Selborne Primary School

  • SearchSearch Site
  • Translate Translate Page
  • Unifrog FROG
  • MyUSO MyUSO
  • Twitter Twitter
Close
Close

HEADTEACHER'S WELCOME 

Selborne is a large (3 form entry), spacious school with an outstanding team of dedicated professionals who passionately ensure that all of our 660 pupils succeed.

Committed, hardworking and caring, all staff - including our talented Governors - have high expectations of our pupils and of each other. We want to fully prepare children for their next stage of their education and empower them to contribute in their own communities, outside of school.

Our school motto is to ‘Inspire and Achieve’ and we live this through our six school keys which promote the school values. This compliments our outstanding curriculum: one which is relevant and real to our pupils and teaches them independence and thinking skills, alongside knowledge. When Ofsted inspected Selborne Primary School in May 2017, they rated the school as Outstanding in absolutely all areas. We are not complacent and when Ofsted inspected our school again in November 2023, they confirmed that the school continues to be Outstanding and that ‘pupils excel in every aspect of their education’.

Pupils at Selborne are at ease with staff and their peers who come from a multiplicity of cultures and backgrounds. We respect others’ views and actively seek to understand others’ beliefs. Our reinforcement of common, shared British Values fosters this further. Right across the school, pupil behaviour is exemplary and pupils’ attitudes to learning are impeccable. Pupils feel safe and happy at our high performing school.

A warm welcome awaits you at Selborne. Come and see our wonderful school and everything that we can offer your child.

Mrs K. Shilling

Headteacher

Winner of Headteacher of the Year (Ealing and Hillingdon) (2019)

Winner of London Headteacher of the Year (2019)

 

 

School History

Our school is located in Perivale in the London Borough of Ealing, but it gets its name from the village of Selborne in Hampshire.

The Selborne Society was founded in 1885 to commemorate the life of Gilbert White (1720-1793), the Curate of Selborne in Hampshire and father of British natural history. As well as his acute observations and understanding of the relationship between living organisms and their environment, White was also a talented writer. His observations are recorded in a series of letters published in 1789 as "The Natural History of Selborne", now a classic of English literature and still in print.

In 1902, members of the Brent Valley branch of the Selborne Society created a bird sanctuary at Perivale Wood. The Society purchased the wood in 1920 to mark the bicentenary of Gilbert White's birth. It was declared a Site of Special Scientific Interest  (S.S.S.I.) in 1957 and upgraded to Local Nature Reserve Status in 1974.

Perivale's links with Selborne in Hampshire led the school to being named after that village. The pupils of our school have visited the village and Gilbert White's house, and the school has access to Perivale Wood, which provides excellent facilities for the observation of birds, mammals, pond life, butterflies and other insects.

Selborne School is now a primary school, but originally opened in 1936 as a secondary school for boys. The new Gilbert White building was opened in 2007 and now accommodates the Year 4 classes. A further extension to the main building in 2013, made extra classrooms for Year 6, offices and the ARP. In 2014, an annexe was added to the Gilbert White building for Year 5.

This is one of our earliest photographs of school life. It was sent to us by Mr. Wells (far left). The teacher is Mr. Pendrey and the photograph is believed to date from around 1940.

Below is a photo of pupils in the KS1 playground ready for the Queens Jubilee parade in 1977!