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The school day

Nursery

• Morning Nursery        8:30 - 11:30
• Afternoon Nursery     12:30 - 15:30
• We also offer all-day Nursery sessions from 8:30 - 15:30 to eligible parents

Reception and Key Stage 1 (Y1-Y2)

Key Stage 2 (Y3-Y6)

The staggered times for the start and end of the school day are there to help parents who have children in more than one Key Stage. See below for information about entrances and exits. The length of a typical school week for children in Reception to Y6 is 32.5 hours, which is 6 hours and 30 minutes per day.

Start of the school day

• Mrs Hobson's Nursery children enter through the Nursery entrance on Whitegates at either 8:30 or 12:30, depending on whether they attend for the morning, afternoon or all-day sessions.
• Miss Marshall's children go up the ramp to the Reception entrance from the Lower School car park at 8:45.
• Mrs Rogers' children use the steps up to their classroom from the Lower School car park at 8:45.
• Miss Wilson's and Mrs Goodburn's children come in through the Lower School entrance next to the hall at 8:45.
• All children in Y3-Y6 enter through the Upper School playground gate and go straight into school from 8:45 to 8:55.

For safety and safeguarding reasons, we ask parents and carers not to leave their children unattended before 8:45 as there is no official staff supervision before this time. Some children do come into school earlier for clubs or tuition, and that's fine.

• Bakers Lane gate: opened at 8:30 and locked at 9:15, then reopened at 15:00.
• Upper School playground gate: opened at 8:30 and locked at 9:05.

The only access to school outside of these times is via the main entrance at the top of Whitegates. If children arrive late, they report directly to the school reception via the main entrance.

End of the school day

• Mrs Hobson's Nursery children leave via the Nursery entrance on Whitegates at either 11:30 or 15:30, depending on whether they attend for the morning, afternoon or all-day sessions.

• Miss Marshall's children leave via the ramp from the Reception entrance onto the Lower School car park at 15:15.

• Mrs Rogers' children leave via the steps down from their classroom onto the Lower School car park at 15:15.

• Miss Wilson's and Mrs Goodburn's children leave via the Lower School entrance next to the hall at 15:15.

• Miss Barton's children leave via the Upper School entrance next to the field at 15:25.

• Miss McKirdy's children leave via the hall entrance next to the field at 15:25.

• Mr Buckle's and Mrs Hibbitt's children leave via the main entrance at 15:25.

Use of school grounds and equipment

During school hours, children are supervised when using the grounds and equipment. Appropriate risk assessments are in place and we have staff trained in first-aid, in case a child has an accident. We cannot supervise children once they have been dismissed by their teacher or after-hours group leader. Outside of school hours, children are the responsibility of their parents/carers.

Trim Trail

The trim trail on the school field has been designed for junior-aged children and is therefore not recommended for children under seven years of age to use unsupervised, due to its height and structure. If you allow your child to use the equipment after school hours (e.g. when collecting them at the end of the school day), it has to be at your own risk and responsibility.

School uniform

A school uniform helps children to feel that they are a member of a school community. It also helps to avoid the (expensive) 'best-dressed' competition which can happen among children, allowing them instead to focus on their learning - and on developing a positive attitude towards their schoolmates' personalities rather than appearance. It provides a positive, cohesive image.

You can buy school uniform online. Our uniform supplier, Andrew Hyde, is happy to take orders from you for delivery to your home address. Please visit their website to order. You can also email them on sales@ahyde.co.uk or phone 0800 059 0592. Feel free to contact us if you need any help, or if you have any questions.

T-shirts for PE (with the school badge) are available to buy directly from school. Please send £6.00 in with your child, detailing the size and colour you require.

Please ensure that your child's name is written on tags inside their uniform/PE kit/coat/etc. so that any lost property can be returned to its owner. We have a supplier at this link who can tailor-make the 'iron-on' name labels for school uniform.

School uniform and dress code

• Shirts/polo shirts: plain white or blue, preferably with the school badge.
• Trousers: plain black; not jeans, leggings or tracksuit bottoms. In summer, black shorts are fine.
• Skirts: plain black. Tights (if worn) should be plain black or dark blue.
• Pinafores: blue and white check.
• Sweaters/cardigans: dark blue, preferably with the school badge.
• Shoes/trainers: black or dark blue. In winter, children may wear boots. In summer, children may wear sandals.

