Grasmere Primary School London N16

7.
Partnership with parents

Education begins at home - parents are a childís first and most important teachers. By working together with parents we try to build a partnership which will benefit all the children. We encourage parents to play an active role in the life of our school. We listen to and welcome parentsí advice and look forward to your support.

Starting at Grasmere: Children who are offered places in Grasmere Reception and Nursery classes are welcomed to the school in several ways.
The Nursery staff visits all Nursery children and families at home. Reception parents are invited to attend ìWelcomeî meetings where information about the school is offered. Each year we organise a special induction programme.

Parental Involvement:

We warmly welcome help and support from parents and carers of Grasmere pupils. There are many ways in which you can support the school whether you have a lot of time to offer us or just a little. Some of our volunteer helpers enjoy coming into our classrooms during the school day, other volunteers prefer to help after school has finished, others help us from home. Some parents have undertaken special computer training in order to help children with computer work in classrooms during the school day. We have also offered training to other parents who have been able to come to school every day and they have helped individual children to learn to read. We are very grateful for all offers of help and assistance.

Friends of Grasmere:

All Grasmere parents/carers are automatically members of FROGs. FROGs is a registered charity and every year has an AGM to elect new officers from amongst the parents. FROGs works for the benefit of the children in a variety of ways and has an immensely valuable role in the school.

A leaflet about FROGs is included in this brochure. FROGs organises regular social and fund raising events. It also organises and administers several very successful after-school clubs

Communicating with parents:

Important information is always displayed on the notice boards (outside the main entrance and in the playground). We also send Grasmere News home with the children regularly. It contains information that may affect your child. Please make every effort to read Grasmere News.

Educational Visits:

We believe that the education we offer can be greatly enhanced by educational visits. In general teachers try to organise at least one educational visit each term. When teachers organise educational outings or visits that involve transport and take place in school time they will write a letter asking for your permission. When your child starts at Grasmere we ask for your written permission to take your child on local walking outings e.g. visits to the local shops or library. These local outings involve no transport and we do not usually send a separate letter.

Charging policy:

We try hard to ensure that we keep the costs of these trips to a minimum. Unfortunately we are unable to pay for the entire cost of the trips out of our school budget and so we ask parents to contribute towards the costs. These contributions are voluntary and no child is ever turned away because they canít pay. We usually inform parents of the full cost of the trip for each child and suggest an amount that could be contributed.

We will charge for books that go home and get lost (minimum price £2.50). We will not send another book home until the lost book has been paid for.

Health and Safety:

The school carries out annual checks with the governor responsible and displays information in the Staff Room. In addition Risk Assessments are carried out by outside contractors.

Communicating with teachers: At the start of each school year, class teachers hold a ìWelcome meetingî for parents, to give information about the year. In addition, your child will bring home a letter from their teacher with an outline plan of the curriculum that will be covered, together with information about the class routines and homework.

Parents are always welcome to visit and ask for information or discuss issues. Most teachers are available immediately before or after school, but please make an appointment first so that there is sufficient time without interruptions.

Reporting to parents:

We are always pleased to discuss progress of individual children by arrangement with parents. In addition we hold three parentsí evenings during the school year, one during each term. In the Autumn term the parentsí evening is a chance for the parent and teacher to get together and set targets for the childís learning. In the Spring term the childís targets are discussed and new targets are set. In the Summer term the childís work will be available as well as their end-of-year written report.

Assessment:

Whilst children are working, teachers are watching, listening and talking to them to discover how well they are doing. Tests and assessments of childrenís work show us how much they know, how much progress they have made and what they need to learn next. Childrenís records are always available for parents to see by arrangement. Regular testing and assessment forms part of our policy which has been published in Grasmere News.

The school is required by law to test children at the age of 7 (Year 2) and again at 11 (Year 6). These National Tests are commonly known as ìSATsî. Individual parents are informed of their childís results in these tests. Grasmereís results for 11 year olds are published in league tables. All National Test results are published in Grasmere News and the Governors Annual Report to Parents.

Year 3, 4 and 5 children take non-statutory SATs so that we can see how they are progressing.

Year 6 children also take the London Reading Test as part of the secondary transfer process.

All children in Reception Class have an informal assessment within six weeks of starting school in order to determine their base-line and to plan targets for their learning.

