Welcome to the English Martyrs Catholic Voluntary Academy website. We are a small Voluntary Aided Catholic Academy with 164 children aged between 4 – 11 yrs old on roll. We are part of the St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi Academy Trust together with 16 other primary schools and 4 secondary schools across Leicestershire and Rutland.

We are happy to welcome children of any faith or none to join us in our friendly school.

Our school is in close proximity to military bases, and we welcome families with parents serving in the armed forces, considering carefully how we support children accessing service premium. Information about where service families can receive support can be found in our Parents section under Parents Info.

 

We are very proud of our school and we enjoy being part of an active and friendly community. We provide a broad and balanced curriculum setting high expectations and encouraging all our children to achieve their potential before leaving us in year 6. Our mission statement below explains how we want our children to lead their lives.

“We grow and learn with the gifts we have been given, following in the footsteps of Jesus.”

Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the school. One parent’s comment summed up the views of many: ’We feel very lucky to be part of such a nurturing, happy school.’ Parents appreciate that the staff are approachable. They know that staff care for their children. Parents describe the school as being like a family. (Ofsted October 2021)

We acknowledge that our children need a child-centred holistic approach to learning rooted in faith. Our reworded mission statement which now includes the word gifts reminds us all that our children are gifts from God, and how important our job as educators is to ensure that we provide an education for our children which enables them to be the best they can be. We have adopted 10 school virtues based on learning habits and our Gospel values: – faith, love, kindness, respect, confidence, resilience, love of learning, forgiveness, courage and patience.

We will be focused on one virtue weekly to embed each one with our children and school community, and celebrating our virtue of the week in each year group as part of celebration assembly. Children will explore the meaning of the virtue and how they can show this virtue in their daily lives. Staff will provide weekly reflection time for them to share their ideas around living out our virtues. We will also be asking parents to send us in evidence of their children showing their virtues at home, look out for examples in our weekly newsletter! During their time at English Martyrs we want all our children to grow their virtues making them ready for their next steps beyond year 6.

Pupils’ behaviour and attitudes embody the school values. They know what is expected of them. Pupils are polite and caring towards each other. Incidents of poor behaviour are rare. Bullying is not tolerated. Pupils have a clear understanding of equality. They told inspectors: ‘Everyone is welcome here.’ (Ofsted October 2021)

We would welcome you visiting us before you decide to join us to ensure that you are making the best decision for your child. For the latest news please take a look at the weekly school newsletter.