PE kit

• Lower school children (Nursery, Reception, Year 1 and Year 2): plain white T-shirt.
• Upper school children (Year 3 to Year 6): team-coloured T-shirt, preferably with the school badge.
• Dark blue/black shorts or PE skirt. In winter, children may wear tracksuit bottoms for outdoor PE.
• Pumps, or trainers with non-marking soles.

Jewellery, etc.

Pupils are allowed to wear a watch, a necklace, and one small earring in each ear. For health and safety reasons, pupils must remove all jewellery for PE lessons and sports clubs. We encourage parents of younger pupils to send their children into school without jewellery on days when they have PE lessons or sports clubs.

Parents often ask about applying tape over new piercings, and while this is allowed, parents must acknowledge that this is at their own risk. If their children want to get a piercing, we encourage parents to arrange appointments as close as possible to the beginning of longer school holidays. This will ensure that jewellery can be removed for physical activities on school days.

Make-up and extreme hairstyles are not allowed (unless it's a non-uniform day!)

Extreme weather

We relax school uniform rules during extreme weather. Children should be wearing clothing which helps to keep them comfortable and safe (e.g. during heatwaves, cool clothes such as smart shorts and a loose-fitting top). We'll let you know through our website and Facebook page when this applies. Whatever the weather, children are always welcome to bring head protection such as a sun hat or cap; and a warm hat in winter.

Is school uniform mandatory?

Yes, but we do not require pupils to be wearing uniform from a specific supplier, nor to be displaying the school badge (although this is good from a 'school community' perspective). We also acknowledge that there may be times when a child's school uniform is not available. There could be many reasons for this, and children will receive no sanctions - the most important thing is that they are in school, whether uniformed or not! Our uniform/dress code is not seasonal.

School meals You can choose for your child to have a school meal or bring a packed lunch to school. Our healthy school meals are prepared, cooked and served on-site. For menus and nutritional information, see Derbyshire County Council's 'My School Lunch' page.   Children from Reception through to Year 2 are entitled to a universal free school meal. You can choose for your child to have a school meal or packed lunch on different days of the week (e.g. school meal on Mon, Tue, Wed; packed lunch on Thu and Fri), but our kitchen team need to know your child's requirements at the beginning of the week so they can organise their food orders. Our kitchen team are happy to provide sandwiches instead of a hot meal. This will also be free to parents whose children are in Reception to Year 2, and will of course save parents money.

We must be informed on the Monday of each week what your child's lunch requirements are, please. Dinner money should be sent in on a Monday for the whole week in a named envelope, and given to your child's teacher. If your child is absent during a week they have paid for, their unspent dinner money will be carried over to the following week. Dinner money is £2.30 per day.

Could your child be eligible for free school meals?

In these difficult times, we want to make sure you're getting all the help you're due. A lot of people don't claim free school meals - even though they're entitled to! That's why Derbyshire County Council has launched the 'Quids In' campaign, to encourage people to check whether they're eligible. You don't need to worry about other parents or children knowing that your child gets free school meals. Only school staff and catering staff will know.

You could save up to £400 a year for each child, and your children could benefit from a good hot meal at lunchtime. Our school will benefit too - we'll get the pupil premium of £1345.00 per year from the government for each child on free school meals.

If you get any of these benefits, you could be eligible:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers' Allowance or Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• The guarantee element of State Pension Credit
• Support under part V1 of the Immigrant and Asylum Act 1999
• Child Tax Credit (with an annual income of less than £16,190)

You will not be eligible if you are claiming Working Tax Credit.

Parents who are eligible for free school meals due to their personal circumstances must let us know, and complete the relevant paperwork - especially if they have older children in school. It's really essential that you please notify the office if you are eligible for free school meals. As mentioned above, this provides school with additional funding - used to provide one-to-one and small-group tuition, and extra Teaching Assistant support throughout the Key Stages. It also helps pay for curriculum enrichment such as theatre trips and events held in school. But we only receive this funding if parents complete the necessary paperwork.

