Dear parents and carers,

I am absolutely delighted to welcome you to our fantastic school.  

Any school is a sum of its parts – and the elements which make up Buryfields are all wonderful; this has never been more apparent than since the start of the pandemic in 2020. This whole extraordinary time, whilst being incredibly hard in all sorts of ways, really proved what an amazing community we have and how we are all capable of far more than we might ever have thought.

First and foremost, our pupils are a delight – you could not wish to meet a more co-operative, respectful and kind bunch of children! They are joyfully enthusiastic learners, who show a willingness to try new things and take risks, demonstrating our core teaching values of resilience, perseverance and a healthy attitude towards making mistakes. They have shown astonishing resilience over the past couple of years, and they have, despite everything that has been thrown at them, continued to thrive and develop into the most wonderful humans you could wish to meet.

The teaching and support staff are unremitting in their drive to secure the best outcomes for each and every child.  At Buryfields every child is an individual and we are uncompromising and unabashedly passionate about ensuring that each child achieves, regardless of their starting points or how long they might be with us.  We are hugely proud of our results from last year for our Phonics and our end of KS1 pupils. Our good results were helped by our higher than national attendance, which is something that we take very seriously. More information about our approach to good attendance can be found here. Our staff are glass half full people, and as always are equally focused on what the children can do as well as on what might need additional focus. We are reflective by nature, and are always seeking to refine and improve our practice.

Our governors play a key role in ensuring that the school is constantly striving to be the best we can be, and we have a set of knowledgeable, committed and skilled people to act as our ‘critical friends’. 

Our parent body is wonderfully supportive – both in terms of supporting us to ensure the academic and personal progress of the children, and in their unflagging support of our tireless PTA who raise much-appreciated funds for school projects and events. We are very lucky have such a lovely physical environment in which to teach; it is a beautiful building and the grounds are spacious and used imaginatively and productively. The running track is one of our most recent additions and is used for the Daily Mile, resulting in hugely improved physical stamina and core strength, which in turn has impacted on the children's writing stamina.

We are very proud to serve the local RAF base; about 40% of our children are the children of military personnel and we have a great deal of experience in dealing with the higher than average number of mid-year arrivals and departures that this causes.  More information about our provision for service children can be found here, where there is a whole section for service families.

Please do take some time to explore our website; we constantly strive to ensure that it is as informative, useful and up to date as possible, whilst also being easy to navigate. That being said, should you find yourself unable to find the answer to a question, big or small, do just give us a call! 

Lauren English

Headteacher