About the school
Newnham Croft is a primary school funded and supported by Cambridgeshire Local Authority. About 230 children aged 4-11 years attend our school and most live in the community of Newnham. A significant number are children of Cambridge academics, many of whom come from abroad. This cultural diversity contributes to the rich learning environment that we provide in partnership with parents/carers and the wider community.
The school gates open at 8.30am, with a bell being rung at 8.45am to indicate the start of the day. Our break time is 10.30am-10.50am and lunchtime runs from 12pm-12.15pm for Early Years/KS1 and 12.15pm-1.15pm for KS2. The school day ends at 3.15pm and there are several after-school clubs available throughout the week.
Newnham itself is an established and friendly community, bordering the River Cam, Paradise Nature Reserve and Lammas Land. The school benefits from this green setting, and together with its own outdoor spaces (which amount to nearly two acres of grounds) allowing learning to take place both indoors and out.
Many Cambridge University Colleges are close by in the ward of Newnham, and the museums and cultural facilities of the city centre are a short walk away. Our links with both the University and the City are a huge asset to the school. Our children have been inspired by guided workshops on school premises by world class scientists; visited heritage sites with experts who can bring to life topic work from Egyptians through to Natural History. We also utilise strong links with other local schools to enable excellent access to sporting competition and swimming opportunities for the children as well as other events.
The school itself was built in the 1980s, and comprises eight classrooms, a computer suite, our school hall, a resources room, a food technology room, music room, a library area, offices, staff room and community room. There are facilities for the disabled and wheelchair accessible entrances. The classrooms themselves are arranged in two wings, one for each Key Stage, connected in the middle by our library. We have beautiful grounds with a large playground with an ‘Island’ play structure, a caged area for ball games, a large field suitable for an athletics track in the summer and football pitch in the winter, a productive garden, an international garden, a wild garden with a mud kitchen and a wildlife area which has a pond for pond dipping and an area for camp fires.
We value our grounds and have plenty of flowers and unusual trees for the children to enjoy. Children use the grounds for play and learning in all weathers!
The atmosphere throughout the school is friendly, warm and collaborative.
To find out more detail about our aims, please read the documents below.