Please do register for free school meals - even if your child has a packed lunch. Other ways to apply are by phone on 01629 536400 or 01629 535743, by email at checking@derbyshire.gov.uk, or at www.derbyshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals.

Contacting school and your child's teacher

Our highest priorities are the safety, wellbeing, happiness and academic progress of our children. If you would like discuss any aspect of your child's education - or if you have any concerns - your child's class teacher will be happy to speak with you. We have email addresses for each class. You can email questions or ask them to give you a call. They will get back to you as soon as they can when their working day allows. You can also contact the office.

Teachers or Teaching Assistants are often at the entrances to school at the start/end of the school day, so you can also talk to them then. If the matter is not urgent then the end of the school day is better, as staff members may have morning duties or tuition, and may need time to prepare for their lessons.

Staying up to date

With everyone in our community so busy, here are several ways to help you stay in touch with things happening in school:

• See our school calendar - and there's an option to link it to your own devices so that it automatically updates.
• School's newsletters can be viewed electronically.
• Follow our Facebook page.
• EYFS use ClassDojo. It's a free way to share wow moments, pictures, and information both ways.

Attendance, sickness and term-time holidays

If your child can't come to school, you must contact the office to let us know the reason for their absence. For safeguarding reasons, it really is vital that you let us know why your child is absent from school. If we don't hear from you, we will send a text and then try to make contact by phone. If the absence gives us cause for concern, we will do a home visit and/or contact the local police, who will do a 'Safe and Well' check on a child.

Please see our dedicated attendance page in the Safeguarding menu for more information about term-time holidays and other important issues around attendance.

Administration of medicine

Some children may need medication during school hours. In circumstances where they need medication regularly, a health-care plan is drawn up to ensure the safety and protection of children and staff. Children should be taught to self-administer medication such as ointment, sun cream and inhalers. If school staff need to be involved in this, arrangements will need to be discussed and assessed on an individual basis.

All medication must be presented to the school office and the necessary forms completed and signed by parents. These forms give consent for the admin staff to administer the appropriate medication and dosage as instructed by the parent. All medication must be clearly labelled with the name of your child, including the bottle and packaging. The parental consent form is retained in the school office along with the medicine, which should be collected by parents at the end of the school day if required.

All children with any medical needs/issues are recorded, and information given to every class teacher. Children who require medication due to severe allergies (e.g. Piriton) have their own individual health-care plan.

First-aid certificates for staff (including paediatric first-aid) are renewed every three years with training provided by Build-You-Up and St John Ambulance.

Emergency inhalers

We have a number of inhalers for emergency use in school. They are there as a standby in case an inhaler has not been brought into school, or a child's own inhaler runs out. All parents who have told us that their child has asthma (and that their child uses an inhaler in school) have been written to, and consent obtained for their child to use an emergency inhaler if they need it.

Group A Streptococcus precautions

Though many children get coughs and colds especially during the winter months, ‘Strep A’ or ‘Strep Throat’ can be a nasty illness and is often treated with antibiotics. Symptoms include:

• a painful throat that comes on quickly with difficulty swallowing
• red/swollen tonsils or a pus-like fluid around the tonsils
• small red spots on the roof of the mouth
• swollen glands in the neck
• high temperature
• headaches
• a skin rash which tends to appear 12 to 48 hours after the infection

If you suspect that your child has this infection, keep them off school and contact your GP. If Strep A is diagnosed, antibiotics will usually be prescribed, and the child must complete the whole course. Children can return to school 48 hours after they first begin the course of antibiotics if they do not have a high temperature and feel well enough to return. Keeping children off school will help ensure that they do not pass the infection onto others, as it is very contagious. Further advice, including when to seek further medical help, is available on the UK Health Security Agency website, and we recommend that parents read this advice.

COVID-19 precautions

COVID-19 is still a concern. The government is advising parents to keep their children at home for at least 3 full days after the day they got the first positive test result or began to show symptoms. If the child has symptoms, we would appreciate you getting them a test, athough this is in no way mandatory. On the morning of the fourth day, if they feel well and do not have a high temperature, they can return to school.

