Headteacher's Welcome
“St Francis Roman Catholic Primary School is a warm, welcoming place where pupils enjoy learning.”
“The care of your pupils is at the heart of the culture you have created.”
“The proportion of pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and mathematics was above the national average for both key stage 1 and key stage 2.”
OFSTED 2018
I would like to take the opportunity to warmly welcome you to our school website. The formative years of a child's education prepare them for the challenges of modern life. As a Christian community in the Catholic tradition, we will nurture your child and care for them in the spirit of Gospel values. As a school we strive for high standards and feel that these are best achieved when the school and parents are working together in partnership with the child. The journey through the primary years is an exciting and challenging one for your child and at St Francis we will endeavour to make it as successful and fulfilling as possible.
St. Francis is a successful and happy parish school. The building itself is well maintained and secure, situated in extensive picturesque grounds close to Morley Town centre. Morley is a rapidly expanding and pleasant residential area on the south edge of Leeds with all the amenities of a small town combined with easy access to the Yorkshire Dales and to the motorway network, and to the city of Leeds itself. There is a good community feel to the town with strong links between the churches and within the family of schools locally.
We are very proud of our school which has built a very good record of academic achievement on a foundation of caring Catholic values. We are friendly and open and we have high expectations for all our children: they respond with very good standards of behaviour, respect for each other and staff, and an eagerness to learn and grow as maturing members of a Christian Community. The safety and protection of our children is of paramount importance to everyone in this school. We have in place procedures as taken from the government guidance and our own school procedures to ensure their safety. To support this further, we work with the Morley South Children‘s Services Cluster for the provision of extended services that we make full use of to support our children and families.
Currently there are 240 pupils on roll allocated to eight classes (Nursery to Year Six). Our children are challenged to be independent and responsible and they become confident and outgoing.
We are committed to providing the right environment of Christian values which will enable all our children to achieve their potential, secure in the knowledge that they are cared for and respected by the whole school community. We accept children who are Catholic and non Catholic.
We are fortunate to have a very supportive Parish Community. Our school was founded by active Parishioners and that tradition of mutual help and commitment remains an important part of our success today. We also have a number of parents who help us fundraise and all events are generously supported by parents and parishioners.
A wide spectrum of extra-curricula activities is offered to pupils, ranging from: sports, art, dancing, music and annual school productions. We have received the Investor in People award on two occasions, the Investors in Pupil Award, the Stephen Lawrence Award Level 2, Eco Schools Bronze Award, Schools Games gold awards and we have achieved the Healthy Schools standard, following external assessment.
Since 2001, our school has had a Before and After School Club on site providing childcare. This is run by the school via the Headteacher and Governors.
We were last inspected by OFSTED in February 2024 when the school was described as Good. Our Section 48 report also classified our school as Outstanding, in March 2022.
Whilst the website is a good introduction to the School, I recommend that prospective parents visit us. I would welcome the opportunity to meet you, answer your questions and best of all let you see our great school in action.
Mrs Grace Gibbons
Headteacher
