School Organisation

St. Mary’s R.C. Primary school has a one form entry class catering for Catholic Primary school pupils between the ages of 3 and 11.

It is a day school and is co-educational. The children are taught in mixed ability year groups.

Health

The school works closely with the health and welfare agencies, and the school nurse visits on a regular basis. If there are any problems, parents will be contacted.

For minor accidents in school we administer first aid, but if a child is ill, or has a serious accident at school, professional assistance will be sought and parents contacted. It is essential that parents provide current home, work and relative’s phone numbers as an emergency contact in case any matter concerning a child’s health or welfare arises during school hours. If parents have made arrangements for any person other than themselves to collect children from school, then the school should be informed.

Please be assured that we will always act with the best interests of your child.

Please let us know if your child has any medical problems such as epilepsy, diabetes, allergies or asthma. Inhalers are kept in the class, where they are only accessible by the children to whom they belong. Other medicines must not be brought to school.
Staff are not permitted to administer medication. The School follows the LEA guidelines on medication in school and where necessary a Health Care Plan is drawn up with the school nurse. Guidance is available in school on current support for pupils with medical needs.

Illness

Please telephone the school office, on the first day, to inform us of the circumstances indicating how long the absence may be. A written explanatory note to the class teacher may be necessary when your child returns to school.

Dental / Medical Appointments

Please send notification in a letter in advance of the absence.
Children attending a medical appointment must be collected from the reception area by a named adult.

School Meals

Lunch is at 11.45 – 1.15 for KS1 and 12.15 – 1.15 for KS2 and the children are supervised by the Supervisory Assistants. School meals are provided on the premises. Several choices are available each day. The pupils have dinner class by class on a rota.

We would greatly appreciate the correct dinner money put in the dinner packet provided, to be paid on a Monday morning. Cheques payable to STMBC.
Anyone wishing to enquire about free school meals should contact the school.

Care of Property

Please ensure that all items of clothing and any personal possessions are clearly named, as there is a much better chance of finding labelled belongings. Any mislaid articles whose owner cannot be identified, are put in the lost property box, which is situated in the infant cloakroom. The school does not accept responsibility for any loss, or damage to property. Children should not bring any valuables, toys, money or mobile phones to school as such items often are mislaid by young children.

Uniform

The children are expected to wear a blue sweatshirt with the school badge, a blue polo shirt, grey school trousers or skirt.

In the summer girls may wear a light blue gingham dress and boys may wear grey school shorts.

Children are expected to wear a plain white T-shirt and blue or black shorts for P.E.

Please ensure that all items of clothing are labelled with your child’s name on.

Children are NOT allowed to wear ANY jewellery. (Wearing Elastoplasts to cover jewellery is not an option.)

Parking and Collecting Children

As with many schools, parking is a problem. There are parking facilities in some areas of Ayr Drive and also Aaran Drive. As this is a residential area please be sensitive to the needs of the residents and DO NOT park across resident’s drives.

Please do not park in the no parking area i.e. the yellow lines block access to the footpaths and observe road markings.
The safety of the children is important in this congested area.

Children must be collected at 3.30p.m. prompt, as the school cannot be responsible for children left unattended in the yard.

Attendance

Family Holidays: Time away from school may adversely affect a pupil’s performance and for this reason we request that children are not taken away during term time unless it is absolutely necessary. It is a legal requirement that permission be obtained from the head teacher in advance.

Holiday forms are available from the school secretary.

Punctuality

The school day begins at 8.55 am. It would be appreciated if your child could be in the school yard for 8.50 am so that they are ready to line up with the other children when the bell rings. Punctuality is vital to the success of the school day. If your child is persistently late they miss the start of the lesson and cause unnecessary disruptions for the rest of the class.

Latecomers should not be left in the yard but must be brought in through the main entrance. Once registration / lessons have started children coming in late must be brought in via the main entrance where they will be logged in a Late Book.

Unauthorised Absenteeism: A child is deemed as being absent without authorisation when parents or guardians fail to inform school of the reason for absence. We work closely with our EWO Mr. M Waine who has fortnightly meetings with senior school staff to monitor lateness and absences.

Homework Policy

The school operates a homework policy in relation to the government guidelines. Parents are asked to sign a copy of the Home School Agreement. It is desirable for classes and individuals to carry out academic tasks related to class work at home in order to reinforce learning. As such work is designed solely to benefit out pupils, full co-operation is asked of parents to ensure that the work is completed punctually.

Educational Visits

The school does not have a special fund in order to pay for educational visits. Parents are asked to contribute to their child’s share of the cost of any educational visit. A letter outlining any visit will be sent to parents well in advance. Consent in the form of a signature must be returned to school. The school makes every effort to risk assess all visits before the children leave school.

Parental Involvement

Parents are very valuable to the school and help in many ways. We are indebted to parents who help organise events, Criminal Record Bureau guidelines will now be introduced for parent helpers (police clearance forms). Parents are encouraged to be involved in their child’s education and during the school year several invitations will be extended to visit school for assemblies, concerts, open nights and parent’s nights where progress reports will be given by the class teacher.

At the end of the academic year parents will receive a written report.

Friend’s of St. Mary’s

We have a very effective ‘Friend’s of St. Mary’s’ made up of parents, parishioners and members of the local community. They meet regularly with the Head teacher and organise various fun activities for the children as well as organising fund raising events. If you are interested in joining our ‘Friend’s of St. Mary’s’ please call into school to see the Headteacher.

The ‘Friend’s of St. Mary RC’ working hard!	The ‘Friend’s’ organised a Easter Egg raffle