St
Paul's Whitechapel CE Primary
School
school website
In
the 19th century, St George-in-the-East and its various mission
churches were active in building and running schools for the children
of the area. With the coming of the Board (county, now
'community') Schools, this involvement was gradually lost. But in 1971,
when the parish of St Paul Dock Street was joined to St
George-in-the-East, and we became the parish of 'St George-in-the-East
with St Paul', we were glad to acquire responsibility once again for
a voluntary aided (VA) church school, whose history is told HERE
in connection with its founder, Dan Greatorex - including his claim
that it was at this school that the first-ever school dinners were
served. (Also see HERE for details of one of its most famous former pupils, Isaac Rosenberg).
In a VA school,
church authorities are the trustees of the building. The trust deeds
and 'instrument of government' determine the church foundation, which
provides the majority of the governors - who are variously appointed by
the parish, deanery, diocese and the existing foundation governors. The
governors appoint and employ the staff; decide the admissions criteria
(in consultation with the local authority and the diocese) and offer
places; determine the policy for religious education and worship; and
have various other powers, such as to set school holidays (this is a
live issue in Tower Hamlets, where most schools close for the two Eid
holidays; after careful consideration, we do not, but encourage
children to celebrate the festivals in school as well as with their
families.)
We greatly value
our links with the school, and take seriously our involvement with its
governance. Alongside church members, Trowers and Hamlins
whose London office is near the school, and other firms in the city,
provide governors who bring both expertise and real commitment to the
task. The
Rector leads weekly assemblies, and is constantly amazed by the
confidence and thoughtfulness of the children. At St George's-tide, he
sang 'When a knight won his spurs' and asked them what dragons we have
to fight today. A year 4 hand went up - 'racism', she said without
hesitation. And a year 2 pupil recently asked him 'what party will you
be voting for in the election?' The fact that 80% of the pupils are
from Muslim families is not a problem - together, we take issues of
faith seriously, and their knowledge of the Christian faith, and
splendid Christmas and Easter presentations, would put many
'Christian-majority' schools to shame. They come to church twice a term
for special services, as well as for curriculum activities. The
school was recently judged 'outstanding' in all four areas of its
denominational inspection, and Canterbury Christ Church University
regularly brings groups of aspiring heads to the school, which they
judge to be 'inspirational' because the staff team is very strong.
Major building work is currently under way, to provide a new nursery and improved faclities for the rest of the school.
All in all, the future looks bright.
The main school buildings are Grade II listed: the details are as follows
LBS Number: 206336 Date Listed: 27/09/1973 NGR: TQ3432080791
Listing Text:
WELLCLOSE SQUARE E1 4431 (Central Area)
St Paul s Church of England Primary School TQ 3480 22/800
1869. Brown brick with white stone dressings. Red arid black brick window dressings.
Tiled roof. Gothic style. Western facade has 4 gables, outer 2 above staff houses.
Central clock tower with spire above entrance which has 6 cloister
arches, centre 2 with stone string course gabled above, and with
trefoil finials and
tablets marking "Boys" and "Girls" entrances. 2 storeys, 4 windows, Gothic glazing bars and stone tracery.
The listed buildings and the road surface of Wellclose Square form a group with Wilton's Music Hall, Grace's Alley.
[The listing does not mention this group of carved figures, now painted
over, in the eaves of what is now the year 1 classroom, presumably from Cibber's Danish Church.]
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ISAAC
ROSENBERG
From
1897-1900 the poet Isaac
Rosenberg,
son of a Russian Jewish immigrant, was a pupil at St Paul's School,
living at 47 Cable Street, before moving to Stepney for a Jewish
education. He became an apprenctice engraver, and managed to get to art
school, before joining the army in 1915 - he was killed in action in
1918. He was the only one of the war poets to come from a deprived
background. Here
is a fuller account of his life and significance. His poem The Jew describes
the racism he experienced, not at school, but in the trenches:
|
Moses, from whose loins I sprung,
Lit by a lamp in his blood
Ten immutable rules, a moon
For mutable lampless men. |
The
blonde, the bronze, the ruddy,
With the same heaving blood,
Keep tide to the moon of Moses.
Then why do they sneer at me? |
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I WAS A FIREMAN
Some scenes from I was a Fireman, also released as Fires Were Started, were
shot in 1942-43 around the school. It is the story of a day in the life
of an Auxiliary Fire Service unit (a volunteer service set up in 1938)
tackling a Docklands munitions factory at the height of the Blitz, and
was the work of the innovative director Humphrey Jennings
(1907-50), who used AFS members rather than professional actors.
Although it was produced for the Ministry of Information, itt has
acquired iconic status in the annals of social realism.
The school's own
website is here. Here are a few
recent press and other stories from the school.
from The Times, 5 December 2008
Pick and mix: Case study
Three
quarters of the children at St Paul’s
Whitechapel Church of England
Primary School in East London are Muslim. They and the other
pupils at
the 200-strong school learn about Islam and have a weekly assembly
taken by the local vicar. Darren Rubin, the deputy head, said the
children were all excited about Christmas and about the Muslim festival
of Eid ul-Fitr. “We work in a big Muslim community and what we look to
do is celebrate that,” he said. “Seventy-five per cent of children will
be off for Eid. “They learn about all religions and their festivals. We
have lots of children from different backgrounds and they all learn
from each other.” Most parents at the school are of Bengali
origin and
the school runs English classes for those whose second language is
English. St Paul’s selects on the basis of faith and gives priority to
children whose parents attend the local church. It also gives
preference, however, to pupils whose parents are of another faith and
have chosen the school because of its religious tradition.
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2008 - Let's Read Together
Year
6 pupils made a DVD for parents with ideas and suggestions to help
parents get involved with the children's reading skills. It was
distributed throughout the borough, and to church schools around the
diocese.
8 June 2009 - Sing Up
children (in yellow) performing with other school and adult choirs at
The Barbican
20 May 2010 - the
Olympic mascots Mandeville and Wenlock were unveiled at the school;
they have attracted some criticism, but the children managed to be
positive about them, and in the process have learned about Olympic
history.
June 2010 - the
'famous atheist' Prof Richard Dawkins visited the school to film an
interview with the Revd Jan Ainsworth (chief education officer of the
Church of England) for a BBC programme to be shown in the
autumn. He was shown round by some of the pupils, and was very
impressed by what he saw, and clearly surprised at the multi-faith
context of a church school! We hope it will help him in his thinking
about how schools handle issues of science and religion.....
10 November 2010 - Once a week, for the past 10 years during term time, around 40 members
of staff from law firm Trowers & Hamlins have left their Tower
Hill offices for the short journey to St Paul's Whitechapel C of E
Primary School. Here, they have spent their lunch hour helping some of
the children to improve their reading, comprehension and fluency in
English. The firm has lent considerable support to St Paul's in other ways over
the past decade, including funding for school trips, building projects
and not least, the expertise of Partner, Ian Graham who has been chair
of the board of governors for the past five years. This lengthy relationship, described by Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership Director Mike Tyler as 'a
model corporate partnership', was celebrated recently at a special
reception at the firm's offices . As well as its involvement with St Paul's, Trowers & Hamlins
volunteers have been regular supporters of the EBP's Getting Ahead
work-related learning programme. Trowers & Hamlins Partner, Ian Graham said, "We have an excellent
relationship with St Paul's. The children are fantastic, they really
enjoy the interaction with their Reading Partners. The Headteacher
Terry Bennett and all his staff make us feel very welcome when we are
at the school. The reading scheme is a great way for people from our
firm to get involved in supporting the local community."
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Greatorex | Back
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Dock Street