PARENTS HANDBOOK
Accompanying
this handbook is a copy of our pupil behaviour and discipline policy.
Home/School Partnership
The success of your child at Trinity St. Mary’s very much
depends upon Home and School working together in a supportive partnership that
has your child as the focus.
To facilitate this relationship, we will make every effort
to keep you informed about your child’s progress through:
Teachers being
available to see you via an appointment through the office;
A twice yearly
opportunity to meet your child’s teacher and view your child’s work at a
Parental Consultation evening;
Autumn and spring term parent’ assemblies;
The ‘Home/School’
Diary in which you are invited to comment and also sign the Home/School
agreement together with your child;
An annual written
report about your child’s progress in July.
Apart from these ‘formal’ opportunities, the staff and I are
always available in the event of an urgent matter at the beginning and end of
the school day. Contact please via the School Office.
Welcome to Trinity St. Mary’s and please feel free to
contact me if you are concerned at any time.
Christina Gooday
(Headteacher)
INFORMATION
School Hours.
The bell is rung at 8.55
a.m.The ‘Lunch Hour’
is from 11.50 a.m. for Infants and 12 noon
for Juniors until 1.00 p.m.
Children going home for lunch should not
reappear on the school premises before 12.55 p.m. Afternoon break for Infants only
between 2.30 and 2.45 p.m. and school ends at 3.20 p.m.
The utmost importance is placed on
punctuality.
Entering/Leaving School
All children should enter and leave by the small gate into
the playground at the back of the school
Apart from the first term when the Reception class are settling
in, children should say good-bye to parents at the gate.
Parents are requested to leave the entrance
clear in order that children have easy access.
In the interests of safety pupils must never leave/enter through the
large car park gates. Children do not leave or enter via the main front
door.
Please note staff are on playground duty from 8.45 a.m.
and children should not arrive before this time.
Mid-day Meal
Children may:
a)
go home to lunch returning to school between
12.55p.m. and 1.00 p.m.
b)bring a packed lunch.
All lunch boxes
should be clearly named.
School Fund.
Suggested contribution to the School Fund of £5 per year per family
would be greatly appreciated, though this is purely voluntary.
In the current economic climate it is
difficult to buy all that the children need, and such contributions are of
enormous help to the school.
Medication
Except in exceptional circumstances, staff are not allowed
to administer medication. In the event
of a child being well enough to come to school despite needing medication,
his/her parent is invited to meet the child in the Entrance Hall at 12 noon to
administer whatever is required.Asthma
inhalers are kept in the office, marked with the child's name.
Children can use them as required.
When each child is at least 5 years old, the school nurse
will invite pupils and parents for a school health assessment in school. The
invitation will be accompanied by a questionnaire.
Uniform
We aim to make children proud of Trinity St. Mary's and as a
school we value the wearing of school uniform as a means of identity and
'belonging'.School uniform is to be worn at all times and parents are
urged not to change the classic style in favour of individualistic styles.
All uniform is now available at Patricias.
Boys
Grey shorts or trousers
White shirt
School tie
Plain grey or black socks
Maroon V-necked jumper with school logo or plain
Girls
Grey skirts or summer dresses from Patricias
White blouse
School tie
White plain ankle socks
Maroon V-necked cardigan with school logo or plain
Plain hair band (grey maroon or black);Plain grey,maroon or black tights
For those parents who have opted to buy grey blazers, badges
are available from the school office.
P.E. Kit.
Navy shorts (no logo). Navy tee-shirt with school logo.
Black plimsolls (slip-on type) up to size 6
Additionally, please would you provide your child with:-
P.E. bag which is easily recognised and
clearly marked with your son/daughter's
name on the outside.Also, a small
school bag for books/pencil.
an overall for art/craft
a handkerchief.
ensure hair is tied back for safety reasons on P.E. days.
An optional navy
jogsuit is available from Patricias and may be worn on occasions for outside
PE/Games, if your child’s teacher feels it is necessary.
Footwear
Low heeled shoes not boots in black/brown/maroon/grey
below the ankle.White sandals are
acceptable occasionally during the Summer Term. Boys. grey or navy plain socks.
Girls plain white socks or tights for winter wear to be plain navy, grey,
maroon or black.
Book bags
In order to look after your child’s reading book, we
strongly recommend that your child has a TSM book bag, available from
Patricia’s
Outdoor Wear
Only indoor uniform is obligatory. However, to facilitate counting or checking
children on outside school visits, and to maintain the high standard of
smartness that exists inside the school, it would be greatly appreciated if
parents would purchase raincoats/anoraks for their children.
School rules
In the interests of safety, apart
from watches,no jewellery is
allowed.
Watches are collected by teacher
at the beginning of each P.E. lesson.
Articles of value
(financial/sentimental) should not be brought into school since the school
cannot accept responsibility for loss. All items of clothing and personal
possessions should be clearly marked and coats/blazers should have hooks to
enable them to be hung tidily in a cloak room. Un-named, apparently lost,
articles will be placed in a lost property box and disposed of if unclaimed.
Bicycles
Space to store bicycles at school is extremely limited.
Bicycles brought into school must be pushed into school and stored in the racks provided.We do
encourage all cyclists to wear a protective helmet.
ATTENDANCE POLICY
Recent changes require us to have a formal policy on school
attendance based on the partnership between home and school.
The school is required to:
ensure that children are registered
morning and afternoon
decide if absences are authorised or
unauthorised
make attendance returns to Essex
County Council
What is
your role?
