Isambard Kingdom Brunel (IKB) Primary School is the fourth school in the very successful and thriving Blackdown Education Partnership, working across Devon and Somerset. IKB welcomed its first cohort of children into the superb EYFS setting in September 2020. The school serves the community in Longforth Farm and its immediate environs.

IKB is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who has a strong connection with Wellington and was the main architect and engineer of the Great Western Railway and the Clifton Suspension Bridge as well as many revolutionary inventions in the 1800s. It is his pioneering and innovative approach that has inspired the school as well as his connections with Wellington itself as he designed and built many of the buildings in Wellington.

IKB is a state-of-the-art school built in 2020, on the Longforth Farm estate of Wellington and is currently open to children of nursery, reception and key stage 1. It will grow organically by a year group every year, filling it’s 420 places over the next five years.

Beginning school is such an exciting time for children and their families – an opportunity to discover new relationships and make friends; to explore new environments and find out more about themselves; to develop new passions, learn new skills and further deepen knowledge. We pride ourselves on the inclusiveness and friendliness of our school and the close relationships between staff, children, parents and carers within our learning community.

We place each child firmly at the centre of everything we do.

We are a school driven by our values because we understand that our values shape our behaviours which in turn lay the foundations for our future successes.

Our IKB values include:

• Every Child Achieves - through our commitment to high quality teaching and learning opportunities, having high expectations of all children and staff and by providing an ambitious curriculum, filled with experiences.
• Every Child Belongs - through our commitment to safeguarding, our dedication to being inclusive to the needs of all children and families, and the smiles and positivity from all staff when they greet our children every morning upon their arrival.
• Every Child Participates - through our promise that all children will have tailored learning bespoke to them, opportunities for enrichment that allow them to develop passions for new experiences and activities, and that all children feel confident to ‘have a go’ within our learning community whatever the opportunity might be.

At IKB our ambition is that every child achieves his or her full potential, leaving with a rich experience of learning, enabling them to go forward and become lifelong learners.

The Blackdown Education Partnership is a multi-academy trust (MAT) working across Devon and Somerset. It was born of a merger between two established MATs: The Castle Partnership Trust and Uffculme Academy Trust and currently looks after a family of 10 schools: 5 primary and 5 secondary and 3 nurseries.

Blackdown Education Partnership is, therefore, a single organisation established to deliver the education and to safeguard the wellbeing of every child in our Trust. The Trust seeks to ensure that high quality collaboration and system leadership continue to improve the education in our schools. We are responsible for the good governance of the schools within our Trust and are accountable for the performance of each school. We work with an exceptional team of leaders, teachers and support staff whose combined efforts deliver on our promise to believe in every child.

For more information on the trust please click here.