Descriptions of our mission.
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.
“Growing Together, Learning Together, Achieving Together in Christ.”
Our Mission Statement reflects the ambition and vision we have for enabling all of our children to achieve their very best through collaboration and mutual support within the Catholic context. We are a worshipping community, valuing prayer and praise, and enjoying close links with the parish of Sacred Heart. Through our mission, and by working with the families in our school, we develop appropriate values and morals to prepare our pupils not just for the next stage of their academic careers, but for life.
Growing Together
We aim to provide the perfect environment for our pupils to grow as individuals. We cultivate creativity, flexibility, lateral thinking and enterprise; we foster intuition and resilience; empathy and courage. At Sacred Heart, we seek to prepare our pupils not just for the next stage of their academic careers but for life.
Learning Together
We aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum, one that is stimulating and challenging and enriches the learning of all pupils. Opportunities are developed, both inside and outside the classroom, to encourage our pupils to become learners who are confident, resilient and brave.
Achieving Together
We aim to provide a first-class education within a supportive, friendly and happy environment. We challenge and encourage our pupils to develop their talents and achieve their personal best, whatever their ability.
In Christ
The values that Christ taught us underpin everything that we do.
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.
At Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School we recognise not only the importance of allowing students to flourish academically, but we also embrace our wider role in preparing them for their adult life beyond the formal examined curriculum. Part of our role in that preparation is ensuring that we promote and reinforce British values to our students. The government set out its definition of British values in the 2011 Prevent Strategy and considered them to be democracy, rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs. These values are reinforced in a pervasive manner and permeate the school community. The examples that follow are an indication of some of the many ways we seek to embed British values and should be seen as an indication of our approach rather than an exhaustive list.
Democracy
The principle of democracy is consistently reinforced, with the democratic process being employed for important decisions within the school community and beyond, for instance the nomination and election of students to the School Council, Eco-Council and House and Vice Captains. The principle of democracy is explored in History and Religious Education as well as assemblies.
The Rule of Law
The importance of laws, whether they be those that govern the class, the school, or the country, are consistently reinforced throughout regular school days, as well as when dealing with behaviour and through school assemblies. Students are taught the values and reasons behind laws, that they govern and protect us, the responsibilities that this involves and the consequences when laws are broken. Visits from authorities such as the Police and Fire Service help reinforce this message. The children are well aware of the laws in school and class and work with the teacher to formulate these.
Individual Liberty
Our students are actively encouraged to make independent choices knowing that they are in a safe, secure and supportive environment. As a school we educate and provide boundaries for students to make choices safely, through the provision of a safe environment and an empowering education. Students are encouraged to know, understand and exercise their rights, responsibilities and personal freedoms and receive advice about how to exercise these safely, for example through our exploration of E-Safety in computing.
Mutual Respect
Respect is at the core of our school ethos and is modelled by students and staff alike. The school promotes respect for others and this is reiterated through our classroom and learning environments as well as extra-curricular activities such as sport. In line with our commitment to democracy students at our school are always able to voice their opinions and we foster an environment where students are safe to disagree with each other. Our code of conduct promotes the values of respect and responsibility. The school council also provides the students with an arena where they can bring up and discuss any issues that may undermine the school ethos.
Different Faiths and Beliefs
This is achieved through equipping students with the ability to understand their place in a culturally diverse society and by giving them opportunities to experience such diversity within the school community. All students across the school learn about those of different faiths and beliefs as part of the creative curriculum. Each year, at least one half-term topic focuses on Britain’s cultural diversity. These topics have been titled ‘What makes us British?’ and ‘Brilliant Britain’. The creative curriculum is also used to focus in great detail on another religion/culture. The religion/culture studied varies from class to class so that the school as a whole explores many different religions/cultures from Buddhism to Sikhism. Supporting these sessions and the school curriculum are trips to different places of worship where our students gain valuable experience of other religions/cultures first hand. This is even extended to special food ‘theme’ days such as the Chinese New Year where the children enjoy Chinese food and learn about the Chinese culture. Furthermore, our Religious Education curriculum provides a broad and balanced education on a range of faiths, religions and cultures.
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 2023 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.
Late 1800s
Following the construction of the first temporary Church in 1869, Father Mathews 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. A total of 48 Pupils began attending, which gradually increased in number throughout the following years. Pupils had to pay for their lessons, the charges being as follows: Standard 1 2d (old pence) per week Standards 2 – 6 3d (old pence) per week If more than one child per family. 2d (old pence) per week.
