Foundation Stage 2020

Welcome to The Spinney Primary School

 

We are delighted to welcome you to The Spinney Primary School.  Thank you for choosing our school.

 

Starting school is a very exciting time in a child's life and we are keen to make the experience as happy and as calm as possible.  We want you and your child to feel confident and relaxed about starting school. We would normally, at this time, be inviting you to attend various induction sessions so we can meet you and introduce you to life in our school, however, in these strange times, we are unable to do this.  We have therefore created this page, where we hope you will find the answer to some of the questions or concerns you may have. 

 

We are delighted to report that we plan to re-open school to all pupils in September.  We have a relaxed induction period for our new Foundation Stage children which we have learnt, over the years, settles them calmly into school life.

 

Children will attend school on a part time basis during weeks commencing 7th and 14th September. Younger children will attend from 9:00-11:00 am, and the older children from 1:00 - 3:00pm.  During week commencing 21st September all children will attend from 9:00 - 1:00pm so that they can stay for a school lunch.  From Monday 28th September, children are expected to attend school full time (9:00 - 3:15pm).

 

We are a school, with a very strong community and believe that communication is key.  If you have any questions of concerns about starting school in September that are not answered here, please do not hesitate to contact the OPS team on the school phone number (01223) 568836, or on the office email address office@spinney.cambs.sch.uk if you would prefer.  You are likely to have many questions, including 'Who do I speak to about ...?' We hope the attached document goes some way to helping you with that question.

As we are sure you can appreciate, there is a huge amount of information that we would like to share with you.  We have tried to keep this page as simple as we can and to redirect you to other areas of this website where you will hopefully find the answers to some of your questions. 

We would like to share with you important aspects about life in Foundation Stage.  In the Parent Handbook below, you will find details of the curriculum the children will be learning, about the things the children enjoy doing and small, but important tips about the class.  You will also find a link to our current Foundation stage class page where you will find more information, including a lovely video made by a previous Foundation stage class which we hope you will share with your child. 

The admissions form will create the starting point of a confidential data base of information about your child, that will remain with us throughout their time with us at The Spinney.  Please understand that the information you are providing us with is retained as outlined in our Privacy notice.  Our Privacy Notices can be found below.  When returning this document to us, please note that we also need to take a photocopy of your child's birth certificate which we will retain on your child's personnel file.

ARBOR - We use Arbor as a Management Information System in school.  The system stores data on all pupils, parents and staff so that we can contact you should we need to at any point during the school day, maybe because your child is unwell, or have forgotten something.  When completing the admissions form, you will be asked to provide contact information for the appropriate people to call should we need to get in touch.  Could you please ensure that the people you detail on the form are local to school so that they are able to help as needed.  A neighbour who lives next door would be more helpful than Grandma who lives in Kent for example.

The Arbor system also records dinners taken and records monies owed/paid for educational visits or similar activities.   Parents/Carers will be emailed a link to the Arbor system in September allowing you to register and access such information.

We have a two week induction process for children joining Foundation stage.  We expect that from Monday 21st September children will attend full time.    Further information about the induction period will be released once we have a clearer position of how school will look in September.  Please see below link to our Attendance page.

Children attending are expected to wear school uniform.  Please see below information about our Uniform expectations, and how to order online. Our supplier has informed us that due the current situation it will take slightly longer for uniform orders to be processed. Orders made after 31st July may not arrive in time for the start of term. Once you have purchased uniform, please name EVERYTHING, as there will be 30 new red Spinney sweatshirts all arriving on day 1 of school in September, and they all look the same!  Thank you for your help with this.

Lunches are provided by our partners, Lunchtime Company.  Below you will find a link to the School Lunches page of our website as well as a form which we would like you to complete for your child.

Many working families may be looking for childcare before or after school. Our Wrap Around Care offer provides both of these.  Further details, including Autumn term booking forms, registration documents and cost can be found on the Wrap Around Care page of this website.  Please click on the link below.

We have a strong and welcoming Friends Team who support school by purchasing items to enrich the curriculum in school.  They have recently funded some new IT equipment, as well as a wonderful puppet show for the whole school at Christmas and the termly Stay & Play craft sessions.  They would be delighted to welcome new members to their team, to support them as much and as often as you are able to. All help is warmly and gratefully received.  For more information, click on the link to the Friends page below.

We use an exciting way to record, track and share your child's learning during their time in Foundation Stage.  This system, called Tapestry, may have been used by your child's nursery and if so, we will be able to pick up their Learning Journey from that point onwards.  Tapestry enables staff to take photographs, videos and add written observations of the activities that your child does at school.  You will then have access to see this at home, and you will be able to add your own photos and comments to the journal.  Please complete the attached Tapestry document to enable us to set up a Learning Journal for your child, or to allow us to contact your child's nursery/pre-school to adopt their current data.

On occasions throughout the school year, we are visited by The Medical Entomology Centre who anonymously comb the children for head lice.  Head lice are a common problem in schools and are easily spread from person to person.  We hope that these checks may help to reduce the number of cases we find in our school.  We kindly ask you to complete the attached form to confirm your agreement to this check.  Thank you