COME rain or shine, walking through the doors of Bellefield Primary in Trowbridge, visitors are immediately welcomed by the warm and friendly words of staff and pupils.

With 277 children on roll, in addition to 52 children in their nursery, spread across 10 classes, Bellefield prides itself on the motto to ‘be the best that you can be’.

Headteacher, Steve Wigley, who has worked at the school for seven years, said: “Our five key values are respect, responsibility, friendship, honesty and courage. We work a lot of our assemblies around these principles.

“We like to try and put these values into everyday life as well because they are linked to British values. We also feel quite strongly about becoming good citizens both locally, nationally and internationally.

“I think what we have at Bellefield is children who are always interested and motivated to learn and they are really happy because we give them the space to be children.”

The school, which was rated good in its last Ofsted report, hosts a whole range of after-school clubs – with 206 out of 270 pupils attending at least one session every week.

Mr Wigley added: “Although we do a lot of reading, writing and maths, we do make time for the children to be able to take part in other activities, whether it is sports or arts.

“All of the work we do at Bellefield wouldn’t be possible without a great team of staff who all put the children first. They know them so well so that if there is a problem, they will pick up on it.

“We have a lovely mix of children and quite a large percentage come from other countries. It’s quite unusual to have that many in Wiltshire but it is great for the kids because they can learn from one another and as a school we place a lot of emphasis on tolerance and accepting differences.”

Since opening in 2008, Bellefield has built up strong relationships in the community and as a church school, it has close links with representatives of both St James’ Church and St Thomas’ Church.