This was my old primary school so I was interested to pop in and see how much the place has changed when I moved back to this area, I needed a primary school for my middle daughter and although this one wasn't the closest by any means I thought I'd still pop in just to have a nosy round.
It has a lovely uniform, although the blue of the jumper is not one you'll easily be able to find cheaply in the supermarkets or other shops. I'd imagine you'd need to buy it from the school or a specialised school uniform shop, meaning it's going to be a rather large expense compared to the £4 jumpers available for other schools in cheaper shops.
Cofton Primary School is a one level sprawling school with a nursery, infants and junior school all incorporated in one area. There used to be a pond in the grounds back when I was in school, but presumably health and safety have demanded this be removed by now. There are loads of playing fields complete with large trees, and the school backs onto farmland which the school is allowed the use of occasionally - although again, I reckon health and safety would have something to say about this!
The classrooms are all fairly large and the school keeps class sizes small so there is plenty of room inside the school rooms, the childrens' toilets I saw were all scrupulously clean with solid air fresheners located in high places where the kids' couldn't get hold of them.
I spoke to four teachers when I visited, including the head, and they were all lovely and typically 'nice' primary school teachers. The children inside the school all seemed well behaved and despite the fact that I visited at lunchtime there was very little boisterous behaviour and hardly any shouting and screaming at all - and I have three children so know what a feat this is to get over 100 children all behaving well at the same time, it's hard enough keeping control of three!
The dining hall was well laid out with plenty of room between the tables, and children were being served food in line with the general governments guidelines on healthy eating. On the day of my visit they were eating fish (must have been a Friday!), potatoes and sweetcorn - it all looked delicious and the children were certainly tucking in with relish!
Because of the sprawling nature of this school I wouldn't imagine it would be terribly good for children with a physical disability, this isn't actually the schools fault either as the way it was originally built means there are steps and narrow turnings which I believe would make life awkward for a child who has to use a wheelchair or even one who simply has problems getting around. However, if your child has special needs then you'll obviously not want to take my word for it so please do get in touch with Cofton for more personalised advice regarding access and possible special needs teachers.
Car parking is a joke at Cofton and always has been, so again this would have a bad impact on anyone who wanted to enrol a disabled child to the school.
Unfortunately the 2006/2007 OFSTED report wasn't brilliant with most subjects being marked as 'satisfactory' only, but apparently a lot of work has been done to bring the school back to its former glory so the later report may have been better. read more
