Welcome to The St Luke`s Junior School!

St. Luke`s Junior School is a thriving community school committed to offering an education which gives our children a love of learning, broadening their horizons and enabling them to make informed choices in life. We celebrate the uniqueness and talents of all our children.

We have high expectations of behaviour and achievement in all areas. We therefore focus equally on the personal, social, and academic development of all our children. We expect children who leave St. Luke's Junior School to be confident and highly motivated independent learners who are caring and positive citizens.

The commitment of the staff and the quality of teaching and learning in the school are excellent. We work in close partnership with parents and carers keeping them fully informed of their child's progress. We are a very open and welcoming school and we value the ideas and opinions of all our community.

We received a very good Ofsted report in January 2003 which highlighted the many strengths of the school. You can access the report via this website. I would also be very pleased to give you a tour of the school if you like to call or email for an appointment.

We hope you enjoy visiting our website which gives you a glimpse of the exciting education we offer our children.

Jonathan Cooper - Headteacher

St Luke's School is a striking building in St Luke's Terrace, located in the Queen's Park area of Brighton. It was built in 1903 to the design of prestigious local architect for the Brighton and Preston School Board, Thomas Simpson.

On the morning of 20th July 1903 the impressive school opened its doors for the first time. The pupils arrived from the nearby Finsbury Road School, marched in procession along St Luke's Terrace with their books and belongings. Kathleen Back, pupil at the school from 1908, recalls her mother talking about the event, where the streets surrounding the school were full of people cheering and welcoming the pupils.

At this time, the juniors were educated separately; the Girls' Department was housed on the middle corridor, with Miss Thomas as the Headmistress and the Boys' Department was located on the top corridor overseen by their Headmaster, Mr Dewdney. They were aged between 7-14 years. The infant classes however, were co-educational and positioned on the ground floor of the school and they had as they do today, their own Head, separate entrance and playground.

During the First World War, the school was closed for a short while to serve as a hospital for Indian soldiers injured in the fighting. Fred Tester, who was at the school from 1912, remembers being sent to Elm Grove School during this time.

In 1928, the Boys Department became St Luke's Terrace Senior Boys' Council School for boys aged 11-14 years, with Mr Dewdney remaining as their Headmaster. The Girls' Department became St Luke's Terrace Junior Mixed School for pupils aged 7-11 years old, presided over by a new Headmistress, Miss Dutton-Briant.

When the junior girls reached eleven years old they then left to attend Elm Grove Senior Girls (unless they passed the Scholarship). The junior boys however, were able to move up to the top corridor at the age of eleven and join St Luke's Senior Boys, unless they too passed the Scholarship.

In 1956, the Senior Boys left the top corridor of St Luke's and returned to Finsbury Road School, although they retained the name of St Luke's Senior Boys. Also at this time, the junior classes from Finsbury Road School joined together with those from St Luke's and the school became known, as it is today, St Luke's Junior School.

We highly value citizenship and social responsibility at St. Luke’s. We are committed to giving our children a voice within our school and enabling them to be positive and active members. We have therefore established a School Council which meets on a fortnightly basis to discuss and plan improvements to the school. The Council is made up of one child representative from each class. They have been voted for by their classmates and are there to represent their views. Before the full Council meets, each individual ‘ Class Council’ comes together and suggests issues to be taken forward by their representative. So far the School Council has brought about major improvements to the school meals and the anti-bullying policy. They will be working on the playground improvement committee, the new playground policy and will be fully involved in designing improvements to the new outside toilets.

School Councillors

Nicole 6M Itasca 6F Joe 6C

Joy 5S Ellie 5R Sam 5D

Oscar 4J Poppy 4H Maddie 4E

Danielle 3JB Thea 3W Jeven 3P