Welcome to St Christophers Academy
St Christophers Academy is a thriving Primary School with
approximately 312 students including a Nursery approaching 60 children. The
school is situated on the Luton and Dunstable borders, in Bedfordshire, and has
all the variety and energy of a fully multi-cultural Primary school. In
October 2019 the Academy was inspected and judged as Good by Ofsted. Since then, we have continued to improve and are constantly
striving to develop our practice and raise levels of achievement.
The size of the Academy and membership of the Bedfordshire Schools Trust (BEST) mean
that opportunities available to staff are incredibly varied and wide-ranging.
We have a growing reputation for developing an exciting and innovative culture
of research within the Academy.
The Staff teams across the academy are very friendly and
welcoming. We are always available to help with any matters and work together
to help make the background running of the Academy run as smoothly as possible.
If you would like to visit St Christophers Academy during a normal teaching day, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Safer
Recruitment and Selection of School Staff
The school has adopted robust recruitment and selection procedures that
minimise the risk of employing people who might abuse children, or are
otherwise unsuitable to work with them. We complete a full range of checks
which are carried out to minimise the possibility of children and young people
suffering harm from those they consider to be in positions of trust.
We ensure that all appropriate measures are applied in relation to
everyone who works in the school, including volunteers and staff employed by
contractors. This is an essential part of creating a safe environment for
children and young people.
Safer practise in recruitment means thinking about and including issues
to do with child protection and safeguarding children at every stage of the
process. This includes obtaining and scrutinising comprehensive information
about applicants. For example, obtaining professional references, verifying
academic or vocational qualifications, previous employment history, verifying
health and physical capacity for the job as well as resolving any discrepancies
or anomalies in references. It also includes ensuring that
advertising, job descriptions, person specifications and interview processes
includes safeguarding and right to work in England checks.
Everyone who works in the school, including volunteers, will have
appropriate Disclosure and Barring (DBS), teacher status
checks and disqualification by association checks. The school will
ensure volunteers are appropriately supervised as outlined in statutory
guidance on supervising the activities of workers and volunteers with
children. See the school's Safer Recruitment, Volunteer and DBS Policies.
NQTs
We welcome NQT's at St Christophers Academy and we offer a very good
induction programme and package of support for our Newly qualified teachers.
All teachers are given a mentor to help them through their NQT year where they
are provided with a bespoke CPD package. Collaborative working is encouraged at
the Academy and staff will plan together and support one another.
CPD at St Christophers is tailored to the needs of the children and
staff. We also work with other schools to provide training and support.
Currently, our staff are participating in lesson study where they plan lessons
together and evaluate the learning of different groups of pupils. The Chiltern
Teaching School Alliance provides our NQTs with a fantastic training package.
All sessions are twilight sessions and teachers are able to meet each other and
share good practice.
St Christophers is a small school with a family atmosphere, children and staff alike are welcoming and to those who join. Very quickly you will find you have become part of the St Christophers family.
Pam Jones, Principal.