Homework:

Children need to develop the habit of regular reading. Reading is part of homework. We hope that parents/carers will read as often as possible with their children each week. We recommend 5-20 minutes reading each evening for every child.

From Reception teachers teach reading during the ëLiteracy Hourí, so we encourage parents and carers to volunteer to listen to children read in school. The more a child practices reading, the quicker their reading skills will improve.

Class teachers routinely give homework other than reading to support other areas of the curriculum. Class teachers will inform parents about the arrangements for homework for their class.

Occasionally children who have failed to finish a piece of work in school time will be asked to take it home. Children who take homework will need the support of a parent or carer to encourage, advise and help them when necessary.

Class teachers are very happy for parents/carers to mark their childís work. In general, however, praise for what was done well is more encouraging than criticism of things which were not so well done. Parents/Carers with concerns about particular aspects of their childís reading or homework should contact the class teacher.

Complaints Procedure:

Parents who have concerns about anything in school should contact their childís class teacher at once, so that any problems can be resolved quickly. If the class teacher is unable to resolve the difficulty, parents should make an appointment to talk to the Headteacher. If there are still concerns, parents may write to the Chair of Governors via the school office. Complaints or concerns that are not resolved in school can be referred to Hackney Education Directorate at The Learning Trust 1 Reading Lane Hackney London E8 1GQ

Secondary transfer:

At the beginning of the final year of primary school (Year 6) all children take the London Reading Test. This is a formal test of reading and reading comprehension, and the childrenís marks are recorded as reading group 1 (the highest), 2 or 3. All Hackney secondary schools take a mixture of children from each reading group in order to have a comprehensive intake.

Year 6 parents are invited to school to meet the headteacher in October or November each year and are given full details about the secondary transfer procedure, together with information about schools and invitations to visit them. Parents then nominate the school of their choice. Hackney makes every effort to satisfy these preferences if the school chosen lies within the Borough.

In the event of disappointment, parents have a right of appeal and can nominate a second choice. Parents can independently make separate applications to Grant Maintained or independent schools.

The destination of children to Secondary School was:

• Stoke Newington-26
• Southgate ñ 1
• Parliament Hill ñ1
• Clapton Girls ñ1
• City of London Boys -1
• The Latymer School - 2
• Mossbourne Academy - 1

Ten easy ways that parents can help:

1. Let your child know the standard of behaviour you expect - and how hard you expect them to work in school. Let them know that you expect them to take part in everything.
2. Donít tell your child to hit back in school. School is different from the park or the street. We have adults to help children sort out their problems. We believe that they must learn how to deal with problems without using violence or abuse.
3. Donít let them bring money, sweets or toys to school.
4. Make sure your child keeps the rules when they are with you in the school.
5. Help them to be on time and remember anything they need for school, like book bags, P.E. kit, etc.
6. Read Grasmere News and other papers that come from school so you can talk about whatís going on.
7. Make sure your child gets a good nightís sleep on school nights. It helps concentration and good temper.
8. Come and see a teacher or the headteacher if you are worried about anything your child tells you about school.
9. Be positive to them and reward them for the good things they do. Praise them for the things they achieve and the work they do.
10. We do not expect to leave all the discipline up to parents. Please donít expect to leave it all to the school. Home and school need to work together to give children high standards, and to let them know what is expected of them.

We expect the whole Grasmere community of parents/carers, staff, children and governors to keep our school rules.

Can you help?

We warmly welcome help and support from parents and carers of Grasmere pupils.
There are many ways in which you can support the school whether you have a lot of time to offer us or just a little. Some of our volunteer helpers enjoy coming into our classrooms during the school day, other volunteers prefer to help after school has finished, others help us from home.

We are very grateful for all offers of help and assistance and we would be pleased if you would take the time to complete this questionnaire by simply ticking the boxes. Please let us know the amount of time that you have available. You may be sure that if you return the questionnaire to school with an offer of help we will be in touch!

Please tick the boxes

Activity Availability

• Reading with children in school
• Recording television or radio programmes at home
• Working with groups of children cooking, sewing, model making etc
• Making resources such as puppets, games etc.
• Translating from _________________ into spoken English (please state language)
• Translating from English into spoken or written ______________ (please state language)
• Helping with after-school classes or clubs
• Accompanying classes on trips and outings
• Fund raising
• Campaigns
• Talking to children about your skills or interests eg. archeology, planning, art, cooking
• Something else.
• Your name: Your childís name:
• Phone number: