Our Community
Our community is very diverse and we work to understand others, value diversity and have positive relationships with our local and wider community.
One of the biggest successes of our school is the way we work in partnership with a variety of groups and agencies. This strengthens the support, education and needs of our children and community.
St. Gerard’s has many visitors a year. The emergency services are regular visitors providing information about safety as well as allowing children to sit in fire engines and police cars! Our local Police Community Support Officer (PCSO), Duncan visits our school frequently in order to establish good relationships with our children. He delivers safety assemblies close to bonfire night, talks to the children about staying safe in our local area and has spoken to several classes about what her job entails during our Vocations Week. PCSO Duncan talks to our children and parents about how to stay online and who to speak to if issues arise.
Education
St. Edmund Campion has very close links with our school as is our Catholic secondary link school. Members of staff, always comes to visit our school to talk to the Year 5 and 6 pupils to ensure a smooth secondary transition, as well as present to aspiring parents.
We have established close links with our local secondary school, Greenwood Academy. All classes but particularly KS2, have has the opportunity to visit Greenwood for plays, extra lessons or to use their sporting facilities. There are excellent transition support – additional mornings for our less confident Year 6 pupils and also behaviour workshops to aid with transition.
As a school we support the Year 10 work experience placements in the summer term. On many occasions past pupils return to us for their work experience which gives the school its ‘family feel’. We also get invited to attend their annual musical productions, which enriches the curriculum for our pupils. These productions are always set to a very high standard and highlight the development and progress our former pupils have made.
As a school we firmly believe in supporting those students who wish to join the profession, so every year we work with Newman University College and offer placements in various year groups.
Sainsbury’s
We have had good links with our local supermarket over recent years as they have supported our Lenten charity fundraising, inviting our children from Years 5 and 6 to take part in bag packing. Our choir has sung Christmas Carols at the store too, which is always very popular with their customers.
During our Vocations week, Sainsbury’s provided some of their members of staff to come and speak to the children about their roles which gave a fantastic insight into the varying roles that there are within a supermarket.
Spark Active
St Gerard’s work in close partnership with Spark Active to provide high quality extra-curricular opportunities for children throughout the school. Specialist sports coaches offer a range of popular sports such as, cricket and rounders, to less common activities such as archery, fencing and boxing. Children across the key stages have the chance to participate in inter school competitions, multi-sports workshops and sporting festivals, with a view to raising attainment and participation in Physical Education.
At St Gerard’s we are committed to the teaching of high-quality PE regularly, to ensure teachers are knowledgeable and skilled in all areas of physical education, including physical literacy. We were awarded the Gold Award, by School games in July 2024, which recognises the schools commitment to PE.
Family Support
We have strong partnerships with support agencies including Behavioural Support, Educational Psychology, Social Care and Health. We have built excellent links with our local support centre based at The Sanctuary on Castle Vale.
Our SENCo is readily available to support families and liaises with family workers to ensure that care and guidance is given. Please refer to our SEND Information page for further details.