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Briar Hill Infant School

Parent/Carer Handbook

Federation of Briar Hill Infant and St. Margaret’s CE Junior Schools

“Enjoying the journey together towards excellence”

Briar Hill Mission Statement

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Contents Page

Welcome to Briar Hill Infant School Page

Our Vision and Values 3

Growth Mindset & Building Learning Power 4

Our Curriculum in Reception 5

Our Curriculum in Key Stage 1 6

Our Uniform

Uniform 7

Book Bags, PE kit & Jewellery 8

Footwear/Accessories

Hair/Hair Accessories and Extreme Weather 9 The School Day

The School Day, Water Bottles and Playtime 10

Lunchtime and Free School Meals (Pupil Premium Funding) 11

Packed Lunch and End of the Day Routines 12

Absences and Punctuality 13

Children’s safety & Parking 14 Safeguarding

Taking Photos and Volunteers 15 Our Briar Hill Team

Meet the whole school team 16

Our School Organisation/Layout

Class Names and Organisation & Map of the School 17

SENDCo and SEND support 18

Home-School Links 18

Home Learning 18

Trips/Experiences 19

School Fund 19

Out of Hours Club 19

Complaints Procedure 20

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Welcome to Briar Hill Infant School

You can find this document and other additional information on our school website. www.briarhillstmargarets.co.uk (for info - a new version of the website will be launched in September 2018) Welcome We hope this handbook will give you an insight into our vision for teaching and learning in our school as we begin to work together and develop your child’s lifelong love of learning. We encourage positive and effective relationships with parents/carers and provide frequent parent sessions as well as being available before and after school if needed.

Celebration of Learning (come into school and look at your child’s books with them)

Book Sharing (come into school and read a story with your child)

Parent Information Sessions (these will cover different topics e.g. how we teach phonics)

Parent/Carer Evenings (an appointment with the class teacher to share success and progress and suggest targets)

At Briar Hill we all:

RESPECT ourselves, RESPECT others,

take RESPONSIBILTY for our own words and actions.

Vision We will provide high quality, creative and stimulating education within a safe, caring and happy school community, where all children develop a life-long love of learning

Values Our school is a place where:

Everyone is made welcome

We respect ourselves, others and take responsibility for all we do

We are all committed to being the best we can be

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Growth Mindset Growth Mindset and Building Learning Power underpin our Briar Hill curriculum and we aim to inspire children to know that with resilience, perseverance, and a positive mindset anything is possible! Improving children’s confidence and determination enables them to achieve well in all aspects of their development, academically, socially and emotionally. At Briar Hill we always promote the ‘have a go’ approach, which reflects that our best learning often happens when things are a little tricky or don’t quite go to plan. We inspire children to be inquisitive, interested and motivated thus evoking a life-long love of learning. Building Learning Power We are committed to building young people’s learning power; not just what they are learning, but more importantly learning how to learn. We use the research from Professor Guy Claxton’s pioneering work helping young people become better independent learners with four essential learning dispositions; Resilience, Resourcefulness, Reflectiveness and Relating. Just as people go to a gym to develop their physical fitness, pupils come to Briar Hill Infant School to develop their learning fitness. Just as bodies can become fitter, so too can minds. Building Learning Power is an integral part of lessons, assemblies and all we do at Briar Hill. We have four friendly animals that help us to use our Building Learning Power Muscles. Top BLP tips!

Ask your children what they have learnt, not what they did.

Encourage them to be independent and responsible

Use the language of BLP at home

Show them your own learning and talk about it.

Let your child make mistakes—it is the best way to learn

Acknowledge your own mistakes and how you made things work out in the end

Celebrate all your child’s effort, resilience and perseverance in and out of school.

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Our curriculum

“Our curriculum is creative, inspirational and purposeful”

Reception Children in Reception follow the Early Years Curriculum which includes 7 areas of learning. It places high importance on Communication and Language development, Personal, Social and Emotional development and Physical Development as well as Literacy (reading and writing), Maths, Understanding the World around them, including people and communities and technology, and Expressive Art and Design. Underpinning this are the Characteristics of Effective Learning skills. These are the skills your child uses and develops in order to know how they best learn and what skills they can use to help them with their learning. The Characteristics of Effective learning are closely linked with our whole school Growth Mindset and BLP approach. Our Early Years vision at Briar Hill Infant School is:

“Our inspiring curriculum and environment provides engaging experiences so that our

children learn through purposeful play, nurturing them to become happy, confident and

independent learners”

Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2) All children in Key Stage 1 follow the statutory guidance in the 2014 National Curriculum content including in the grids below for Year 1 and Year 2. At Briar Hill Infant School, we plan for a cross-curricular and progressive curriculum to engage and immerse all children in creative, inspirational and purposeful learning, to enable our children to make links, to provide opportunities to apply their taught skills, think independently and ‘have a go’. We place high importance around the development of the whole child in order to enable the children to become effective life-long learners.

