"Balshaw Lane Primary is an outstanding school that is highly valued by parents and carers. It offers a high standard of care, pupils' attainment is significantly above the national average and all elements of pupils' personal development are outstanding. "

Ofsted report, November 2011.

“Throughout all the years, each of my children have loved coming to Balshaw Lane and have found a love of learning thanks to their experience.  I would definitely recommend this school to everyone.”

“My son is happy at school and enjoys his time at Balshaw Lane - this is down to the fantastic teaching staff and senior leadership.”

“We are very happy with Balshaw Lane.  Both my children look forward to going to school.  As well as learning made fun and interesting, there are also lots of other exciting opportunities within school.”

Parents' Questionnaire comments, Autumn 2023.

Welcome to Balshaw Lane Primary!

I am delighted to welcome you to our school. If you are viewing our website for the first time, thank you for visiting us! We hope that this website gives you a flavour of what we're all about.

We are a warm and friendly school with a great family atmosphere. We constantly strive for high academic standards whilst also nurturing the children's creativity and skills for life. It is very important to us that our children have every opportunity to fulfil their potential and to become prepared for high school and adult life.

At Balshaw Lane, our ethos is very much based on traditional values so that we all respect each other and treat each other kindly. We explore values which are important to us and society, alongside our Learning Powers which help us to learn better.

We teach the children about how they fit into their local community and about being British citizens. British values are explored, with KS2 children enjoying debate about what these mean to us in everyday life.

Visitors constantly tell us how polite, thoughtful and well-behaved the children are, displaying respect for others wherever they go. The warm and friendly ethos of the school is evident in the relationships between the children and between the staff and the children. Because this ethos permeates throughout the school, behavioural incidents are very rare and the children are happy coming to school.

Our curriculum is lively and engaging which means that our children love coming to school. They skip through the gate with a smile in the morning! The staff make lessons interesting so that the children learn as much as they can. Quite often our lessons may be practical or creative or  outdoors - or all three!

We are a sporty school, having won the Sainsbury's Platinum Award and the Gold Award six times, the Lancashire Gold Award and several awards from Chorley Sports Partnership: 'Whole School Impact on PE' Award and highly commended certificates for 'School Participation' and 'Games Performance'. We also have several children who have been selected for the Partnership's Gifted, Talented and Able Academy. In the past few years, we have reached county finals for orienteering, for cricket for Y4/5 and Y6 and for tag rugby, won the Swimming Gala and the local boys' and girls' football competitions. Children from Balshaw Lane have danced in the opening ceremony of the Lancashire Games and one of our children designed the winning flag for the event. Many extra-curricular clubs are offered each term eg girls' football, yoga, body smart, tae kwondo, fencing, tennis, athletics, judo, dance.

Our music provision is excellent as we have a music specialist who teaches across school. We have a choir and recorder groups. Our choir participate in the Young Voices concert each year at the Manchester Arena. The children learn to play the ocarina in Year 3 in addition to the glockenspiel by the end of KS2. Individual music tuition is also offered in guitar, flute, keyboard, drums and clarinet.

We are very well equipped for Computing. The children are very competent in programming using algorithms. They design games, create iPad books and make stop/start animations. We have suites of laptops, iPads and control devices such as Beebots. Every classroom is equipped with an interactive whiteboard.

Our STEM work has included visits from astronomers and science experts and Mars Day work involving online sessions with Tim Peakes. We have gained the Space Education Award and are currently working towards the Primary Quality Science Award. We will be collaborating with BAE Systems on a 3D printer project this year. 

In 2023-24, we are continuing to work with the local Maths Hub to further develop our mastery approach. Our Maths No Problem scheme has been embedded for many years in our curriculum.

We have a Modern Foreign Languages specialist teacher who teaches French across Key Stage 2, alongside the classteachers. Our infants are introduced to languages through activities and events such as European Day of Languages. We have Language Ambassadors and use French vocabulary throughout the KS2 school week.

Our strong focus on the Arts has resulted in our success in gaining the Gold Artsmark. We are one of only a few schools in Lancashire to achieve this. We are very proud of this recognition of all the work we have done with the Arts in recent years.

We have won the Green Flag award for our eco work. The children are taught to become citizens who are responsible for our world, tying in with our school motto of 'Be the Change'. Our children have attended climate change debates at Chorley town hall and the COP26 Speakers' summit at Astley Park. We won the Euxton Parish Council eco challenge, winning £5000 for a forthcoming eco garden project.

This website aims to give you a taster of the school, as well as providing up to date information for parents, pupils and the wider community. Please have a look at our curriculum and class pages which show photos and videos of us in action!

Our main way to showcase school events is via Twitter (X). Our Twitter feed can be accessed at @BalshawLaneCPS. Each teacher also has their own Twitter feed.

We hope that you enjoy your visit to our website, and that you find the information you are looking for. If you would like to visit the school as a prospective parent, please phone 01257 278722. We would love to welcome you to our school.

Applications for school places should be made via the local authority. A link to Lancashire's primary applications website is at the bottom of our Admissions page. Please ask us if you need any help with the process. We are always happy to help!

Ms Helen Gregson

Headteacher

Comment from prospective parent:

"We were bowled over by how happy the children seemed and how courteous and dedicated the staff were with the pupils. I just wanted to let you know how impressed we were and how proud you and the team should be of the school, it was a joy to go around. "