Our Mission Statement

Sacred Heart School, Byermoor has thrived for more than 100 years. The heart of the school is centred in the Gospel values of love, tolerance, respect, equality and self worth. Our school is a family community. We value each person’s God given gifts through sound educational practice of the highest quality. This means adapting to change whilst responding to the needs of today’s world.

Our Aims

Our school aims to create a happy stimulating, secure environment in which children can enjoy learning. We are a family learning to live and grow together, encouraging the moral, social, cultural and also spiritual growth in all our children. We aim to give the children opportunities to develop knowledge and skills appropriate to the individual needs and capacity of each child.

Our School Values

Sacred Heart School has been serving the Parish of Byermoor since 1871. Following the construction of the first temporary Church in 1869, Fr Matthews the Parish Priest, began the establishing of education for the children of the parish. The Church building was combined to share services and formal schooling. On the 4th March 1871 teaching began. The present building was erected in 1883 and a large extension built in the 1970′s. The school is set back behind the local Church, and has extensive views of the Derwent Valley. Our pupils mostly come from the villages of Byermoor, Burnopfield, Marley Hill and Sunniside.

In 2014, our school became an academy and joined the ‘St Thomas More Partnership of Schools’, a trust consisting of our feeder school, St Thomas More, Blaydon as well as another Catholic primary school, St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School. On 1st April 2020, Sacred Heart became part of the Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust.  The Trust supports and partners with five secondary schools, one middle school, one first school and forty-one primary schools in the west of our Diocese.  This transition was part of a diocese wide Academy Policy.  We are very excited to be working within the new trust and having had lots of experience as part of a smaller trust, we feel well placed to add lots of value to Bishop Wilkinson CET moving forwards.

From September 2022 we will have 228 pupils from 4 to 11 years of age on roll, we are a single form entry school with each year group having their own classroom. At 3, children join our thriving Pre-school called ‘Little Hearts’. Little Hearts accommodates pre-school children for morning, lunch and afternoon sessions. At 11 our children usually go on to our feeder secondary school, St Thomas More in Blaydon.

The school currently consists of eight classrooms, a library/study room, and a school hall. Outside we have a hard surface playing area, a soft play area, seating areas, a Forest School and a football pitch. In the summer of 2016 works to adjoin three new classrooms to the back of the school was completed; these classrooms form our new and state of the art Fr Matthews Hub.

Our Ofsted inspection in September 2015 recognised Sacred Heart to be an outstanding school in all aspects. They felt we were an extremely caring, outward-looking and highly inclusive school, described accurately by one member of staff as ‘feeling like a family’. They also commented on the outstanding teaching which enables our pupils to learn quickly and apply their skills across all subjects. Teachers have high expectations of what pupils can achieve, and create a vibrant, colourful and exciting environment in which pupils thrive.