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Our Uniform Uniform Our uniform represents that we are a whole school community who play, learn and grow together, taking pride in our appearance and being ambassadors for Briar Hill. The school uniform includes our school mission statement:

“Enjoying the journey together towards excellence” We recommend these suppliers for our school uniform:

www.schoolshopsales.com/briarhillwhitnash (online only and accessible via our school website)

Stitch-Tech Ltd, 7C Jenton Road, Sydenham Industrial Estate, Leamington Spa, CV31 1XS.

Chez Rama, Clemens Street, Leamington Spa, CV31 2DW Please label all items that come into school. We recommend this supplier:

Stickins using our school code: 2677 www.stickins.co.uk Children’s Uniform

Grey skirt, pinafore, skorts, grey shorts or trousers

Purple or yellow polo shirt (with logo on)

Purple or yellow sweatshirt

Grey/white socks

Black or grey tights (white in the summer)

Purple or yellow school summer dresses

Flat black shoes or black/white sandals in the summer (no trainers/boots)

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Book Bags Book bags are an essential part of the uniform as they enable the children to bring their reading books into school each day and bring any paper letters home (we strive to be eco-friendly and communicate paperless wherever possible). Reception children keep their book bags in the classroom. Yr1 and Yr2 have their own lockers in which to store their book bags throughout the school day. All children need a TRANSPARENT and CLEARLY NAMED water bottle in school every day with still, unflavoured water in it. We request that children do not have a rucksack due to space and ease of transferring letters/books to and from school. PE Kit (please return it to school each Monday)

Named PE bag

Plain coloured tee-shirt (you will be advised of house colour – either Green, Red, Blue or Yellow)

Black shorts

Velcro-fastened trainers

Black/navy tracksuit (winter only)

Spare socks (in case tights have been worn into school)

Jewellery No jewellery is to be worn in school with the exception of religious bangles and earrings. Earrings must be small and discreet, quick release studs. Sleepers or screw on backs do not meet health and safety guidelines. During PE religious bangles and earrings must be removed or covered to ensure the safety of all. If possible please remove the earrings on PE days. If your chid is able to take their own earrings out for PE lessons, please provide a named box as school is not responsible for the safe-keeping of earrings. If children are unable to remove their earrings, include a box of plasters in their PE kit as the earrings will need to be covered. School will provide a wristband to cover religious bangles during PE.

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Hair & Nails Hair must to be tied up and off the face with a black/brown/purple hair band. Alice bands/clips/small bows should be school uniform colours of purple/yellow (or natural hair colour). Large exaggerated bows/accessories are not permitted to be worn in school. Haircuts to be grade 2 or higher with no upper cuts/shaved patterns permitted. Please ensure nails are kept short. Children are not permitted to wear nail varnish to school.

Extreme weather Wellington boots/walking books can be worn to school if we experience wet weather or snow. Please provide school shoes as well for children to change into once they arrive at school. Children will need a hooded-waterproof coat in school every day as we access the playground in all weathers at playtime/lunchtime. On those very rare blistering hot days please ensure your child has sun cream applied before school and provide a sun hat each day.

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The school day

Routines and Essential Information

Morning: 9-12noon Lunch: 12noon-1pm Afternoon: 1pm-3pm Doors open at 8:50am Morning routines In order for the children to settle quickly each morning an adult is on the playground/at the class door from 8:45am. This provides an opportunity to pass on any messages etc. To help with effective communication please inform the class adult greeting your child at the door if you have a message for the class teacher e.g. they are being collected by a different adult. This message will then be passed on to the class teacher. We encourage all children to come into school at 8:50am as this gives them time to put their things away, settle into school and be ready for learning at 9:00am. Water Bottles We are a healthy school and encourage all children to have a transparent and clearly named bottle filled with unflavoured still water in school every day. Please can we ask that you buy a sturdy bottle as the flexible bottles tend to fall over and leak in school. Playtime All children are provided with a healthy snack at playtime so you do not need to send any additional snacks.

