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St Paul's Whitechapel CE Primary School


schoolIn 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 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.

letsreadtogether2008 - 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.

barbicanconcert1barbicanconcert28 June 2009 - Sing Up  children (in yellow) performing with other school and adult choirs at The Barbican


olympicmascots
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.....

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