St. Ursula’s is situated in Westbury-on-Trym, in a modern purpose-built facility that boasts a large playing field, sensory garden and wooded area. The parents and local community are hugely supportive of the school. There is a real community feeling with staff, children and parents all working closely together.

St. Ursula’s is a safe and nurturing academy where safeguarding and the well-being of our children is our utmost priority. The academy not only wants children to achieve academically, it values their personal, social, moral and emotional development. We want our children to leave St. Ursula’s well-rounded, knowledgeable, resilient and ready for the next part of their academic journey.

That it had improved on its previous ‘Good’ to ‘Good with Outstanding features’ most notably in the Personal Development and Welfare of the children.

We pride ourselves on our curriculum which we have been developing for 2 years. It focusses around 5 key pillars which are as follows:

• Knowledge and vocabulary rich
• Improving long-term memory
• Clear progression
• Disciplinary progression
• Critical thinking

We want our children to ask questions and not be led by national, or media induced stereotypes but to form their own opinions from the rich knowledge base we provide them with.

We aim to inspire the children to make positive contributions to their community through carefully planned career centred activities.

As St. Ursula’s is part of the E-ACT multi-academy trust, we work closely with five other E-ACT schools in Bristol. This collaboration has helped enormously to develop teaching standards in our academy. We are able to work with experts in their respective fields, share ideas and best practice and as a result continually develop and improve the standard of teaching and learning we offer our children.

Nicky Hamilton

Headteacher

At St Ursula’s E-ACT Academy we have three core values: achieve, believe and create.

These words are enshrined in our academy crest and influence everything we do. We are pupil-centred and every decision we make is based on one question: will it improve outcomes for our pupils? If the answer is no, then we will not pursue it.

‘Learning together to become the best we can be, in an inspiring and happy community’

OUR MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission statement was created by staff and pupils and we truly believe that we work towards this aim everyday. All staff are committed to ensuring that our pupils are safe, happy and are getting the most out of their education.

St. Ursula’s is a Rights Respecting academy and we encourage UNICEF’s key values of respect, acceptance and helping others in our everyday actions. UNICEF’s values are intrinsically linked with British values, and we promote these throughout the whole curriculum and assemblies. Pupils are expected to display these positive attitudes and are rewarded when they are seen to be carrying them out.

Discrimination is not accepted at St Ursula’s. Staff are trained to recognise any such attitudes, and we work collaboratively and transparently so that pupils’ welfare is at the centre of everything that we do.

We are proud to be one of 28 E-ACT academies in England.

Our community includes over 18,000 pupils and 2,300 teachers and non-teaching professionals across the country.

What it means to be part of E-ACT

As an E-ACT academy we share ideas with other academies in the trust in ways other schools may not be able to. Our pupils and staff also feel part of something much bigger.

E-ACT academies also have support from people across the trust who help us to make things even better for our children.

An E-ACT Academy in Birmingham, E-ACT Heartlands Academy, was ranked one of the best secondary schools in the country and was named School of the Year at the Times Educational Supplement schools awards in 2020.

Think big, show team spirit, do the right thing

We believe that young people should never be held back from achieving great things.

By encouraging them to think big and believe that anything is possible, by showing them the importance of team spirit and by supporting them to carefully think through decisions to do the right thing, we know that every one of our pupils can realise their full potential.

At E-ACT, we have an excellent network of support and educational expertise across our 28 academies to deliver the very best education to our pupils. We have 2,500 colleagues who each play a vital role in educating our 18,000 pupils.

Delivering high level education to our academies

There is great scope to develop your career at E-ACT. Being part of a large trust means you have access to a wide variety of training and resources. Most importantly, as well as the pride in teaching our pupils, you will feel part of something that goes far beyond the four walls of an academy. You can make a big impact to many lives!

Delivering key services to our academies

Our trust is comprised of people who share a great passion for our academies. Being part of a trust means you can work with like-minded people from different skillsets such as:

Governance

Finance and procurement

Estates and facilities

Marketing and communications

Human resources