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Lunchtime Children eat their packed lunch/hot dinner in the school hall. They then have some time to play with friends outside supported by our wonderful team of midday supervisors. They play outside in all weathers so please ensure your child has a suitable coat/sun cream as appropriate. Since September 2014 all children between the ages of 4-7 years old have been entitled to a free school meal each day under the government initiative to ensure children are provided with a healthy meal. Our school kitchen provides an excellent two course lunch each day. The menu is on the school website should you choose for your child to have a hot meal each. Please inform the school office of any dietary requirements when completing entry to school paperwork. Please note: Should you wish to change from hot dinners to a packed lunch or vice versa we will need to provide two weeks’ notice to our admin team. If you choose hot school dinners this must be for each day of the school week. Free School Meal – Pupil Premium Funding Although all children are entitled to a free school meal, families who also receive certain benefits may be eligible for Pupil Premium Funding if you are in receipt of the following:

Universal Credit (dependent on annual income)

Income Support

Income based Job Seekers Allowance

Income related Employment and Support Allowance

Working Tax Credit (paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)

Child Tax Credit (dependent on annual income)

You can apply at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals or contact the school office for further assistance via admin2327@welearn365.com or phone 01926 422834 The following are also automatically entitled to Pupil Premium Funding.

Children adopted from care

Children with parents in the Armed Forces

Children that are looked after (in care of the Local Authority) This funding enables the school to provide extra support such as interventions, access to clubs and additional teaching resources. The school will also provide parents with a £50 budget that you can use to support your child’s education in any way. Some examples: to pay for school or external clubs, uniform, trips etc.

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Packed Lunch You may prefer to provide a packed lunch/drink for your child. Please can we ask that you include a small ice pack in their lunchbox and that the contents are suitable for a healthy lunch. Please do not send fizzy drinks or sweets. We also have a number of children with allergies in our school so please do not send nuts or nut products into school.

End of the Day Routines Children will be released to their adult from the classroom door at the end of each day. Please be patient as we get to know your faces. Releasing the children safely is our first priority – a friendly smile and wave helps us as we get to know you too. It is most helpful if you can:

Stand near the classroom door. Please note Reception Classrooms BH2 and BH3 are the far side of the playground to the right and BH1 is past the main office and left at the end of the car park

Year 1 and Year 2 classroom doors lead on to the main playground (BH4 to BH9)

Wave when you see your child with the school adult, so they know they can safely release your child to you.

Once children have been signed out at the end of the day they are not able to re-enter the school building – this is because all the adults will be monitoring the release of the children and therefore there will not be an adult to ensure their safety. There is time allocated at the end of the day to gather their things/pop to the toilet. This policy is to keep them safe and to know that they are under the care of their parent/carer from 3:00pm. After school clubs also follow this school system – signing each child out as they release them to their parent/carer. Please inform the class adult on the door if a different adult is collecting your child. You can give a list of adults that you give consent to collect your child to the office/class teacher. Children will only be released to adults for whom you have given consent. If this changes throughout the day please phone the office as soon as possible 01926 422834 (before 12noon whenever possible please) so we can inform the class teacher/your child.

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Pupil Absence/Punctuality We want to encourage all children to have a positive attitude to school life and learning and expect them to attend school when they are fit to do so. We appreciate that children need to stay at home when they are unwell and fully understand that home is the best place for them at this time. We closely monitor the attendance and punctuality of all pupils so that we can praise great attendance, but also so that we can support if attendance and punctuality is becoming an issue. You will appreciate that we have your child’s best interests at heart.It is most helpful when parents follow school procedures by informing the school before 9am of each day your child is absent.

Excellent attendance is considered to be 98-100%.

Good attendance is 95% or above. This means your child would have been at school for most sessions, missing the equivalent of an afternoon/morning

per fortnight.

90% attendance = one day missed per fortnight 85% attendance = one and a half days missed per fortnight

80% attendance = two days missed per fortnight

School start time is officially 9.00am although we encourage all children to be ready to come into school at 8.50am to allow for the children to get themselves organised and ready for a prompt and positive start to their day. Please call the school office by 9.00am if your child is unwell and will not be in school. You must call the school each that your child is absent. For sickness and diarrhoea, we have a 48hour remain off school policy following Public Health England guidance. For any other infections/illness please seek advice from the school office for how long your child should remain off school. Administering Medication If your child has been prescribed medicine, we ask that you to come into school to administer it. If your child has any medication that manages a longer-term condition you will be asked to complete a form giving permission for school staff to administer e.g. inhalers/epipens. Please inform school of any allergies when completing the data checking form or throughout the school year as needed. Behaviour Policy You can find our school behaviour policy on the school website. www.briarhillstmargarets.co.uk

