School Focus: Newbold school still heart of the community as it was nearly 100 years ago

Formely a stone built Georgian mansion, the school building is steeped in history and was once home to the Eyre family before being altered to provide education for 200 children.

It opened in 1930, initially with only 155 pupils on roll but quickly filled as more families from the Newbold area were seemingly enticed in by the school and its beautiful grounds.

Nowadays, and with additional building work having taken place to expand the school over the years, Highfield Hall Primary welcomes more than 400 pupils and remains an integral part of the community as current headteacher Dr Mike Bywater explains.

He said: “Probably all schools say this, but we really are the heart of the community both physically but also there are teachers here who have taught parents of the children who come here.

"It does feel like, particularly over the last two years, we have grown stronger and closer as a community.

“It is a safe, happy place where the children feel like they belong and lots of the work we do in the curriculum is based around our core values – I care about myself, I care about my community, and I care about the wider world.

"There’s nine words that go within that; we talk about being compassionate and respectful and what we do both in terms of the curriculum and the work with the children is around their feeling of belonging and wellbeing.”

The curriculum for pupils who attend the school on Highfield Lane is both balanced and broad, says Mr Bywater.

Lessons are often held outside, weather permitting, to make full use of the vast grounds upon which the school sits – with Forest School, Muddy Mondays, and Muddy Thursdays a regular in the calendar.

“We have got a broad curriculum that goes from when they arrive at age three to when they are 11 and there’s a progression through school but, because we are so lucky with the grounds that we’ve got, lots of learning happens in the outdoor spaces,” Mr Bywater said.

"Nursery and Reception have ‘Muddy Mondays’ and ‘Muddy Thursdays’ where they get all togged up and go enjoy the outdoor space that we’ve got.

"We have Forest School on a Friday where some children go and develop resilience and risk taking and we’ve also go a great play area for Foundation Stage.

"Just because we’ve got such a large outdoor space it means lots of learning can happen outside which is brilliant; coming from an inner-city school where there wasn’t much outdoor space to here has been amazing.

When asked about the importance of outdoor play, Mr Bywater added: “Particularly over the last bit of time when people have been stuck inside with a limited amount they could do, but also you see a different side of children when they’re outside.

"Not all children enjoy being in the classroom and, like I say, it helps develop resilience and risk taking. With the Forest School we very much talk around it not being 100 per cent safe, but it being about managing the risk and judging the risk which I think is a really important life lesson for children to have.

"And they’re happy in nature, most of them really just enjoy being outside. That’s my first job, to make sure they’re happy and safe, and the learning comes after that.”

"Again, two of our core values are around being emotionally healthy and physically healthy; if they’re in a space where they’re healthy and happy then they’re in a good place to learn as well.”

As part of its work around physical health, all pupils in Year 1 are given taster swimming lessons in the school pool which reopened earlier this month following major refurbishment work over the summer holidays.

Then, from Year 2 upwards they have lessons every other week – resulting in around 99 per cent of pupils being able to swim by the end of Year 6.

Walking into the school reception area, it is also clear that Highfield Hall Primary is heavily involved in other sports alongside swimming as evident by the large number of trophies and medals on show.

Mr Bywater explained this was a regular occurence before the Covid-19 pandemic and hopes it will soon become popular once again.

He said: “I think I’m right in saying but the year before lockdown every child in school participated in a competition or extracurricular sporting club. It is something we intend to try and get back to now that we can begin to open up again and mix with other schools.

"Again, being phsically healthy is really important. Mrs Ross, the PE lead, did the 100km Peak District Ultra Challenge where she walked 100km for a multiple sclerosis charity and so we challeged each class to do the same collectively to match what she did and raise some money for school through that.

"That allowed the children to think about how they fit in with people within the community and their impact on the wider world. They all loved that.”

He added: “If you speak to staff, they’ll see me bobbing around school, speaking and working with the children all the time, so I definitely get my steps in every day.

"It’s important that I’m visible, particularly given that they were in lockdown for some of the time so it’s key that they know who I am.

"And, walking around the corridors as I do, I can see that children are happy to be learning, they’re engaged and it’s lovely to see.

"We also have MindUP – a neuroscience programme by The Hawn Foundation – to teach children about how their brains work. So, at the start of every lesson we do a ‘brain break’ to help the children regulate.”

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