Times

Please arrive promptly.

On a morning, gates are open from 8:40am to 9:00am.  If you arrive and the gate is closed you will need to go to the main entrance.  Unless children are attending our breakfast club or after school club, children can only be left from 8:45am with a member of school teaching staff or office staff and must be collected on time at the end of the school day, at 3:20pm.  Breakfast club starts at 7:45am. Children cannot be left before this time. Nursery children are not able to attend Breakfast Club due to their age and supervision/staffing requirements.

Car Park Gates

There are automatic gates to gain vehicle access onto our school site. The car park is reserved for staff and official visitors.

In order to allow access at all times for emergency vehicles and deliveries, visitors must never park in front of the main school gates. There is a significant amount of FREE parking at the Recreation Ground.

Scooters and Bikes

Children will not be able to bring a bike or scooter to school and keep it on school premises without wearing a helmet. If your child brings a bike or scooter to school without wearing a helmet, you may be contacted to bring one or to collect your child’s bike or scooter.

This approach is down to one of our children unfortunately having a serious accident. We take the safety of our children very seriously.

Bike racks are located by the Year 5 and 6 entrances. The school will not take responsibility for bikes or scooters left on the school premises either before, after or during the school day. We do encourage children to bring a suitable bike lock.

Your Child’s First Day as a Nursey Child

You will have been informed when to bring your child for their first day. Please make sure that you have made a note of this date and time. This may not be the same date for all children as staggered start dates and times have been carefully organised to help the children settle and so that a greater amount of attention can be given to each child who is new to our school.

On the first day please bring your child to the team will come and greet your child and bring them in to the building. We appreciate that it may be difficult for you to leave your child initially and perhaps for your child to leave you.  All children are different and will settle in different ways.  A quick definite goodbye is often best but you know your child and can settle them best in your own way.  If you need help, please ask.

All children do settle happily, but some can take longer than others. Children who settle initially, may become unsettled after a week or two. Usually the re is a simple explanation, but if you know of reasons for this, you may wish to talk to staff to enable us to resolve any problems quickly. If your child is upset it is important to reassure your child that you will be back soon to see what they have been doing and explain what you will be doing while they are at school.

Your Child’s First Day as a Reception Child

We want our children to settle into full time school as soon as possible and recognise that some children will have attended Nursery on a full-time basis. For this reason, we do not have a reduced day for many of our children starting their reception year. Reception aged children will attend for the full day from the beginning.

We also recognise that some children will take longer to settle than others. For those children we will endeavour to work parents and carers to develop a supportive, individual plan to allow each child to settle as quickly as possible.

We appreciate that it may be difficult for you to leave your child initially and perhaps for your child to leave you.  All children are different and will settle in different ways.  A quick definite goodbye is often best, but you know your child and can settle them best in your own way.  If you need help, please ask.

If your child is upset, it is important to reassure your child that you will be back soon to see what they have been doing and explain what you will be doing while they are at school.

Where to Drop Off and Collect Your Child

Our Foundation Stage children have their own dedicated exit and entrance. This is via the gate onto their outdoor learning space next to the main school car park. There is clear signage to direct you to the correct entrance and exit. If you are not sure where this is, please just ask someone and they should be able to point you in the correct direction.

Rainbow Room

Some of our children access our Rainbow Room. These children have their own entrance and exit which is the door on the main car park side in the glass walkway, which connects the 2 buildings.

Beginning of the Session

You and your child will be greeted at the Foundation Stage door.   Staff will bring children into setting.  The children take off their coats and hang them on their peg and find either their photograph or their name card when they are ready -  this is an important learning opportunity. Staff will help and encourage your child to complete these routines on their own, to improve their independence skills.

All staff will do their best to ensure all coats and belongings are kept safe in the cloakroom. Please help us by clearly naming all of your child’s peg your child’s belongings in an obvious place with a permanent marker that can be seen. 

Staffs’ first priority is to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children.

