The School Day

Total compulsory attendance time per week is 30 hours (Reception) and 31.25 hours (all other years).

The school day begins at 8.40am when the gates open. Children come straight in to school at this time and begin ‘Early Bird’ activities which support their learning.

Registration takes place between 8.50am and 9.00am. If children arrive later than 9.00am, the playground gates will be locked and they will need to come to the school office to be signed in at the school office as ‘late arrivals’. The second registration of the day is after lunch at 1.45pm.

If a child is late in the morning, we ask parents to provide a reason so that we can ensure that our recording on the register is correct. If children arrive late without their parents, we will contact parents to let them know their child was late. We will telephone parents if their child is not here for morning registration and we have not been given a reason why by parents.

Our first full session starts at 9.00am. The morning continues until 12.45pm (12.30pm for Reception class) when we stop for an hour for lunch. Teachers will stop once or twice during the morning for break time. The timing of break time is up to individual teachers and will depend on the curriculum/learning for that day.

The afternoon session starts with registration at 1.45pm. The school day finishes at 3pm for our Reception children and 3.15pm for all other classes.

The playground gates are locked between 9.00am and 3.00pm. All access to school during this time is via the school office entrance in Green Lane.

Morning drop off

We ask parents to ensure that their children arrive promptly in the morning. The ‘Early Bird’ session between 8.40am and 9.00am is a key time in supporting children’s learning and helps them to get off to a good start for the first full session at 9.00am. Our teaching assistants also use this time to help children who may need a little one-to-one or small group work to help them with their learning. This could be any child, depending on assessment of their learning from the day before. Children who arrive late will miss these additional opportunities to secure their learning.

Children who attend The Hide childcare facility are brought over to school and taken to their classrooms by their staff.

Afternoon pick up

We ask parents to collect their children promptly at the end of the school day. Staff in our Reception class and Key Stage 1 classes will ‘release’ children one at a time from the classroom door on eye contact with their parents/carers. If someone different is collecting a Reception or Key Stage 1 child at the end of the day we ask parents to let the teacher or school office know.

We will not let children go home with anyone else without parental permission. This includes family and friends.

Key Stage 2 children are released from the classroom to meet their parents independently. They are told to return to the classroom if they cannot find their parents in the ‘normal’ meeting place.

If children in Key Stage 2 meet their parents or a carer off-site (e.g. in the village square, at home, etc.) we ask their parents to notify us of this arrangement in writing.

Children in Reception/Key Stage 1 attending The Hide childcare facility are collected from the classroom by the facility staff. Children in Key Stage 2 meet facility staff in the hall.

If your child attends an after school club or activity they will need to be collected promptly from school at 4.15pm (or time specified on club booking forms). Parents/carers will need to come to the main entrance (office) as the playground gates will be locked at this time.

Running late?

If parents/carers are running late we ask them to contact the school office in good time so that we can get a message to the class teacher. We will keep children at school until parents/carers arrive, or tell us of alternative arrangements. We will not allow any other person to take any child unless we have parental permission.

If a child remains uncollected for more than 20 minutes we may place them in The Hide Childcare facility if there is space. There will be a charge for this childcare.

If parents have not contacted us to inform us they late and we are not able to contact them we will use all alternative contact details provided.

We will follow the Local Authority recommended procedures which include contacting the police and/or social care if we are unable to contact parents/carers and a child remains uncollected.