School report focuses on school across Hampshire - today we shine the spotlight on Bartley Junior School

Staff and pupils at Bartley Junior School near Copythorne celebrated the reopening of their outdoor swimming pool this month.

The pool, which was built in the mid1960s, had been closed for months but pupils were keen to take a dip this week as the weather warmed up parents and pupils helped dig out the foundations for the pool in 1964 and also contributed to the cost of building it.

Y3 pupils Ria, Tommy, Alfie, Cody, Poppy, Phoebe clean the school pool. 

Head teacher Karen Stonehouse (pictured above) said swimming lessons are important for pupils and she hoped the school pool would eventually be covered so it could be used more often.

“We are passionate about the children gaining confidence in water and learning to swim at an early age. It was only closed for a year as the cost of training, repairs, maintenance is so high to meet new regulations that we had to save and ring-fence the money to make the pool operational for this year and hopefully years to come.

“Whenever anyone joins our school, in any capacity, they immediately become part of the ‘Bartley family’, and remain so long after they have left.

"Our school vision that ‘Every child through nurture, support and challenge will achieve their absolute best, both academically and socially’ is extremely important to us.

"It is a fundamental part of our belief that children will not learn unless they feel safe and happy and we place as much emphasis on developing children’s emotional and social well-being as we do on their academic achievement.

"By looking beyond our school, we know we have a responsibility to society for our children to become valuable citizens in the future.

“Bartley became a church school in 1975 and will be celebrating its 40th anniversary, by having a celebratory visit from the Bishop of Southampton in September.

"In recent years we have developed the Christian ethos of the school and the whole school community voted on our values of friendship, trust, thankfulness and responsibility, with the overriding value of love.

"Although we strive for excellence in everyday practice, we emphasise the need for that excellence to be across all academic and emotional development.” 

When Bartley Junior first opened its doors in April 1939 it was a secondary school and during the Second World War it was home to evacuees who were moved out of Portsmouth to escape the German Luftwaffe’s bombing raids on the city.

The school field was used to grow food during the war and the present car parking areas were used as outside loos.

It now has 362 pupils on its roll and this is the highest number of children in its 76 year history – and there is currently a waiting list in several year groups.

Y6 pupils Victoria, Katherine, Ethan, Louis, Jacob in the polytunnel with tomato plants.

The catchment area includes Bank, Bartley, Beaulieu Road Station, Bramshaw, Brook, Cadnam, Copythorne, Denny Lodge, Emery Down, Fritham, Furzley, Lyndhurst, Minstead, Netley Marsh, Newbridge, Winsor and Woodlands.

And it is a three form entry junior school, which is mostly fed into by children from the Oaks CE Federation of three schools in Lyndhurst, Netley Marsh and Copythorne.

But it also has an increasing number increasing of pupils from outside its catchment area – particularly from Hazelwood infants.

Many children are now bussed into school because of the distance they have to travel.

Tommy, Ryan and Cody show off their WWI / WWII display

Most pupils transfer to Hounsdown School in Totton when they reach secondary school age.

Facilities at the school includes 12 classrooms, a large hall with stage lights, a gymnasium with changing rooms, an outdoor heated swimming pool, playing fields, a large play area, a new and purpose-built multimedia library, a music room, art room, an ICT suite housing 14 personal computers, a food technology room and an outdoor environmental educational area. When Ofsted officials called at the school in June last year they rated it “good” and remarked that pupils’ behaviour was “exemplary”.

The three inspectors also reported: “Pupils have outstanding attitudes to learning and they take great pride in their work. Senior leaders give scrupulous attention to ensuring all children achieve well and all staff with a leadership role contribute strongly to the school.”

Bartley CofE Junior School in Copythorne. Pictured: Y6 pupils Sasha, Ethan, Grace, Sophie, Tom and Niko with the school chickens. 

Ofsted bosses also praised the school’s governors for what they described as keeping a “close eye” on pupils’ achievement.

Teaching was also rated “good” by the inspection team along with leadership and management of the school which besides the head and deputy head Susan Griffiths has eight full-time and eight part-time teachers along with 15 special needs assistants.

Headteacher Miss Stonehouse added: “Whenever anyone joins our school, in any capacity, they immediately become part of the ‘Bartley family’, and remain so long after they have left.

"Our school vision that ‘Every child through nurture, support and challenge will achieve their absolute best, both academically and socially’ is extremely important to us.

"It is a fundamental part of our belief that children will not learn unless they feel safe and happy and we place as much emphasis on developing children’s emotional and social well-being as we do on their academic achievement.

"By looking beyond our school, we know we have a responsibility to society for our children to become valuable citizens in the future.

“Bartley became a church school in 1975 and will be celebrating its 40th anniversary, by having a celebratory visit from the Bishop of Southampton in September.

"In recent years we have developed the Christian ethos of the school and the whole school community voted on our values of friendship, trust, thankfulness and responsibility, with the overriding value of love.

"Although we strive for excellence in everyday practice, we emphasise the need for that excellence to be across all academic and emotional development. We know that a happy child will learn.

"Anyone associated with Bartley knows what a special place it is and I am proud to be a part of the history of such a magnificent school.”