End of the Session

It is really important to collect your children on time. It would help if you could arrive 5 minutes before the session ends. At the end of the session the staff will make sure that all children are handed over safely to their parent or carer to go home.

To help manage a large number of children safely at the end of the day the gates to the outside area will be opened and we ask that adults come onto the yard and wait by the designated door:

• Mrs Venner’s class – the door, on the right-hand side, at the top of the steps next to water area
• Miss Crane’s class - the middle doors at the top of the yard

It would be really helpful if parents could ensure that they leave a clear pathway for other parents to exit with their children and not block the gate- thus allowing free flow of people.

Children should always be collected by a responsible adult over the age of 18 who is known to school staff and to your child.  Staff must always know who is expected to collect your child. If it is necessary for another adult to collect your child, please let staff know as soon as possible.  You are always able to contact the school office to inform them of any changes. We would appreciate it if this could be done in plenty of time, not at the last minute. We have a duty of care to keep all children safe, therefore children may not be collected by any other adult without the knowledge and permission of the parent/carer.

We take safeguarding very seriously and the adult collecting your child:

• Must be known to your child.
• Must be named on our list of named adults.

Under normal circumstances we ask you to name a maximum of 2 familiar adults other than yourselves as parents/carers who are able to collect your child.

Daily Routines

In addition to group times, children have different opportunities at various times of the day, to choose where they wish to learn through play and apply their learning. This may be indoors or outdoors.   

The children also have the opportunity to take part in woodland sessions. You will get a letter after your child has started school so that you know when your child will be having these sessions.

Milk is provided free of charge.  All children are encouraged to drink some every day.  Alternatively, water is available.

Children in Nursery receive a piece of fruit or vegetable each day that they are in Nursery. We also provide buttered bread for our children each morning.

School Meals and Lunchtime Arrangements

Chartwells provides our school meals service.  Children have lunch in the dining room.

Reception children all qualify for a free school meal as part of Government funding. This is known as Universal Free School Meals.  All of our Reception children will be provided with a free school meal.  Children are able to bring additional items from home, if you are worried that there will not be food that they will eat. However, there is always a wide choice of hot and cold meals including sandwiches every day.  Menus are sent out each term. 

We also have pre-booking system via ParentPay which allows you and your child to choose what your child eats from a selection of menus. This system means that all children can have a meal of their choice.  For further guidance please see our website.  We appreciate that some children may take a little while to adapt to school dinners so we will allow children to bring in other items to go along with their dinner in line with our healthy eating guidelines. 

Any additional items, for the safety of pupils who have nut allergies, must not contain nuts - this school is a nut-free zone.  Please do not send your child to school with products which include any nuts, nut products or chocolate spread.

We do not allow fizzy or isotonic drinks as they are high in sugar.

Getting Involved

Throughout the year we have lots of events that you can be involved in such as our MacMillan Coffee Afternoon, play and stay sessions, summer fayre, sports day, end of year celebration assemblies and Christmas singing and craft sessions. We are always delighted when you can join us.

If you can also spare some regular time supporting learning and activities within school, we would be delighted to hear from you. For obvious reasons this may not be based in your child’s class. Please contact Mrs Watson (Deputy Head Teacher) via the school office if you would like to and are able to be involved in this way.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Throughout the school year we have a full programme of after school and lunchtime activities. Many of our Nursery children join after school activities such as:

• Forest school
• Ball and games skills
• Arts and crafts

Places are obviously limited and are allocated on a first come first served basis. Information about available after school activities is sent out via email or via the Group Call App. It is important to respond straight away as places are often taken very quickly.

Widening Children’s Experiences

Throughout the year our staff organise many wonderful experiences for our children. We look forward to seeing your child be part of events such as:

• Teddy bears picnic
• Pirate day
• Farm visits
• Forest School
• Polar Express Day
• Chick hatching project
• Christmas parties

We look forward to working in genuine partnership with you and hope that your child remains with us for the entirety of their time at Primary School.