Cumbria in Bloom Schools Competition 

Green fingered pupils at Patterdale CofE School have scooped several Cumbria in Bloom Schools Gardening Competition awards. For over 30 years Cumbria in Bloom has sought to bring communities together by encouraging people to take a pride in their surroundings, and this year’s school competition provided an opportunity for pupils to learn gardening skills which will hopefully lead to a lifelong interest in gardening and nature.

Patterdale pupils were presented with silver-gilt certificates in the ‘Bio-diversity’ and ‘Woodland Copse’ categories, as well as a silver award in the gardening competition and a bronze in the ‘Special Award for Queen’s Platinum Jubilee 2022’ category.

Headteacher Nicky Steels said ‘The children are thrilled to have received this recognition of their gardening efforts! Our school motto is ‘Achieving the Best Together’ and earning these awards has been a real group effort, we couldn’t be prouder. We’re looking forward to doing even better in next year’s competition!’

MusicMark

Patterdale CofE Primary School is a Music Mark school! This is in recognition of the value that we place on music. Our pupils are able to access and engage with a high-quality music education. We are dedicated to offering and delivering a broad and balanced curriculum which ensures students sing, listen, play, perform and compose.

This is embedded in classroom activities as well as, whenever possible, in weekly singing assemblies, various concerts and performances, the learning of instruments, and the joining of one of our musical ensembles. We aim to help children express themselves musically in an environment that encourages respect, appreciation and awareness for others.

KIDSAFE

With the help of KidSafe's excellent training and resources, our teaching staff deliver fun, age appropriate, preventative, safeguarding programmes directly to children without shattering their innocence.

ACTIVEMARK

We have been continually working hard to improve the quality of physical education on offer at Patterdale CofE Primary School and we have been rewarded by receiving the Activemark.

Activemark is an accreditation scheme for the primary sector that recognises and rewards a school for its commitment to promoting the benefits of physical activity and offering good physical activity provision. It rewards exceptional delivery of the National School Sport Strategy. Our school received the mark because at least 90% of pupils across the school were doing at least 2 hours high quality Physical Education and sport each week.

Our children enjoy a full range of games, sports, athletics and gymnastic activities during lesson time and all of our pupils from Reception onwards go swimming.

John Muir Award

Developing Character in Schools with the John Muir Award

The John Muir Award is a UK-wide environmental award scheme focussed on wild places. It encourages people from all backgrounds to connect with, enjoy and care for wild places in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration. It supports experiential learning outside the classroom; it acknowledges and celebrates achievement in, and beyond, formal education. Building ‘character’ has a key role to play in raising pupils’ attainment and aspirations, improving wellbeing, and influencing their capacity to reach their full potential.

The award's flexible framework - Discover a wild place, Explore it, Conserve it, Share your experiences - gives our school the freedom to develop activities that reflect specific values and needs, whilst supporting whole school aims such as attainment, wellbeing, behaviour and inclusion. It can also contribute to achieving curriculum outcomes, helping to balance academic and non-academic learning.

Gold Sing Up Award

Research and experience have proved that singing can energise and motivate children, as well as improve self-confidence and self-esteem and, with that in mind, Patterdale CofE Primary School is extremely proud to have been awarded the Gold Sing Up Award by the lovely folk at singup.org. In order to achieve this, we have had to prove that singing is an integral part of our daily routine and our school curriculum, and that staff and children sing regularly. Staff have ensured that children sing within their daily lessons to enhance their learning; within weekly collective worship sessions; and within assemblies and performances whenever possible.

Walk to School Trophy

We encourage our pupils to walk or cycle to school whenever possible, it's not only environmentally friendly it's also a great way to start the day! Every year we also do the Walk to School challenge and our pupils have earned the illustrious Walk to School trophy!

Healthy Schools Award

The Healthy Schools Rating Scheme is a voluntary scheme for schools that recognises and encourages their contribution to supporting pupils’ health and wellbeing through promoting healthy eating and physical activity. At Patterdale CofE Primary School we do this through food education; by maintaining high standards of school food; by encouraging active travel to and from school and at home; and by spending as much time as we can doing indoor and outdoor physical education.

CDEC MEMBERSHIP

Patterdale CofE Primary School is proud to be a member of Cumbria Development Education Centre (CDEC), offering primary schools a range of unique resources and training opportunities in a whole plethora of topics and areas related to our place on the planet and our role within our local community - strengthening young people's voices, giving minoritised groups confidence, helping school children develop empathy and giving them agency to be responsible for their 'space'. This has never been more important now as we continue to face the effects of Coronavirus within Cumbria.