Newsletter – 06-Sep-24

Dear Priory Parents and Carers,

I have been really pleased with how smooth the start to this school year has been. It sometimes takes a while for the children to get back into ‘school mode’ after a long holiday, but the behaviour and attention of the pupils has been impressive so far. I hope that you as parents have been equally pleased with the start of the school year. Please let me know if you have had any issues or have any questions about any school routines or processes.  

Dates for diaries

Parents are invited in for two meetings this half term. 

The parent welcome meeting is designed to inform parents about their child’s learning experience this year about how to best support their child’s learning.

The settling-in meeting is a 10 minute face-to-face meeting, which will be bookable through Arbor, to discuss your child’s academic and pastoral start to the school year. 

Parent Welcome Meetings (not Year R)

Wednesday 18th September 2.30-3pm  – Years 2, 4, 6

Thursday 19th September 2.30-3pm – Years 1, 3, 5

Settling-In Meetings

Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th October. 10-minute meetings between 2.40-5.30pm. 

Celebrating Differences

As part of our ongoing progress on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, each class at The Priory has started the year with a discussion and a display to celebrate our differences and what makes us special. We are so proud of every single child at The Priory and work hard to make sure they have a high self esteem, and that everyone appreciates the differences in others, especially concerning the protected characteristics. Today the children from Y1 – Y6 attended a national online assembly (which has featured on newsround) about celebrating differences with hundreds of other schools across the UK. 

Our PSHE and RE curricula help pupils to learn about different people, ethinicities, religions, as well as promoting British Values. This year we will be running more assemblies and learning events across the year to educate the children about School Values, British Values and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to help celebrate Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in our school community. 

Core Texts

We are reviewing our core texts currently to make sure they fit most appropriately with our curriculum. The full list of core texts will be published next week with a few minor changes. Please note that some of these changes will be removing some core texts.  

Attendance – Changes to statutory guidance

There has been a change to the statutory guidance for schools and academies regarding pupil attendance which has come into effect on September 1st 2024. Whilst our school attendance is generally above the national average, there is room for improvement. 

Parents are expected to:

• Ensure their child attends every day the school is open except when a statutory reason applies.
• Notify the school as soon as possible when their child has to be unexpectedly absent (e.g. sickness).
• Only request leave of absence in exceptional circumstances and do so in advance.
• Book any medical appointments around the school day where possible.

Schools are expected to: 

• Have a clear school attendance policy on the school website which all staff, pupils and parents understand.
• Develop and maintain a whole school culture that promotes the benefits of good attendance.
• Accurately complete admission and attendance registers.
• Have robust daily processes to follow up absence.
• Regularly monitor data to identify patterns and trends and understand which pupils and

pupil cohorts to focus on.

• Have a dedicated senior leader (Mr Walsh) with overall responsibility for championing and improving attendance.

Part of the new statutory guidance requires schools to take action after a pupil’s unauthorised absence (ie. not including sickness) reaches a threshold of 10 sessions (a session is a morning or an afternoon). The action may take different forms of communication, support or sanction. One possibility is for the school to impose a fine. Taking a child out of school for a holiday would be unauthorised. This means that parents taking a child out for a week’s holiday could receive a fine of £80 (if paid within 21 days). The fine would be issued by the school (Headteacher) but administered and collected by Hampshire County Council. This sanction is already in the school attendance policy, but with the new statutory guidelines, the imposition of fines is far more likely. 

Good school attendance is good for many reasons including wellbeing, health, friendships, language development and academic attainment: 

“The pupils with the highest attainment at the end of key stage 2 and key stage 4 have higher rates of attendance over the key stage compared to those with the lowest attainment. At KS2, pupils not meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths had an overall absence rate of 4.7%, compared to 3.5% among those meeting the expected standard. Moreover, the overall absence rate of pupils not meeting the expected standard was higher than among those meeting the higher standard (4.7% compared to 2.7%). DfE 2024

For the weekly update on Safeguarding, please click here to be redirected to the Safeguarding section on the website, where the weekly Safeguarding section can be found each week.

Star of Wonder Awards

The first assembly will be next Friday.