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Children’s Safety – Car Park For the safety of all our children at Briar Hill Infant School and St Margaret’s Junior School parents/carers are not permitted to use the car park before school. After school club parents/carers can drive onto the school site after 4:30pm. If you have a disabled badge and need a car park-pass please liaise with the school office. The children use the path alongside the playground/carpark on entry and at the end of the day and to ensure they are safe on-site we request you adhere to our policy. If you need to drive please use our ‘Park and Stride’ system, parking at the Plough and Harrow or the Hod Carrier and walk to school. You can also use the Methodist Church for drop and pick up (but not between the hours of 9am – 2pm). Please note these car parks can only be used for drop and pick up and not for attending any other school events. We actively encourage children and families to cycle to school and therefore have secure bike racks for those children who are able to cycle to school.

Please remember we want all our children to arrive and leave school safely, as well as being mindful that our school is on a busy road.

Please be vigilant, courteous and park with the safety of all our school community at all times.

We are a school that cares about our school

and our wider community

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Safeguarding

“We are schools that are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff, community and

parents to share this commitment.” We recognise our moral and statutory responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of all pupils. We endeavour to provide a safe and welcoming environment where children are respected and valued. We are alert to the signs of abuse and neglect and follow our procedures to ensure that children receive effective support, protection and justice. The procedures apply to all staff, volunteers and governors and are consistent with those of Warwickshire Safeguarding Children Board (WSCB). We provide all staff with the necessary information to enable them to meet their safeguarding and child protection responsibilities to ensure consistent good practice and to demonstrate the school’s commitment with regard to safeguarding and child protection to pupils, parents and other partners Photos We know all parents/carers will want to capture those magic moments of children participating in school events. However, due to increased levels of data protection and safeguarding measures, which schools must comply with, we ask that parents also follow these guidelines. You may take photos of your child/children at school events so long as the image is only of your child as there are some children who are not permitted to have their photo taken in order to protect their identity and whereabouts. We appreciate your support in respecting each child and family’s privacy. We expect all parents to refrain from ever uploading images of any other pupils on social media without the prior parental consent. Safeguarding and Child-Protection: Volunteering in School We welcome volunteering adults in school. If you would like to volunteer in school, please send a letter of interest to Joanna Bessant. This can be via email beesant.j@welearn365.com. There are not always opportunities to volunteer in school as we organise this based on the current needs of the school. If we do have an opportunity Joanna will be able to discuss the role of volunteering in school and arrange for the required enhanced DBS clearance. Please note parents/carer volunteers do not support in the same class/year group as their own child. All of our volunteers are provided with an induction session and informed about our safeguarding systems.

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Our Briar Hill Team Governing Body Our Governing Body are committed to supporting the school to provide the best education for your children. Chair: Mr Richard Hawkes Vice Chair: Mrs Manjit Gill Executive Head Head of School Mrs Sukie Owers Mrs Kirstie Willis Teachers: Learning Support Assistants: Mrs Jo Jordan (Year 2 Leader) Mrs Karen Toth Mrs Lleryn Gardner Mrs Alison Bridges Mrs Liz Wylie Miss Tracy Gascoigne Miss Jo Clark Mrs Helena Foreman Mrs Sharon Padro (Year 1 Leader) Mrs Michelle Higgins Mrs Cara Calvert Mrs Kim Farmer Mrs Michelle Bassett Mrs Sheryl White Mrs Carolyn Dearing (Reception Leader) Miss Rebecca Layton Miss Jasminn Sandhar Mrs Jill Stewart Mrs Jane Catto Mrs Tracey Greaves Mrs Linda McAlpine Miss Clare Checkett Mrs Ruth Beeston (SENDCo) Mrs Joanna Bessant Admin Team Site Team Mrs Jo Latham (Business Manager) Caretaker: Mike Garnett Miss Jo Durk (Office Manager) Cleaning Team: Miss Jayne Adams, Mrs Joanna Bessant Mrs Kath Lloyd, Mrs Pasho Kaur Midday Supervisors We have an amazing team of MDS who support our children during their lunch break inside and out.

