Start and finish times
School starts at 8.40am each day. Children should arrive in good time and the doors are opened at 8.30am. All infant children should be brought to the door by their parents/ carers. Reception, Nursery, Year 1 and Year 2 children enter at the main front door. Parents of Nursery & Reception children are always welcome to come in with them to help them settle. We encourage Year 1 and Year 2 children to enter school by themselves as they are all familiar with it now.
All the doors are manned by teachers and senior leaders. They are very happy to answer any questions or queries you may have.
If your child is late for school (after 8.40am) they must come to the front main door so we can take a record of what time they arrived for school.
If you are anxious about leaving your child for any reason, please feel you can phone AJ on the front desk. She is always happy to check and report back to you.
The school day finishes at 3.15pm on Monday to Thursday and 2.00pm on Fridays. Infant parents come into the hall where the children will be released to you. We only release children to a known adult that we are expecting, so please make sure you keep us informed should anybody other than the parents/ carers be collecting your child. You will also need to make sure your nominated person is on our list of ‘approved people’ that you as a parent have chosen and that they know your unique password. If your child is not picked up for any reason we will keep them safe until you arrive.
It is really important that we keep the area around school as safe as possible so we would ask that you park your cars responsibly. Don’t double park or park up on the pavements. We also request that children don’t cycle down the school drive as it’s steep and they can find it hard to slow down for pedestrians.
Absence reporting
Please phone the school office (01246 234 626) at the first opportunity to let us know if your child is going to be either late or absent from school. You will need to ring each day your child is away from school. If you’d prefer you can text us on 07786 208450, we always pick these up. If you do not contact us, we may do a home visit as part of our safeguarding procedures.
Attendance and term time holidays
Good school attendance and punctuality is really important to us. Our target is for 96% attendance as a whole school. Government legislation means we can only authorise time out of school in ‘exceptional circumstances’. Authorisation is rare and only given for a genuine emergency. All planned holiday should be booked within the 155 days of school holidays. If you do have to take your child out of school, you must notify us at least 2 weeks in advance using the ‘exceptional leave of absence request’ forms from the school office or on the website. Family holidays will not qualify; therefore these will have to be marked on your child’s record as unauthorised. If you do decide to take a family holiday in term time you are very likely to receive a penalty notice. If you take a holiday without informing us or pretend your child is ill, you will always be issued with a penalty notice.
Clothing
Our school uniform comprises of a Forest Green sweatshirt or cardigan with the William Rhodes logo embroidered on to it; white polo shirt or white school shirt; black or grey trousers, shorts or skirts and sensible black school shoes. In the summer, green gingham dresses are allowed. Some parents buy the unbranded Forest Green sweatshirts or cardigans from the supermarket and this is fine.
All children need white round necked t-shirts, black or blue shorts and black pumps for PE.
It is vital that any items of school uniform are named as it’s impossible to establish ownership without.
Please ensure children have the clothes they need for the day e.g. a waterproof coat or a sun hat if necessary and their PE kit.
How the classes are organised
Nursery children are in Owls Class
Reception children are in Rabbits Class
Year 1 children are in Hedgehogs Class
Year 2 children are in Foxes Class
Year 3 children are in Jays Class
Year 4 children are in Kingfishers Class
Year 5 children are in Nightingales Class
Year 6 children are in Woodpeckers Class
Who’s who and who does what
Senior leadership team
Rachel Purvis - Headteacher
Sal Towers - Assistant Headteacher (Head of Upper School and Pastoral Lead)
Jayne Jackson - Assistant Headteacher (SENCO & Head of Lower School)
Rachel Cass - Early Years leader & Phonics Coordinator
James Benn - School Business Manager
Teaching teams
Y6 Woodpeckers
Zoe Farrow- Y6 teacher
Sue Steer – Y6 teacher
Y5 Nightingales
Sal Towers- Y5 teacher
Andy Brown -HLTA
Dawn Jones - Y4/Y5 teaching assistant
Y4 Kingfishers
Amanda Elliott - Y4 teacher
Dawn Jones - Y4/Y5 teaching assistant
Y3 Jays
Sandra Gregson - Y3 teacher
Lisa Sparrow – Y3 teaching assistant
Mixed Juniors Badgers
Julie Brookes – teacher
Kerry Watkins – teaching assistant
Y2 Foxes
Saira Ibrahim - Y2 teacher
Nicci Boler – Y2 teaching assistant
Y1 Hedgehogs
Dawn Harris – Y1 teacher
Sue Slater –Y1 teaching assistant
Reception Rabbits
Rachel Cass - EYFS teacher
Danielle Raybould - Early years educator
Mel Pizer - Learning support assistant
Nursery Owls
Joanne Dudley - Nursery Leader
Mel Pizer - Learning Support Assistant
SEND team
Jayne Jackson - SENCO
Julie Brookes - Badgers teacher
Kerry Watkins - Badgers teaching assistant
Dawn Jones - individual & group SEND work
Kerry Watkins - individual & group SEND work
Lisa Sparrow – speech & language
Nurture/ Pastoral team
Joanne Mark - Family Worker & Emotional Support Assistant
Lisa Sparrow – Nurture
Kerry Watkins - Nurture
Office team
James Benn – School Business Manager
Ailsa Hiscocks - School Business Assistant
Megan Cook - School Business Assistant
Children & family support team
Rachel Purvis - Headteacher & designated safeguarding lead
Sal Towers - Assistant headteacher & deputy designated safeguarding lead
Joanne Mark - Family Worker & deputy designated safeguarding lead
Breakfast team
Linda Grattage - Breakfast club leader
Joanne Mark - Play leader / Breakfast service
Kerry Watkins - Play leader / Breakfast service
Lunchtime team
Janet Batterson - Lunch service
Mel Hamilton - Lunch service
Suzanne Cook - Midday supervisor
Linda Grattage - Midday supervisor & first aid
June Lawrence - Midday supervisor & first aid
Paula Duckmanton – Midday supervisor
Lynn Miles – Midday supervisor
Mel Pizer - Midday supervisor
Elisha Henman – Midday supervisor
Sue Slater - Play leader (KS1)
Dawn Jones - Play leader (KS2)
Andy Brown - Play leader (KS2)
Joanne Dudley - Play Leader (KS1)
Joanne Mark - Family worker - (KS2)
Cleaning & caretaking team
Alan Twigg - Caretaker
Linda Grattage - Caretaker & cleaner
Elinor Bannister- Cleaner
Natalie Preece - Cleaner
Mel Hamilton -Cleaner
Food and drink
We offer all children (from Reception-Y6) a free daily breakfast. We always serve cereal and toast and sometimes serve a hot meal such as beans or spaghetti rings on toast. We open the doors at 7.45am each day and as long as children arrive before 8.15am, they can always have a delicious, healthy meal with their friends each morning. All Nursery and Reception children are offered free milk each day and Infant children are given a free piece of fruit or a vegetable at first break.
