Uley CE (VC) Primary School Woodstock Terrace Uley Gloucestershire GL11 5SW Tel.: 01453 860350 Email: [email protected] Website: www.uleyprimary.co.uk Thursday 20th November 2014 Dear Parents, Start of the School Day As we all know, if we miss the start of a film or programme, we spend time trying to find out what happened and / or the experience is diminished. The same is true of the start of the school day. If a child is not in school at the beginning of the day – the bell goes at 9am – it will affect the rest of the morning, and possibly the day. Reasons include missing an outline of the day, instructions being given out, and not being in the right frame of mind for learning. Five minutes each day leads to nearly sixteen hours lost learning over the course of the year! In our school, children can come into school from 8:50am – our preferred time for them to arrive. There will be a ‘Morning Task’ or ‘Response time’ (based on work already marked) for them to be getting on with while they wait for the register and the formal start of the day. The register is taken at 9am, and these are then taken to the office. If children arrive late, they will need to be signed in and may have to be recorded as ‘Absent’ for the morning session. This goes on the record of attendance for the year. Term Time holidays Guidance from https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/overview gives the Government policy on term time holidays, with the Local Authority policy also given: Holidays in term time You have to get permission from the head teacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time. You can only do this if:  you make an application to the head teacher in advance (as a parent the child normally lives with)  there are exceptional circumstances It’s up to the head teacher how many days your child can be away from school if leave is granted. http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/article/107600/Attendance-andabsence-from-school Holidays in term time Time off school for family holidays is not a right. Schools have discretion in 'exceptional circumstance' to authorise a holiday if they believe it is a genuine reason. You can be given a Penalty Notice or prosecuted for periods of unauthorised holidays. Uley CEVC Primary School, Woodstock Terrace, Uley, Gloucestershire. GL11 5SW Telephone: 01453 860350 Email: [email protected] Forms requesting absence from school can be downloaded from our website (www.uleyprimary.co.uk) or from the office. We do ask that at least 14 days notice of any requested absence is given, and advise parents that each request is taken individually. Attendance, encompassing both arrival in school and holiday in term time, is an Ofsted priority upon which the school is judged. We hope that all parents will support the school (as well as their child / children) by adhering to these guidelines. Homework Homework is one of the most contentious areas of any school, and we recognise that there are many differing views about it. We hope that this addresses a number of the questions that are currently being asked. You may remember Mr Taylor’s letter sent out about homework at the end of September, the bulk of which is below. The weekly homework will have the same overarching question or theme for all classes with three tiered levels of challenge. MUST – this is the minimum level of engagement expected from all children and will be set at a level suitable for most Year 2 children to access independently (most Reception and Year 1 children may need support); SHOULD – suitable for KS1 children who wish to challenge themselves (probably with parental support) and set at a level suitable for most Year 4 children to access independently; COULD – suitable for all children who wish to engage in a more challenging task, and suitable for most Year 6 children to access independently. Our aim is that this breadth of challenge will allow a child in Year 6 with a sibling in Year 2 to work together on their homework, whilst encouraging the older child to access it in more depth. The level of engagement and independence of work is completely down to you and your child. However, the MUST is the minimum expectation from all children. Please note that your child is only expected to complete the homework task for their chosen level of engagement and we are not expecting children to bring two or three pieces of work in on a Friday. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to speak with myself or any member of the teaching team. We use multi-disciplinary homework to allow all pupils the opportunity to excel at something they enjoy e.g. art, cooking, craft, music – things which they may not necessarily get as much time for in school, and it provides opportunities for working together at home. The point of the task is not the marking of it but the achievement in doing it: it's the process, not the result that counts. Most of the pupils are excited by our homework and can't wait to have the opportunity to share their achievements with Uley CEVC Primary School, Woodstock Terrace, Uley, Gloucestershire. GL11 5SW Telephone: 01453 860350 Email: [email protected] us. It allows pupils an opportunity to talk about their work and receive encouragement from their peers. Homework is not compulsory in Classes 1 and 2, but is encouraged. It is always shared and if possible, displayed on the Class door for all to see. It remains there for a week, and then the children either take it home again or it gets stuck into their learning journals as a record. In Classes 3 and 4, all pupils are expected to do the homework and we find that they thoroughly enjoy and engage in the activities. The range and depth of the work that pupils share is exceptional and is not something that could be achieved from a worksheet of mathematics or English. Furthermore, all of the homework is multifaceted, ensuring that they draw on their knowledge, skills and understanding from English, Mathematics and Science, whether this is explicit or not. Homework is deliberately not marked, as we strongly believe that this allows pupils to share their learning without the pressure of ‘grading’. Many researchers, including the seminal work by Hattie (2011), specifically identify that grading pupils’ work is detrimental to their learning and their social development, as they often focus more upon the grade than any further feedback given. Homework is shared with peers and staff and displayed within the classroom for the week for all to enjoy. We hope that this letter answers your attendance and homework questions, but please do come and talk to us if you have any questions! Yours sincerely, Mr David Warren Headteacher Uley CEVC Primary School, Woodstock Terrace, Uley, Gloucestershire. GL11 5SW Telephone: 01453 860350 Email: [email protected]