Our School

Queens Park Academy is an ‘outstanding’ school situated in the Queens Park area of Bedford, England. We became an Academy on 1 April 2011 when we entered into a funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Education. This means that we are ‘independent’ of the Local Authority – Bedford Borough.

Queens Park Academy Trust employs all of our staff and is responsible for ensuring the highest quality of education to our local children. We also run a ‘Community Nursery’ located in the Queens Park Neighbourhood Centre that offers day care provision for children aged 0 to 5. We are very proud of our school and its achievements over the years and we are pleased that you are interested in us. Thank you for visiting our website – we hope you find it informative.

We admit children from Nursery (aged 3) to Year 4 (aged 9). We are a large school with over 500 children on our current roll. Our intake is representative of a vibrant multi-cultural community with over 19 languages spoken by the children and staff. We are an ‘inclusive’ school admitting children from all backgrounds, faiths or special need. We are proud to have been recognised by Ofsted for our outstanding community cohesion so embedded in our ethos.

Our school buildings are arranged over two sites – just 5 minutes walking distance apart. Children in Nursery and Reception learn on our Early Years Site. Marlborough Road and our older children – Years 1 – 4 learn on our Chestnut Avenue site.

The facilities on the Early Years site are excellent, with appropriate accommodation, including a large hall, for our youngest children. We have a wonderful garden devoted to outside learning that we continue to develop in innovative and exciting ways - our latest addition to the children’s garden are two chickens – Lola and Henrietta. The children are encouraged to develop their learning by observing nature and wildlife through a variety of structured activities supervised by a dedicated team of staff. The Curriculum is taught through a variety of interesting themes following guidance from the Early Years Foundation Stage.

On the Chestnut Avenue site there are 12 classrooms, a hall, library and ICT suite accommodating children in years 1 to 4.  Outside learning remains a key feature on this site too. We have an ‘allotment garden’, and ‘outside classroom (The Barn) and a ‘wildlife and pond’ area. Our creative partners have worked with us over the past two years on both sites to develop an imaginative outside space encouraging children to develop their own creativity. We believe this demonstrates ‘An adventure in learning’.

We organise ourselves in Year Group teams – each one led by a ‘middle’ leader. These middle leaders report directly to the Leadership team of the school as we believe that working together in teams will help us fulfil our high expectations. We teach Years 1 – 4 through a variety of interesting and thematic modules called the International Primary Curriculum (IPC). This is a broad and balanced curriculum that puts the child at the centre and it builds on the outstanding practice in our Early Years. It reflects the second core feature of our school – Internationalism – as we are very fortunate in having children from all over the world.

Our school is a member of the Bedford Borough Learning Exchange (BBLE) in partnership with other schools in the local area and Bedford Borough Local Authority. As an Academy we are independent of the Local Authority but have a strong commitment to enhancing provision in our community with a variety of partners.We have a strong link with the University of Bedfordshire as we are an active partner in ‘Initial Teacher Training’.

We have close links with the Queens Park Neighbourhood Centre ensuring appropriate support for all families in our community.

We are a National Support School (National College designation) and currently work with a number of other schools and partners. Please see our Partnership tab for further details.

The principal aim of the school is

To help the children to develop the attitudes, knowledge and skills needed for living in the 21st Century

• by offering the children first hand experiences that motivate and enthuse them - encouraging a love of learning
• by ensuring the provision of good quality teaching through positive identification of indicators of good practice 

This is then realised by our school aims: 

• To develop a curriculum that excites and motivates the learner and the teacher.
• To promote high levels of self esteem in children and adults
• To leave no-one behind
• To promote a safe and healthy lifestyle
• To promote community engagement and involvement
• To continue to strive for improvement by critical self evaluation

To develop a team environment