Choosing a Primary School

While September marks the start of the new school year with the excitement of new uniform, shoes and seeing friends again, thoughts are also turning to supporting families who have children starting school in September 2023 to make that all-important choice. Throughout this term and leading up to the application deadline date of 15th January 2023 families locally will be considering ‘which primary school should I choose for my child?’ It can feel like a daunting task. But don’t worry schools are here to help and support you right now.

Starting school is a significant milestone in the lives of children and their families and an important decision. At St Peter’s we are committed to supporting families in every way possible while they make this decision.

Some schools will host open events at set times. Because of our vision to nurture each individual child we offer every single family a dedicated personalised visit and full school tour with our Headteacher, Mr Paul Griffiths.

Visits are easy to book using our online booking system. We have appointments during the daytime and evening to suit everyone’s diaries.

At their convenience families can visit us with or without their children to explore our school and get a genuine feel for what it would be like for their child to join our St Peter’s family meeting our talented staff along the way and seeing our school in action.

Many parents wonder about what to ask. The simple answer is, absolutely anything and everything. Because our visits are personalised with one family at a time, parents and family members have the time and space to ask anything they want, ensuring they leave having explored the areas of our school and school life that are especially important to them. Families also leave with our direct contact details allowing them to easily arrange further visits or follow up phone calls if there are questions that come to mind following their visit.

We are often asked about our catchment area because we are situated in the heart of Harrogate town centre. Many families with children attending St Peter’s live well outside our catchment area due to most of our catchment being made up of largely commercial properties. Our location brings many opportunities for our children as well as convenience for our families, and our parents find it easy to park for drop off and collection when driving. Our extended school day that provides excellent onsite home from home wrap around care from 7.30am until 6.00pm is widely used by families of St Peter’s.

We would like to wish every family all the best as they begin to consider their options. If we can help any family please do get in touch, by emailing our school office via admin@stpeters.ycst.co.uk, by calling 0114 569684 or by visiting our website for more information.

A Clear Vision

One aspect families may wish to explore is a school’s vision. Great schools are highly ambitious and have clarity of thought articulated through their vision.

At St Peter’s we have put much thought into our vision ensuring it reflects clearly an ambition for outstanding pastoral care alongside educational achievement while promoting the Christian distinctiveness of our school as a church school.

Families can read about our vision on our website.

St Peter’s School has a section of its website dedicated to admissions where parents can find lots of helpful information and book their tour.

Progress and Moving Forward

The best schools are always evolving and striving to continually improve. St Peter’s has been a hive of activity over recent months implementing and investing in an ambitious schedule of improvement to our facilities, including a full revamp to our early years playground including the introduction of an outside classroom, as well as new and very popular playground equipment in our main playground and a new ‘nurture space’. Here is a selection of what we have achieved.