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Volunteer Group

PARENTS HANDBOOK - AN UNOFFICIAL GUIDE

The following section has been written by parents, for parents as an unofficial guide to the school day!

There is year group specific information as well as elements which are applicable across all classes. 

We hope this is useful. If there is something you feel is missing and you'd love to have known before, please let us know and we can add it in! 

Registration

With COVID restrictions currently in place, there is a staggered drop off ( and collection) time for Children based on surname.

A to D - 8.45am/3.05pm

E to K - 8.50am/3.10pm

L to Z - 8.55am/3.15pm

There are posters displayed on the school gates to remind you of your arrival and departure times.

If you drive to school and arrive early, it's requested that you wait in your car rather than outside the school gates.

For children who scoot or cycle to school, there is a lockable 'bike rack' just inside the school entrance gates. There is strictly no scooting or running in school grounds.

At registration, children who are having a cooked school lunch choose their colour wrist band to match the meal they have chosen for lunch. (red, yellow, green). They should each have a clear water bottle to be kept on their desk throughout the day.

Break Time

Break is at 10-10.30.  There is always a member of staff on duty.  If the weather is foul, then it’s ‘indoor play’ in the hall.

Children can eat a snack at break if they wish. For Nursery, foundation and Unicorn class, healthy fruit-based snacks are provided for free.

Children in years 3-6 can bring in their own healthy snack.

 

Lunch Time

Lunch is from 12 noon, in staggered bubbles. Children take their water bottles with them to lunch. 

From reception to year 2 (inclusive) children are entitled to free school lunches.  Of course they can bring in a packed lunch if they prefer. This should be a healthy packed lunch with no nuts.

Upon reaching Year 3 children can continue to have school lunches throughout the rest of their time at school– these are £2.20 per meal and are paid for on Parent Pay. Some days they may prefer a packed lunch and this is confirmed daily at registration. 

Children line up and collect their meals from the serving hatch in the hall.  All the meals are freshly prepared on site. 

The current lunch menu can be found on the school website. Grace is always said before being seated.

After lunch there is lunchtime play until 1pm.  If the weather is foul there is ‘indoor play’ in classrooms within each bubble. 

 

End of Day

The school day ends from 3.05, with staggered pick up  depending on name. See registration.

Enter the school via the black gates and collect your child from outside their classroom. The teacher will call their name out so they know they can come out too you.

If your child is to be collected by someone other than yourself then email the school in advance, or tell the teacher.   For safeguarding reasons staff cannot send your child home with someone else unless they have permission.

Houses

There are four School ‘houses’ – Red, Blue, Green and Yellow.  Children are all randomly allocated to a house and siblings are all kept in the same house.  Children sit in their houses at lunch.  House Points are given out by members of staff to reward good behaviour, good work, good manners etc.  They are not ever taken away. 

Tokens are placed in a jar and counted weekly by the Year 6’s and a running tally kept.  At the end of each term the House Cup is awarded to the House with the most points and is adorned with the House Colour.

Uniform & School Bags

All of your child’s belongings should be named. We have several affiliate partners for name labels and stickers if you need any! Any uniform found around school that it not named will be put into the Lost Property box which is located in the school foyer. After a while in there it’s collected and put up for sale on the FB group for clothes exchange.  After that it goes in the school Rag Bin for recycling.

School book bags are used by all children. However from year 3 upwards there is a trend to use backpacks.  Don’t make these too big otherwise they won’t fit in the lockers! 

ParentPay

Payment and consent for trips, clubs and school lunches are made through ParentPay.  You should receive an invitation to sign up to this from school. You can set up a text or email reminder on your account to ensure you don’t go into debit on your account.

All school newsletters can also be found in parent pay.

Class Dojo

ClassDojo is an educational technology company. It connects primary school teachers, students and families through communication features, such as a feed for photos and videos from the school day as well as reminders and Homework for your class. 

School should send you an invitation to sign up to this app.

Summer Term

Your child will need to take in a named sunhat and for Nursery/Reception Yr 1 & 2 take in a named bottle of sun cream to be kept in the class. 

Years 3,4,5,6 keep their sun cream in their lockers.  Children need to be able to re-apply so you might want to consider applying the long lasting sun cream in the morning.

 

Hair

Generally it’s preferred that long hair is tied back. It doesn’t get in the way of painting, crafting, glueing and sport and helps prevent the spread of those little critters!

Speaking of nits, these do go round every now and then! Lots of treatments available to buy so let’s keep on top of them!

Early birds & After owls

Earlybirds club is open to all pupils, Monday to Friday from 8.00am to 8.45am.  The club is run by school staff.  Various activities are on offer at the club including craft, drawing, ICT games, board games, table tennis, lego, puzzles and outdoor games.

Places can be booked for the next term at a cost of £3.00 per child up to midnight the day before.  Should you wish to make a booking on the day then please contact the school office.   All payments should be made through ParentPay.

If parents wish, children may bring their own breakfast or snack to eat at the club but please bear in mind that this should be inline ine with our Healthy Schools policy and should not contain any nuts.

Hailey School is registered as a tax free childcare provider.  Visit www.childcare.tax.service.gov.uk for more information.

We have an after school club run by Teaching Assistants called After Owls.  Various activities are on offer at the club including craft, drawing, ICT games, board games, table tennis, lego, puzzles and outdoor sports and games.

The club is for all age groups from Mondays to Thursdays from 3.15pm to 5.15pm.  The cost of the club is £4.25  per hour.  Bookings can be made through ParentPay up to midnight the day before.  Should you require a booking on the day then please contact the school office.  All payments should be made through ParentPay.