At lunchtime, we buy our school meals from Parkside which serve healthy hot meals every day at a current cost of £2.10. Many children are eligible for Free School Meals and we would encourage you to ask in the office as it’s very easy to apply. A ‘Universal Free School Meal’ programme began in September 2014 and all infant children are provided with a free school lunch even if they don’t meet usual Free School Meal criteria.
If your child will be having a packed lunch, it can be safely stored on our trolleys outside the classroom.
The children are able to access fresh water at any point during the day from the sinks or water coolers in the classroom. We encourage children to bring their own bottles which we ask are regularly taken home and thoroughly washed. We do have some spare cups in the classroom so that no-one is thirsty. We do allow children to bring well-diluted juice or squash as it’s important that they are well-hydrated throughout the day.
If any child brings any food to share with other children (buns on their birthday, for example) these must be left with the teacher as some pupils have a restricted diet and mustn’t eat certain foods.
Home/school communication/ organisation
We know how important good home/ school communication is and always want you to feel listened to and to have your questions answered. Teachers are available every morning for you to talk to if you have a concern about your child. The Headteacher and Assistant Headteachers can also be found at the beginning of each day manning the doors.
The school website is a great source of information and has all the calendar dates and other important information on it, including current and past newsletters.
When we do give out letters for children to take home, we encourage them to share them with you, but it’s helpful to check their bags on a daily basis as we sometimes find them in a crumpled heap in the bottom of their bags.
If you want to get directly through to the Headteacher, you can ring 01246 234 626 and ask for Rachel Purvis or email her on headteacher@williamrhodes.derbyshire.sch.uk
Illness, medicines and injuries
Please make sure we have all the medical information we need about your child e.g. if they suffer from asthma. If they are ill and you are unsure whether to send them to school please ring and ask advice. Some relatively minor illnesses such as diarrhoea or vomiting need a couple of days off school to ensure a tummy bug is not being unnecessarily spread about, but it’s always worth checking as good attendance is really important to us and we don’t want children missing school unnecessarily.
If your child needs medicine whilst at school e.g. completion of a course of antibiotics you need to complete a ‘medicines administration form’ available from the school office or on the school website. All medicine is kept securely in our First Aid Room, with the exception of asthma inhalers which are kept accessible in the classrooms.
If your child has an injury whilst at school we will administer first aid. We will contact you immediately if is anything more serious. If they have bumped their head we will text you and issue a bump note which has advice on the back about possible signs of concussion.
Toys in school
We do not allow children to bring toys into school as things sometimes get mislaid or damaged causing unnecessary upset.
After school clubs
After school clubs are held three nights a week and there are lots of exciting opportunities for children, including sports clubs, computer club & colouring club. To see the full range of clubs available, please look at our school website on www.williamrhodes.derbyshire.sch.uk All clubs are free to attend. All infant children must be collected after clubs and juniors can only walk home if we have signed permission from parents. Please collect your child promptly at 4.15pm from the main front door.
Homework
All children, even those in the Early Years, have some tasks to complete at home each week. In the infants these will include reading, learning high frequency words and a range of counting and number activities. In the juniors a piece of homework is set for each night of the week and will include reading, spellings, times tables, an English and a maths activity. If your child would like extra books to read at home, books can always be borrowed from our class by arrangement with the teacher.
Concerns
Please share any concerns you may have about any aspect of your child’s schooling with the class teacher in the first instance. If it is of a more serious or confidential nature then please speak to the Headteacher directly. Should you wish to make a more formal complaint, which you don’t feel could be resolved by the headteacher, please speak to our Chair of Governors (name and contact details available in the school office). You may also contact Ofsted to make a complaint to the regulating authority on 0300 123 4666 if it’s a general complaint about the quality of education or safety of children. Ofsted do not investigate complaints about individual cases. If you have worries about malpractice at the school please see the ‘Confidential reporting Code’ procedure on our website.
Further information
All staff are very happy to answer any of your questions at the beginning or end of each school day. Further information on dates, policies and procedures are available either on the school website or by request from the school office.