All about us

Our school is in Handsworth, located off the main Soho Road. We have a local park and leisure centre and a library nearby. Our local shops reflect the cultural diversity of the area. The school is well connected to public transport. We are not far from Birmingham city centre and several places of historical significance: Soho House and Aston Hall; the famous Jewellery Quarter is on our doorstep. We have a number of places of worship, two football grounds and a cricket ground, all of which we have visited in the past.

Grove is a large primary school with over 600 pupils attending school each day. We are a popular school firmly embedded in our local community. We currently have waiting lists for place sin years 2, 3, 5 and 6.  We are a split site school, both sites are on Dawson Road. 

The school is organised into year groups each led by a year group leader, with three classes in each year group. The school is organised into four phases. Each phase is led by an assistant head teacher. We have many staff who support teaching and lead learning across the whole school.

Our building site supervisors and cleaning staff work to make sure the school site is clean and safe for children and adults. We have a kitchen on the lower school site and a head cook who works with her team to provide us with hot meals.

Our administrative team work to make sure parents are communicated with well and the children are safe, have high quality learning and play resources and attend school every day.

We have a dedicated team who are committed to providing the very best for every child.

1. Early Years Foundation Stage

In our foundation stage we have part time and full time pupils attending nursery. We offer part time places for two and a half days a week. Full time places are awarded following the criteria set by the local authority, this can be found on our admissions page. The nursery children are organised into three nursery groups with a key leader leading play and learning for each group. In reception our 90 pupils are organised into three classes. Accommodation for our children in EYFS is very good; we have good quality furniture indoors, an excellent outdoor provision area that has won awards and excellent resources to help children develop. At Grove we believe that every child deserves the best possible start in life, a child’s experience in their early years has a major impact on their future life chances. Our foundation stage creates a secure, safe and happy place for children to make the most of their abilities and talents.

2. Key Stage 1

In key stage 1 our year 1 and 2 children have the opportunity to build on the skills, knowledge and understanding they have developed in the early years. They extend their early reading, writing and maths skills through a vibrant curricular programme. They explore forces and materials in everyday life and find out about houses and homes and toys in the past. They visit Weston Super Mare as part of their geography and history topics and  Twycross Zoo to explore maps and introduce habitats.  The children use their outdoor learning area to investigate, role play and develop leadership skills. Forest school is a highlight for all the children. 

3. Lower Key Stage Two

Years 3 and 4 embark on their key stage two curriculum studies in core subjects and apply their reading, writing, mathematics  and problem - solving skills through their studies of life in Ancient Greece and Rome, Early Islamic Civilisations and science projects such as rocks and fossils and magnets and electricity. The local area supports these studies with children making visits to Wroxeter, Lapworth museum of geology (https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/index.aspx) and a Year 4 residential at The Brighouse (https://www.thebrighouse.co.uk/) and Birmingham city centre.

The school, unlike most schools, offer all our childrfen the opportunity to learn to swim throught the entire school year in both Year 3 and 4.  We use the expertise of the trainsers at our local leisure centre . The children run a school council and build on leadership skills through our citizenship project.

4.Upper Key Stage 2

Our year 5 and 6 children are educated in the upper school building situated 500 metres away from the lower school building.

As pupils move through upper key stage 2 they build on their thinking and enquiry skills to explore all subjects in the national curriculum, including: maths, English, computing, science, geography, history, design and technology, physical education and a modern foreign language. Children also undertake study in religious education and RHE.

Children continue with their citizenship roles and responsibilities and school councilors meet regularly to explore new iniriatives and review their experiences; they have a strong pupil voice and have been instrumental in improving learning and experiences.

Children have access to a range of IT:  IPads, Chromebooks, PC laptop computers are in constant use and teachers have interactive whiteboards in every classroom. 

In lower school we have a school library, two dining halls, two school halls, sports hall and a reading room. Our school looks small from the outside but when you visit you find we have four outdoor learning areas which contain climbing apparatus, mud kitchens, vegetable patches, a natural amphitheatre, two Forest School areas (one with a pond), a sports arena, water play, a gym and even a beach! Play and lunchtimes are fun at our school.

Our upper school building was designed as an open plan build and over the years we have modernised it to improve the learning spaces; we have added glass doors, lifted ceilings and incorporated reading areas. In upper school we have a school hall and a food technology annex.

We have a head teacher, Ms J Baker, and two deputy head teachers.

If you want to find out about the staff in each year group see Staff in the About Grove tab.

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