CHILDREN at Newtown Primary take a real pride in their behaviour and learning – something that is at the heart of the school, according to headteacher Chris Marshall.

The Trowbridge school, which has 230 pupils across nine classes, aims to give its pupils an enriching education where they can take part in a whole host of opportunities from swimming to gardening as well as holding special sport leadership roles.

The school’s current vision of “love, laughter and learning”, is soon to be updated but the core values will remain the same.

“Something we want for the children is that they love to learn and have an appreciation of why learning matters,” Mr Marshall added.

“To do that, we plan learning which is engaging and interesting and things as simple as regular music assemblies locks in their interest and that provokes a sense of pride. Whether that means turning up in the right school uniform or how you listen in an assembly. We also focus on a sense of care between the children and effective development of relationships so children are able to learn successfully with one another.”

The primary was rated as “Good” by Ofsted inspectors last year and Mr Marshall, who took up the role in September, added that since joining, he has been able to see pupils make the most of the opportunities presented to them including at their Reading Week.

He said: “Over the last nine months, there have been a lot of things that have surprised me and the one thing that has stood out is that we have spent much time focussing on behaviour and what it means to be part of Newtown school and the Newtown community.

“One of the strengths of the school is the grounds and we have a number of different areas which make for varied resources to our classes like our swimming pool.

“We also try to make learning meaningful. We had a number of weeks where our Year 5 classes were learning about play scripts and with that, it culminated in them visiting the Theatre Royal in Bath so they could see the result of what they were doing.

“The children in our school are vibrant and there is a real mix of what they are able to do here at Newtown Primary.”