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Our School Organisation and Layout

We are a three-form entry school with children aged 4 to 7. We have three classes in each year group and the teaching teams work closely together to ensure that all the children in each year group are offered a creative, inspirational and purposeful curriculum that engages our children’s interest in learning and meets all their social, emotional and academic needs. Our classrooms and outdoor learning spaces are also well used to inspire and support learning and effective collaboration skills, which we believe will enable our children to be ready for life beyond Briar Hill.

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Class Names (Briar Hill = BH 1 to 9)

On entry into Reception the children are organised into three balanced classes following taster and induction days and communication with nurseries and parents. The children will then remain in these classes for their time at Briar Hill in Reception and then Key Stage 1 (Year 1 and 2). For those children who then go to St. Margaret’s the three classes are re-structured for their time in Lower Key Stage 2 (Year 3 and 4) and then re-structured again as they go into upper Key Stage 2 (Year 5 and 6). Children and parents are given the opportunity to be involved in this process. SENDCo and SEND support (Special Educational Need and Disability) Mrs Ruth Beeston coordinates provision for children in school with additional needs so that they access a wider range of learning opportunities appropriate to their needs. All of our staff are provided with exceptional training in order to meet the needs of each child on a day to day basis. The school makes excellent use of external agencies to further support our children. Home-School Links We understand that as parents/carers you are your child’s first and foremost ‘first teacher’. We know that children benefit greatly from regular and positive communication between home and school, therefore we offer many opportunities to develop this such as:

Curriculum Newsletters (sent home and uploaded onto the website to let you know what your child will be learning next half term)

Reading Records (record the books you share with your child at home)

Home Learning Books (to practise and share what your child has been learning in school)

Book Sharing (come into school to read a book in school with your child)

Celebration of Learning (come and look at your child’s books with them) We also hold curriculum events throughout the year to give you an insight into our curriculum and how you can help at home. These may include session such as: e-safety, growth mindset, phonics and early maths, Maths – the concrete, pictorial and abstract system, transition from year to year. We encourage you to read and discuss a book each day whenever possible and record a comment in your child’s reading diary each day. Research shows that a few minutes reading/talking about the text each day has a huge impact on the children’s love of reading, confidence and progress not only in reading but across the curriculum. Be a good reading role model and read to them/with them as often as you can.

Reception Classes Year One Classes Year Two Classes

BH1 BH2 BH3 BH4 BH5 BH6 BH7 BH8 BH9

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Home Learning Home learning will be sent home weekly. We ask that you return the book each Monday so the teachers are able to celebrate the home learning, mark the books and prepare the next home learning task for your child. Home learning will be linked to Maths and/or English/Topic to support your child’s progress. The learning will be an opportunity for your children to share their skills and understanding with you so that you can continue to help them at home. We believe that family time is important and therefore do not send home learning during any holidays. We know you do some wonderful activities during these periods and we are always happy to share their learning or experiences after the holidays. Trips/Experiences We endeavour to give the children as many ‘real life’ or experiential learning experiences as possible. All our trips are carefully planned for with a risk assessment completed by the leader of the trip. Consent and payment for trips is completed via ‘School Money’ School Fund The school fund enables us to purchase items that are not within the school budget and to subsidise activities so that our whole school community can participate. We ask for a family contribution of £5 per term or £15 per year. This can be paid via our online school money system. £5 per term or £15 at the start of the school year. All contributions are gratefully received. Communication Wherever possible we are a paperless school and so you will receive a text/email to inform of any communication. We also have community notice board next to the playground and regularly update the school website. It is really important that you keep us updated with any changes to your contact details. Briar Hill Out of Hours Club The before and after school club is organised and ran independently by the owner and coordinator Wendy Bicknell-Todd. Della Tyler manages the Briar Hill Club and will be your day to day contact during club hours 7:50am -9:00am and 2:30-6:00pm. Della’s contact number is: 07902132701 Outside of these hours please contact Wendy Bicknell-Todd on: 07831367612 or send an email to: www.briarhillkidsclub@gmail.com

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Complaints procedure Our school has an open-door policy and we actively encourage open discussion about any concerns you may have. The Class Teachers/Learning Support Staff are available every morning and after school. The Year Leads, Head of School and Executive Head are available, approachable and considerate to any concerns raised. For any concerns please speak to your child’s Class Teacher in the first instance. If you have a complaint you feel has not been resolved via the Class Teacher, please speak to the Year Leader. After this please contact the Head of School or Executive Head. In the unlikely event that your concern has not been resolved then we have a complaints policy for you to follow. A copy is available on our school website www.briarhillstmargarets.co.uk