catholic School, learning about God, our world and living in harmony with each other.

At St Helen’s we aim to develop the gifts and talents of the whole child, academically, socially and spiritually. We respect and celebrate the individuality of each child in our school and want every one of them to grow in God’s love and become responsible Christian citizens. Our highly dedicated staff motivate and encourage the children in their learning and play. The stimulating and creative curriculum, together with the safe learning environment, inspire our children to find and fulfil their potential. In this happy atmosphere they are able to enjoy learning and to achieve high standards in all subjects.

We aim to

• Celebrate our Catholic faith and to encourage children to be confident in their relationship with God.
• Provide a broad and balanced curriculum for all children, allowing them to develop their full potential academically, physically and socially.
• Work in partnership with the Parish Community and our families to prepare children for their future life.
• Create a caring and secure environment in which teaching and learning can flourish for all children and staff.
• Value the professionalism of our staff, the dedication of our governors and the support of our parents.

The school entrance is situated in Chargeable Lane with an administration block. One of the main features of the school is its environmentally friendly aspects such as ground source heating, motion triggered lighting and, storage space for bikes and an woodland ecology area.

If your child has any difficulties in accessing the curriculum, we will work with you as parent or carer to identify these difficulties and then find ways of providing appropriate support in line with the National Special Needs Code of Practice.

We recognise and value other languages and encourage our children to learn their heritage language, whilst we support them in learning English through our visual, and practical curriculum. Our school is fully accessible for disabled pupils, with a lift, disabled toilets, a shower room and all facilities required by law.

In line with our ethos as a Catholic school, we celebrate the social, cultural and linguistic diversity of our school and local community. Our children are guided to an appreciation of, and respect for each individual’s contribution to the life of school and community. We learn from each other and our lives are enriched as a consequence of this diversity. We organise a wide variety of visits to museums and galleries, to the theatre, to local parks and other venues and events. These visits are thoroughly prepared and coordinated with school work.