Message from the Head of School

Dear Website Visitor

At the very heart of the community in Rothwell, we have a proud tradition of many children attending whose parents and grandparents have been before. There has been a school on this site since the opening of Wood Lane Provided School in 1904 and our building combines the original Victorian building that can be seen from Haigh Road, with more modern classrooms to the rear. We have specific outdoor areas for Nursery, Reception and Key Stage One, as well as a beautiful field to the rear of the school, which we use for a variety of reasons, including PE and outdoor learning.

The school is currently a 1.5 form (45 places per year group) infant school and part of the Cockburn Multi Academy Trust. You can see from the school vision that all of the staff here have a real passion for educating the whole child. This means that we teach pastoral as well as academic values. We strive to empower children and to promote an ethos of hard work and independence in children’s work and play, instilling in them values that will support them in their next stage of education. The Ofsted inspection of December 2023 recognised that 'Cockburn Haigh Road Academy is a welcoming and friendly school. The relationships between adults and pupils are warm and nurturing. Pupils are well cared for, happy and safe. They enjoy coming to school.'

Each academic year, we  focus on teaching children from their starting points, striving to help them to achieve the best outcomes.

Reading is at the core of our curriculum and, from the very start of their school life in nursery, children are taught the mechanics of pre and early reading as well as being surrounded by books and story telling. Our use of Floppy's Phonics drives progress and attainment. We are proud to be members of the Jerry Clay Reading Hub who not only offer our reading leader professional development, but also support her in developing all of our staff to become excellent teachers of reading.

We use the Ready Steady Write programme to drive attainment in writing; look on our English page for full overviews for Reception to Year Two as well as sample planning. The programme engages pupils with high quality texts and gives time and depth to the English curriculum. In Nursery we focus on children learning a range of nursery rhymes and traditional tales off by heart. You can see how we do this on Story Telling by the staff - YouTube

Maths is taught using the White Rose Maths materials and we embed Maths Mastery in both Key Stage One and Early Years, under the guidance of Miss Pratt, the school Maths Lead.

Please take the time to browse through our website to see all that we have to offer to our children and their families. There is lots of information under the Parents tab. In addition, you can see videos on our YouTube Channel - just search 'Cockburn Haigh Road' to find us.

If you wish to make an appointment to look around the school, you can do this by calling the admin team on 0113 5128746.

Jacqueline Padgett
Headteacher