St Mary Redcliffe Community Facilties Review

Management support, support for parents to go online, and preparation for Universal
Credit.
In addition the school is interested in accessing community space in the area more
for its activities, such as Faithspace and in linking the curriculum with community
projects and activities, such as St Mary Redcliffe Church’s Development Project.
4.6 St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School
St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School is the only Church of England Voluntary Aided
Secondary School in Bristol. It therefore has a wide intake from across the city, a firm
Christian ethos, and an admissions policy which prioritises church applicants. Each
year 7 intake also offers up to 16 places for pupils who live within 500 metres of the
school and up to 4 places for those with faiths other than Christian.
The school has a wide range of excellent quality facilities, including a sports hall,
main hall and stage, gym, swimming pool, dance studio and all weather sports pitch.
These are available for let in the evenings, weekends and during school holidays
and are very efficiently managed. Most of the hirers are organisations citywide and
the facilities are heavily used – the swimming pool, football arena and sports hall in
particular, are highly in demand. However the swimming pool has been used over
recent years by Redcliffe Children’s Centre and by the Redcliffe Ladies Swimming
Group. Whilst anyone can apply to hire these spaces, the main barrier for more local
community use is probably cost as the school needs to, as a bare minimum, cover its
own costs in hiring out these facilities.
However, the school does have an ongoing commitment to engaging with and
supporting the local community, which it demonstrates through activities such as its
annual free Christmas Party, and support for Redcliffe Lunch Club at Faithspace and
it seems there is potential for some flexibility and negotiation in terms of community
use of the school’s facilities.
In addition, the premises manager at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School is very
willing to provide support and advice for the Primary School in exploring and
implementing its plans for hiring out space.
4.7 Redcliffe Estate Community Rooms
There are three community rooms on the ground floors of the council owned blocks
at Yeamans House, Proctor House and Waring House. They are free to hire for
Bristol City Council tenants and bookable through the caretaking team. Relationships
between tenants and the caretaking team are very positive. Activities such as a
scrabble evening, meetings, footcare sessions and English and Qur’anic classes are
held at weekends at Waring House and Proctor House. Waring House Community
Room seems to be the most frequently used and there are some block bookings but
all three community rooms are underused. There was a small library facility at
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