Welcome to our school

‘Jesus is the heart of our Catholic school and church family. In Jesus’ footsteps we reach out to others with love and respect’.

‘A unique family in faith, love and learning.’

Welcome to our school and ‘yes’ we do try to be a unique family in faith, love and learning. The partnership between home, school and parish is vital in living that mission and following in Christ’s footsteps together.

St. Bernard’s belongs to Christ the Redeemer parish, our parish church is St. Ethelbert’s, Deane and we are part of the Salford Diocese. We are partnered with St Ethelbert’s and St William of York Catholic primary schools that all belong to the Christ the Redeemer parish. We currently have 200 pupils on roll and 7 single year group classes from Reception to Year 6. Our school capacity is 210 pupils (30 in each class), our KS2 classes can have up to 32 pupils.

Our Governing Body is very supportive and pro-active, we have a full membership and Governors who regularly visit school to carry out Learning Walks and observations. They also support events throughout the year and attend committee meetings and full governors meetings each term. The Governors Monitoring Group meet with the Head monthly to ensure the strategic development of the school.

We have a school GIFT (Growing Together in Faith) Teams in Year 5 and Year 6 who support the Catholic life of the school and enhance the spiritual life of our school family. We have an active School Council and Eco Team with representatives from Year 1-Year 6 who meet regularly and make exciting decisions about our school such as planning new playground equipment, competitions and running fund raising events. Year 6 are currently doing the ‘Faith in Action’ award, Year 4 Caritas Ambassadors and our Year 1 and Year 2 CAFOD Club.

We run a variety of after-school activities that change throughout the year, from cross country to Singing Club. We also have Bolton Music Service coming into our school each week delivering music tuition for strings, brass, guitar, key board and drumming.

We have a range of trips and workshops for each class throughout the school year related to their class work and to enrich learning.

We have ‘Open Sessions’ for parents each term when parents and family members can come into school and share their child’s topic work in class. These are always great sessions with much excitement and enthusiasm about learning.

We work in close partnership with St. Ethelbert’s RC Primary School as both schools belong to the parish. The Sacramental Programme for Y3 children is a joint programme in partnership with our parish, Catechists and parish priest. We have Mass in school with Fr Morrough our Parish Priest each half term, family members are welcome to join us.

We are an associate school for St Joseph’s High School, Horwich with whom we have a close and effective partnership. There is a transition programme in place each year for Y6 pupils to ensure that they move smoothly on to the next stage in their learning journey.

Our new Reception pupils have a transition programme in the summer term when they visit for two afternoons. Prior to this we have a meeting for parents and ‘Open evening and session’ for prospective parents to visit.

I hope this has given you a brief insight to our school but of course it is only a snapshot, visitors are always welcome!

We look forward to meeting you!

Please contact our main school office on: 02104 652147 to arrange a visit.

Yours in Christ

Mrs Clare Doodson

Headteacher