That same year, in July, an outbreak of small-pox occurred at the School. A number of Certificated Teachers took charge, with Assistants and girls who were paid Monitresses. (figures show a total of 10 Teachers and 2 Monitresses served at the School between 1871- 1883). Miss Blanche Lamb (of Gibside Hall), and Miss Elizabeth Surtees (of Hamsterley Hall), often visited the School, where they distributed sweets and held parties for the children. In 1876, following the building of the new Church, the old building was now used solely as a School. In 1880, it was recorded that the number of pupils now totalled 164. (81 Boys and 83 Girls).
On October 14th 1881 tragedy struck, following a violent storm, a fierce wind battered the School and the whole wooden structure collapsed and was destroyed. It was said at the time, apparently the two main doors had been left open and the wind had simply swept through the building with disastrous results. The outcome was, the children now had to take lessons in the new Church. Shortly afterwards, work commenced on the building of a new School, also two houses (standing off the main Newcastle road). One house for the Headmaster and the other for the School Caretaker.
On the 5th January 1883, the new Roman Catholic School at Byermoor was formally opened. It was built at a cost of £1,600. One of the Benefactors was the Marquis of Bute. An average of 150 children attended School. In 1905, the School was enlarged to three classrooms and one large room, big enough to use for two classes.
The Girls and Boys playgrounds (or yards), were divided by Sheds. In the Girls Shed, a stove was kept, where children brought their cans of tea, to be left to keep warm, along with their sandwiches. Children walked long distances to School in those days, some, from Sunniside, Andrews House, Marley Hill, Burnopfield, Leazes, Tanfield and Rowlands Gill.
Copyright: Sheila McGahon. Sunniside Local History Society
1900s
Life at School flourished, the children being given a good grounding in religious and academic studies, with lots of activities. School Concerts were very popular. From the 1920’s the Girls attended weekly Cookery Classes at the Board School, Marley Hill and were given excellent tuition in the art of Domestic Science. The Boys attended weekly Woodwork Classes at the School in Burnopfield.
Down the years, Byermoor School produced many good Football Teams and kept a good record in other sporting activities, winning a number of Honours and gaining Cups, Medals etc. against other Schools, a number of it’s former Pupils going on to become professional footballers at top Football Clubs, another became a well-known Test Cricketer, playing for England on a number of occasions. This excellent little School, with it’s dedicated teaching Staff, has throughout the years played it’s part in the formation, both morally and educationally, in helping towards forming the characters of it’s past Pupils, which has enabled and prepared them to face with confidence, the trials, problems and challenges of the outside world.
Former Headmasters of Byermoor School: Mr Nicholas Kelly, Mr Daniel Henry, Mr Matthew White, Mr Matthew Coleman, Mr James Kehoe, Mr Henry Gardner, Mr Anthony Hannon, Acting Head Miss Kim Bradley, Mrs Margaret Sands, Mr Denis Godfrey and Mr Paul Naughton.
Copyright: Sheila McGahon. Sunniside Local History Society
2000s
Fighting School Closure
In November 2009 a meeting took place, called by Gateshead Council Education Officials, to discuss a possible closure of the school. There was an excellent attendance of parents, grandparents extended family members and members of the community.
It was made very clear by the panel that the main consideration was financial. They stressed that pupil numbers had fallen below the acceptable level. Three schools, Sacred Heart, Washingwell and Marley Hill were under scrutiny and would face closure.
Several consultations took place between June 2010 and February 2011, Michael Berry gave a statement on behalf of the Action Group and all parents, outlining flaws in Gateshead council’s argument and reasons why Sacred Heart should remain open. The strong message from all parents, parishioners & other members of the community, was that they want Sacred Heart to remain open, and that so far, Gateshead council has not produced sufficient or compelling evidence for Sacred Heart school to be closed. The meeting enabled all parents to voice their concerns.
The Action Group and parents worked incredibly hard, raising funds, producing a DVD to help with the campaign, aptly named ‘Beacon on the Hill’. It sold in large numbers and was featured on BBC Radio Newcastle.
Since successfully fighting closure, the school has continued to go from strength to strength.
The Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust is an exempt charity. It is a company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales under company registration number 07890590. The registered office address is Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education HQ, Barmston Court, Turbine Business Park, Nissan Way, Washington, SR5 3NY
