Parent Zone

Important Information for Parents

This section covers the following: Who to Contact; Parental Responsibilities; Reporting Pupil Absence; What to do if your child is unhappy in school; Dealing with Head Lice; Free School Meals entitlement; PTFA

Who to Contact

All enquiries to school should be made via the school office on 01744 678430.

A member of the office staff will then transfer your call to the appropriate person.

For all general school enquiries please speak to a member of our office staff :-

Mrs Clare or Miss Whitehead

If you wish to speak to your child’s class teacher please speak to a member of the office staff first and they will pass your message on to the class teacher.

If you wish to speak to a member of the Senior Leadership Team please ask to speak to:-

Mrs Young – Headteacher

Mrs Beechey – Deputy Headteacher

Mr Hardy - Partnership Deputy Headteacher

Mrs Moore - SENDCo and Inclusion Leader

If you are calling with regards to a safeguarding issue or concern please ask to speak to :-

Mrs D Morris - Pastoral and Safeguarding Manager/Deputy DSL

Mrs Beechey - Deputy Headteacher/DSL

Mrs Young – Headteacher/Deputy DSL

Mr Hardy - Deputy Headteacher/Deputy DSL

If you are calling with regards to Breakfast Club, Afterschool Club or extra-curricular clubs and activities please ask to speak to :-

Mrs Clare or Miss Whitehead (for extra curricular clubs)

If you are calling with regards to your child’s attendance please ask to speak to :-

Mrs D Morris or Mrs Beechey

Parental Responsibilities

Establishing excellent working relationships with the parents of our children is very important to us here at Parish, as it helps to ensure that all children reach their full potential. We believe that, in order to ensure that relationships are as effective as possible; all parents have certain responsibilities that they need to fulfil. These are to:-

  • Ensure your child/children attend that school regularly and arrive in school on time.

  • Inform the school of the reason for any absence.

  • Attend parents evening or any other appointments to discuss your child’s progress or well-being.

  • Support the school rules and regulations.

  • Initially contact the class teacher with any concerns. If concerns remain, the matter should then be taken to the Headteacher or Deputy Headteacher and then the Governing Body. A formal process can be implemented for any unresolved issues.

  • Support children with home study, reading and other activities.

  • Let the school know about any concerns or problems which may affect a child’s learning.

  • Ensure that your child follows the school dress code.

Reporting Pupil Absence

If your child is going to be absent from school please ensure that you ring the school office - 01744 678430 - to let us know. It is important that you contact us on the first day of the absence between 8:30am and 8:45am.

If your child is absent, and we have not heard from you, Mrs D Morris will contact you by telephone to ask why your child is not in school. Please note that if we are unable to contact you by telephone a home visit will be made.

If your child is absent for a full week, or part of a week and the absence continues into a second week, school must be notified on the Monday morning of the second week.

On return to school, ALL children are required to bring a note of explanation for their absence.

If your child is unhappy in school

If for any reason you feel that your child is unhappy in school it is important that you let us know. In the first instance please speak to your child’s class teacher about your concerns. Most issues can usually be resolved in this way. You can do this by either contacting the school office to make an appointment to meet with the teacher or by speaking to the teacher at the beginning or end of the school day to make an appointment to meet with them.

If for some reason the matter is not resolved and your child continues to be unhappy please contact the school via the school office and ask for an appointment to speak to either a member of the Senior Leadership Team (Headteacher or Deputy Headteachers) or the Pastoral and Safeguarding Manager, who deals with pastoral issues in school.

Dealing with Head Lice

Unfortunately, on occasions some children get head lice. With this in mind it is a good idea to check your child’s hair on at least a weekly basis – Friday evening is a good time to do this.

If you discover that your child has head lice please let school know as soon as possible. We will then send a letter out to the parents of the other children in the class, informing them that there has been a reported incident of head lice and asking them to check their own child’s hair that evening.

Having head lice is not a reason to keep your child of school. You should treat their hair and then send them in to school as normal.

How to treat:

If live lice are seen on hair you can use an ‘over the counter’ treatment. The treatment should be applied immediately and repeated again a week later.

You can get this free via the care of the chemist scheme.

In between the two treatments you should use the wet combing technique –wash the hair, apply conditioner and in small sections comb the hair from root to tip using a very fine comb or nit comb.

Tip –for children with long hair try and keep it tied up for school .

NB.

Always seek advice from a healthcare professional before using medicated head lice lotions on the following groups:

  • young babies (under six months old)

  • pregnant women

  • people with asthma or allergies

If further support needed contact the school nurse Julia Walsh on 01744 27940 or come to the monthly nurse drop in.

Free School Meal Entitlement

Please check to see if you may be eligible to claim for free school meals, even if you do not wish your child to actually have the meals.

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

  • Income Support
  • income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
  • Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.

Your child may also get free school meals if you get any of these benefits and your child is both:

PTFA

School has a small, but very active PTFA, who organise fundraising events for school, including Christmas and Summer Fairs and Bingo evenings. If you would like to join the PTFA or would like to know more about it please speak to our office staff, who will put you in touch with a member of the PTFA.