School Building

A potted history

Built in 1953 to serve the new community of Johnson Fold estate, JFCPS is situated in North West Bolton, on the edge of the estate and adjacent to Moss Bank Park. It is close to Barrow Bridge Village and the suburban areas of Smithills, Doffcocker and Heaton.

We have enviable grounds which include pleasant lawns, patio areas, trim trails, play areas for our youngest children, playing fields, and our own forest at the back of the school buildings. We are fortunate enough to have not only a playground and quieter areas for sitting and chatting but also access to an astro turfed MUGA (mulit use games area) that we more commonly refer to as “the asi.”

The school originally consisted of seven self-contained classrooms with an assembly hall and a separate kitchen to provide hot meals.  A purpose built nursery was opened in 1975 and linked directly to the reception class.

Several interior walls have been moved and altered over the years to leave us with a 2YO Nursery Room; 3 & 4 Year Old Nursery Room; YR Room; Y1 Classroom all downstairs on the lower ground floor.

A community room was added in the 1980s at the far end of the building nearest Moss Bank Park. This has had several different uses over the years as an ICT suite; community room; library and the Startwell Centre before becoming the Y6 classroom (2009) and children’s kitchen (2016) as it is today.

The latest extension to this end of the building saw the disused courtyard area between the Y6 classroom and Kitchen, transformed into what we now refer to as Room 2 (2020). The Y6 class at the time wrote to governors asking for this extra room to be used as a Wellbeing Room and this year marks the completion and opening of this room.

The ground floor has the hall, ICT suite, library, offices, staffroom, photocopy room and intervention room. An extension to the front offices was added in 2006 with a further room (Room 4) added in 2015 to make use of space between the main school kitchen and the entrance; extend the offices and foyer and provide a disabled toilet at the front of the building.