Children must not come into school if they have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19. We hope you agree that this is a sensible stance to take. Even if a child may be symptom-free, other people in our community might not be so fortunate. Allowing children to come into school while they are infectious poses a significant risk to others, and could easily disrupt the way that school normally operates.

The guidance essentially places COVID-19 on the same level as the policy for when children have other infectious illnesses like chicken pox or vomiting/diarrhoea. These require children to be clear of symptoms for a fixed period of time before returning to school (e.g. the well-known 48 hours for vomiting/diarrhoea). Again, we hope that families understand and appreciate the reasons for keeping their children at home if they test positive for COVID-19 or begin to show symptoms.

Access control and CCTV

For our children's safety, all entrances to the site and common outdoor areas are monitored and recorded by CCTV cameras. Access to the school building is restricted by coded keypads, and if you need the office's attention, you can use the intercom's 'call' button. External gates (e.g. Bakers Lane gate and Lower School gate) are locked once school is in session. The only access to the site after this time is via the main entrance on Whitegates. Visitors report directly to reception from there. CCTV data is retained securely and is only stored on-site, with password-protected security measures.

Mobile phones, smart watches, and recordings

There are legitimate reasons for some pupils bringing devices into school. Children who walk to/from school on their own, for example, can carry a phone to help ensure their safety on the streets. If pupils bring mobile phones or smart watches to school, their devices must be switched off and taken to the office, to be collected at the end of the day - not kept in pupils' bags. We cannot be held responsible for any loss of, nor damage to, these devices. We take precautions to secure them while they are in school, but they are stored strictly at their owner's risk.

Some parents have specified that they do not want their child to appear on social media. Therefore, during after-school events (e.g. school discos), we cannot allow pupils to use any technology from home which has the capability to record. If pupils bring devices to these events, they must be stored as above.

We do support parents who like to make recordings of events such as nativities and sports days - these are lovely memories of their children growing up - but this is on the understanding that these recordings are only for parents' personal use and are not shared publicly on social media in any form, and that parents are responsible for keeping these recordings private.

Dogs on school grounds

Please do not bring dogs onto the school grounds. We know that most dog owners are responsible and take care to control their dogs. However, the behaviour of dogs when in close proximity to other dogs and small children can be unpredictable. The nature of a school at busy times is such that over-excitement is much more likely to occur than generally would be the case.

No-one can be absolutely certain how their dogs will behave in an environment as dynamic as a school, and the presence of dogs in this environment is potentially dangerous - even if they are carried in arms by their owners. With the exception of professionally-trained guide dogs/hearing dogs, we appreciate your co-operation in not bringing your dog onto school premises.

Scooters, bikes, etc.

We are respectfully asking children and adults to please dismount before entering the school grounds on scooters, bikes, etc. Some paths around the site are rather narrow with blind corners - and paths are often busy during drop-off and collection times. Dismounting and walking will help to avoid any accidents.

Children can leave scooters, bikes, etc. on the grounds in designated areas throughout the school day (they will be told where these areas are) but we cannot be held responsible for any loss or damage. They are stored at their owner's risk.

Work experience requests

Our local secondary schools, ex-pupils and parents contact us frequently regarding requests for work experience. We get an enormous number of requests like these so we can't possibly accommodate everyone - although we do try our best. We give priority to those who are interested in some aspect of education as a career, and we're very proud to have worked with some excellent students who have then chosen to go on to teacher training.

Students who would like to undertake work experience at our school must write a letter to the headteacher. In this letter, they will need to include:

• Their reasons for wanting their work experience to take place within a primary school.
• The age range of children they would prefer to be placed with (we will do our best to arrange this if the student's application is successful, but we may only be able to offer placements outside of this age range).
• The experiences they would like to have while in school (again, we will try to facilitate these as much as possible).
• Specific dates for their work experience.
• An email address where we can get in touch.

The headteacher shares these letters with our staff, who ultimately decide whether they are able to accommodate a student based on the above information. Not everyone can be accepted, and we apologise for this, but we're sure you understand that our teachers' main focus has to be on our children.

Website requests

We offer paper copies of the information on our website free of charge. Please contact us for more information.