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Kilbride Central Primary School
'Putting children first'
History and Ethos
Kilbride Central Primary School is one of Northern Ireland's most picturesque schools, situated in the small County Antrim village of Burnside - approximately one mile from Doagh and two miles from Ballyclare. The present building was opened in 1937 and is a wonderfully preserved example of an original P.E. school full of character and history.
In addition to our beautiful building there are extensive grounds including car park, playground, football pitch and large play area to the rear which provides views of the Antrim Hills.
Currently our enrollment sits at 130 pupils and we are proud to maintain our year groups from P1-P7.
Putting Children First
'Putting Children First' is prominent in our mission statement for good reason; the overall well-being of children in our care is of the highest priority. We aim to provide a secure and caring environment where children feel valued and safe. After all, we all learn more effectively when we are happy!
Pupils are encouraged to develop their natural gifts, push out of their comfort zones and achieve their full potential in an environment where mistakes are seen as a positive part of the learning process.
Parents are encouraged to share in the school's ethos by contributing to the continuous programme of improvement, development and upkeep in all areas of school life.
AM:PM Club
At Kilbride Central we know that parents and carers are busy people so we offer 'wrap around care' through our very popular AM and PM clubs. These clubs are led by our fantastic team of classroom assistants and are so popular that we often have pupils attending them 'just for fun'.
AM club is our breakfast club and it runs from 8:00am until the school day begins at 8:50am when pupils go out for their morning play time. Pupils can be dropped off at AM club any time up until 8:30am and have a choice of toast and cereal to get them fueled for the day ahead.
PM club is our afternoon club which runs in three sessions from 1:50-2:50pm, 2.50-3.50pm and 3:50-4:50pm. Pupils pay per session and are provided with a snack to keep them going until they go home. In PM club pupils are encouraged and supported to make a start to their homework. After the work, the fun begins when pupils take part in a range of activities including arts and crafts, board games and outdoor play.
Curriculum
We firmly believe that good skills in literacy and numeracy are the foundation of successful education and life-long learning. Strong teaching in both subjects is integrated seamlessly into topic-teaching through 'The World Around Us' and we deliver our teaching through a range of exciting and progressive topics that incorporate science, history and geography in a creative and real world way.
Music is available both through general class teaching and also through our external music tutors. We have thriving school choir who perform regularly at public events - we even got invited to perform at the Great Hall in Stormont Buildings.
We also develop and celebrate pupils' abilities in other areas of 'The Arts' such as drama and art and design. We use a range of resources to keep these area of learning creative and fun, and take every opportunity to showcase our work to others.
Special Education Needs
Through our structured programme of assessment we may feel that your child could benefit from a little 'extra help'. In Kilbride Central we believe pupils have the best of both worlds; our classes are small meaning mainstream teaching is delivered in an environment where every child has the best chance of receiving the individual attention they need within the classroom setting, but where this is not enough there is also the opportunity for a little 'booster' either through Reading Partners or via our experienced Learning Support Staff.
Where children are experiencing greater difficulty we work alongside parents to provide a more regular programme of literacy and numeracy support via a home programme, classroom withdrawal and either small or one-to-one teaching.
ICT
Extra-Curricular Clubs
I.C.T. is central to our delivery of the Northern Ireland Curriculum in all classes. ICT is used as a tool to enhance teaching and learning in all subjects but is also delivered as a 'stand alone' subject in its own right to ensure our pupils are equipped to deal with the increasing demands for ICT skills in the post-primary education and the workplace of the future.
Foundation classes (P1 and P2) access a key-skills programme which prepares them for P3-7 where they will have the opportunity to learn about programming, web design, presenting, publishing, movie-making, animation and even a bit of podcasting!
We have excellent resourcres to enhance our delivery of ICT including a fully equipped ICT suite with 20 computers - enough for mot of our classes to have a 1:1 pupil/computer ratio.
Pupils and staff at Kilbride central absolutely love our full and varied programme of extra-curricular activities which run all year round! A huge effort is made to ensure there is something to suit all ages and interests. Clubs for Key Stage 1 pupils normally run between 1:50-2:50pm, always a favourite with parents who do the dreaded double pick up!
Activities in pupils in Key Stage 2 normally take place between 2:50pm-3:50pm. We have a multi-talented staff who provide teacher-led clubs in sport, Scripture Union, Cycling, Arts and ICT to name just a few. Our programme is complimented by externally provided clubs which are always extremely popular. These include football provided by Playsport NI, Spanish from our friends at HolaBonjour! and music lessons from The Music Rooms.
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