Sickness & Injury

If your child is ill you need to let the office know by phone or email before the start of the day.  If they have been sick they need to be kept off school for two days.

If your child is ill or injured during school hours the school will contact you so make sure your contact details are kept up to date.

Nuts

There are children in school with serious nut allergies so no nuts are allowed at any time, for snacks, packed lunches or on home made cakes for events (including Nutella).

99 Club

Every Friday morning the children take part in a '99 Club maths challenge'.

'99 Clubs' are made up of a series of 9 graded timed tests, to encourage pupils to practise their mental maths skills. Pupils need to answer mental maths questions, in a given time, in order to earn our fabulous badges designed by the children themselves.

Lunch
Wrap Around Care

Nursery

Reception

Ms. Lizzie Griffiths (Teacher)

Mr. Way (Teaching Assistant)

Ms. Welling (Teaching Assistant)

Caterpillars - Joining the term after their 3rd birthday.

Butterflies - Joining in their pre school year

Dragonflies - Name for the reception year children.

 

Pre Covid, all children require indoor plimsoles and change from their outdoor school shoes on arrival.  

All children should have a change of uniform for their peg in case of accidents or wet water play!

Year Group Guides

Year One & Two

Unicorn Class.

Taught by Ms. Purves and Teaching Assistant Ms. Evans

Year Three & Four

Mrs Bev Clark (Teacher) Mrs Elizabeth Jarrett (Teaching Assistant)

Location – white door by bottom playground – straight on past the lockers to the classroom

All children should have black plimsoles for indoor shoes. These need to be kept in school every day and taken home during holidays to check fit.

 

A Locker is provided for each child to store their belongings. Only one bag (either a book bag or rucksack) is required as space in the lockers is limited.

 

PE lessons are on Wednesdays and Fridays. Make sure that your child’s PE kit is in school on these days but it’s recommended that it is kept in school at all times in case of a change of timetable or if your child needs to change their clothes. The PE kit is navy shorts/jogging bottoms and white PE top. A navy long sleeved top may be needed during the winter months as school tries to be outside as much as possible. If your child wears earrings then these either need to be removed for PE or covered with micropore tape, which they should keep in their PE bag. Trainers need to be in school at all times for Fit in Fifteen. (Which is ‘as many times as you can run or walk round the track’ by the trim trail in the playground and happens every day they don’t do PE and is pretty much in all weathers (excluding extremes!)

 

Spelling homework will be sent home on Mondays and should be returned to school in their homework folder on Monday morning.

 

Maths (Times Tables Rockstars) is set every Monday and should be completed by the following Monday. If homework is not brought in on the day then your child will complete the required homework during break time - This means sitting in the Foyer and doing the homework that’s not been done.

 

Times tables tests happen during the week

 

Topic homework:  Project for home that is set over every holiday. It could be writing, drawing, craft or a PowerPoint that your child has created.  An ideas sheet is often sent too. This is due in the first day back at school. It should be sent out at least a week before we break up so that there is time to collect items and if you are away on holiday – it gives you a fighting chance of getting it done!

 

Reading challenge: Your child needs to read 4 x a week for 5 weeks to receive a small prize from the Reading Chest. (Bookmark, Pen or similar). The reading should be recorded in their reading records and signed by you. The reading records also need to be returned on the Monday when stickers will be stuck in their book.  Your child should have their reading book at school every day as there may be opportunities in class for independent reading or to an adult.

 

Residential: Every other year the class participates in a one night residential (so your child will take part in either year 3 or year 4). This is a great opportunity for the children to enjoy a range of outdoor activities and working together as a team.


Swimming: Occurs in the summer term; children are divided into groups according to their swimming ability. These are usually 1-hour lessons for a period of 6 or 7 weeks. This is usually at the RAF Base at Brize Norton.

Year Five & Six

Mrs Sharon Jenkins and Mrs Jenny Nelson (Teachers)

Mr Hughes (Teaching assistant)

 

Location – white door by bottom playground – turn left to the classroom

Indoor shoes are no longer required in this class. Trainers should be in school every day for ‘fit in fifteen’ activities.

A Locker is provided for each child to store their belongings. Only one bag (either a book bag or rucksack) is required as space in the lockers is limited.

Homework requirements are communicated by the class teacher/s. At present, the following are required:

  • Spelling homework is set once per week, to be handed in on Monday morning. A spelling test is undertaken in school.

  • Maths homework is set each week in the form of Times Tables Rockstars and an exercise from a maths problems book.

  • Topic homework is set over every holiday as for Phoenix Class.

 

Responsibilities

Each child in year 6 takes on an ambassador role, this is a position of responsibility within the classroom or school. Examples include taking care of the class 99 club activities or collating the house points for the school.

 

Buddies

Each year 6 child is partnered with a child/children from the nursery/reception class to help them settle into the school. They can help them during lunch times and play times and also enjoy ‘buddy reading’ with them each week.

 

Sports Leaders

Children are given the optional opportunity to train as Sports Leaders in Year 6. Sport Leader led sessions are held during lunch times and children in younger year groups are given the opportunity to participate in these.

 

SATS

Mandatory KS2 Standard Assessment Tests (SATS) are undertaken during May of year 6.

 

Swimming lessons occur in the summer term, children are divided into groups according to their swimming ability. These are usually 1-hour lessons for a period of 6 or 7 weeks.

 

Residential

Every other year the class participates in a three-night residential (so your child will take part in either year 5 or year 6). This is a great opportunity for the children to enjoy a range of outdoor activities and working together as a team.

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