Drove Primary School

Drove is a large primary school set in the middle of Swindon town centre. It is a three-form entry school with approximately 650 children on roll. Drove also has its own nursery for children from aged 2 yrs to 4 yrs based in three settings. Attached to the school is a children’s centre, which provides support for many of our families. Drove Primary School is a truly multi-cultural school with 41 languages spoken. The main home languages spoken include: Konkani, English, Bengali, Urdu, Portuguese, and Polish. The school has a high mobility of pupils, namely around 44.6% from KS1 to KS2, with the Goan community being by far our largest ethnic minority group in school. Drove is part of a large federation of schools called The White Horse Federation (TWHF), as well as being the joint partner in a Teaching School for the DfE and NCSL. Being part of the Federation comes with many advantages, both for children and staff. TWHF offers support through many different routes, including bespoke training packages for all levels of teachers, from NQT to senior management. Opportunities are also available for teachers to experience other settings within the Federation, as they are encouraged to work collaboratively with planning and moderation as well as participating in some of the exciting new research and innovation groups. The children attending Drove have benefited enormously from being part of a larger federation of schools. We have had opportunities to work collaboratively, organising key events that have included an arts festival and science festival as well as numerous sporting events. Other benefits have included support from our secondary colleagues with P.E. training, use of swimming facilities, and the use of multiple minibuses to transport children from site to site and on different school trips. All of this has added a much greater dimension to the education of the children at Drove and across The White Horse Federation.