To ensure your child receives an
education
Take responsibility for
attendance and punctuality
To make sure your child is properly
attired
To see that your child is ready and
able to learn
To report reasons for absence
What do
you do?:
You need to
let us know either by phone or note when your child is ill and unable to come
to school on the first day that this
happens and tell us when you would expect them to be returning to school.
If you don't know at that time when they
might be well enough to return then let us know later.
What the
school does
We have to decide whether the absence is
‘authorised’ or ‘unauthorised’.
A vast
majority of absences are authorised, i.e. illness, visits to doctors/dentists,
bereavements.If the absence is
unexplained or not justifiable it will be deemed as unauthorised
Do
holidays count as authorised
absences?
Yes, as long
as we have prior notice by way of a holiday form from the school office and we
feel that the absence would not be detrimental to your child’s education. Our
policy is that a maximum two weeks each academic year can be taken as holiday,
i.e. 20 sessions. I would however urge parents to consider carefully the wisdom
of holiday during term time and especially holiday that extends beyond two
weeks. If you are contemplating a holiday in term time, a holiday absence form
is available from the School Office.
What happens if your child is late for school?
We place
great emphasis on punctuality and if your child arrives after the register has
been marked by the class teacher they will be marked late.
Attendance and punctuality will form part of
the annual report that you receive about your child.
Who will know about your child's attendance?
Your child's teacher will check the register and pass it to
the school office. The Headteacher will
regularly monitor attendance/punctuality and will be in contact with the
Education Welfare Officer, who is able to follow up any attendance
problems.If you wish to contact the
Education Welfare Officer please do so via the Headteacher.
Behaviour and Discipline Policy
Dear Parents
At Trinity St. Mary’s we have a whole school
Behaviour and Discipline Policy including anti bullying procedures.Your
child deserves the most positive learning environment in which to grow and
develop as a young person. As a caring Christian community,
we have three non negotiable
‘rights’ that apply to all members of
our school.
They are;
the right to
be safe
the right to
learn/teach
the right to
respect/to be respected
These rights, applicable to all, help set the framework for relationships within
the School. As you can see from our
rules below, we are starting from a positive approach to pupil behaviour. The
list below outlines our School ‘Golden Code of Conduct’.
Our ‘Golden Code of Conduct’ gives guidance to each child in
making the right decision about his or her behaviour.
School Golden Code of Conduct:
Be forgiving, kind and polite from
morning till night.
Do as you
are asked to do by the adults in charge of you.
If you have nothing kind to say, say nothing
at all.
Use your hands to help, not hurt.
Take care of your School and the belongings
of others.
Work hard, be organised and always do your
best
Other Class based rules/charters
will be adopted depending on the situation and will be on class
display but will always support the ‘rights’
listed above.
How we will
encourage good pupil behaviour at school
1. Lots and lots of praise from the staff, using the child’s
name and giving the reason for praise thereby boosting self esteem.
2. Doing ‘jobs’ in class and within the school eg. ‘traffic
duty’, library and class monitors.
3. Awarding team points and using the
Home/School Diary to act as a means of communication to parents.
4. By awarding stickers, stars and stamps.
5. By using assembly time to recognise and publicise examples
of good behaviour.
6. Using the ‘Golden Book’ to record acts of special
kindness and thoughtfulness.
How will we
discourage bad behaviour at school
Sometimes children may forget our rules for good behaviour.
We will try to prevent this by reminding children of the rules and praising
good behaviour as it occurs.
It may be necessary to deal with serious or persistent bad
behaviour by:
1. Giving a reprimand and reminder of appropriate behaviour.
2. In class for the older children, putting the child’s name
on the board as a warning and an opportunity for them to choose an appropriate
mode of behaviour.
3. Putting the child’s name in the ‘Discipline book’ which
will result in the child missing a school break.
4. If the child’s name appears in the ‘Discipline book’
twice in the same week or more frequently a letter will be posted to parents
which the parents will be asked to acknowledge.
5. If another letter is required during the same term, it
will invite parents to meet the headteacher to discuss the child’s behaviour.
The child’s behaviour will then be monitored very closely and subject to
regular review.
In extreme cases, it may be necessary to suspend a pupil.
This will only ever be considered after all possible alternatives have been
explored.
Anti Bullying Policy
Our Behaviour Policy emphasises a positive approach to pupil
behaviour and relationships. If however
your child does suffer from bullying, either physical or verbal, we will
act swiftly and promptly. All staff
have clear guidance in this matter and will deal sympathetically with an
allegation. Encourage your child to explain how they feel to a member of staff
and emphasise to them we are a ‘telling’ school and will not tolerate bullying
within our community.
How you as parents
can help:
1) Make your child aware of appropriate behaviour in all
situations.
2) Encourage independence and self discipline.
3) Show an interest in all that your child does at school.
4) Foster good relationships with the school.
5) Support the school in the implementation of
our Behaviour
6) Be aware of the school rules and expectations.
I would like you to talk through our code of conduct with
your child and sign and return to me the accompanying form. Thank you for your
help and support
Yours sincerely
class teacher
headteacher
..........................................................................................................................................
I have spoken with my
child about the Behaviour Policy as well as the rewards and sanctions. We will
support the school in the implementation of this policy.
Child’s name (printed).........................................................
Class ............
Child’s
signature............................................
Parent’s
signature........................................
Date..............................................