Hatfield Travis Church of England(VA) Infant and Nursery School

To strive for continual development in raising standards across the curriculum

To treat each child as an individual

To ensure that each child achieves his or her potential by target setting and the match of appropriate work

To provide a high standard of teaching and learning throughout the curriculum

To provide well planned, well researched lessons

To ensure progression through a systematic approach to monitoring and assessment

To continue the professional development of all staff and governors

To provide a stimulating environment

To provide strong, positive leadership

To maximise the use of resources through effective management

To promote a close, working relationship between home, school, church and the wider community

To create a happy, nurturing, Christian environment within the community which is open and welcoming, where each child feels secure and confident

To value each child at all stages of his her development

To help each child to learn that courtesy, good manners, tolerance and helping others are very important qualities

The positive behaviour scheme at Travis is based on our 5 Golden rules:

Headteacher: Mrs E Hallett

Teaching Staff:

Mrs A Davey Miss S Boyce

Mrs C Charlesworth Mrs P Cousins

Mrs Kelly Taylor Mrs E Gill

Miss R Cutts

Miss A Ashmore Mrs J Bowater Mrs P Bowser Mrs T Chevens* Mrs E Day Mrs J Gilliland Mrs D Baker* Mrs S Lange Mrs L Newton

Mrs J O’Shea Mrs H Renton Mrs E Day

Mrs T Parker Miss J Dangerfield Mrs R Wilcox

Mrs K Blair Mrs J Berriman

Miss A Ashmore Mrs V Bates Mrs S Hutchinson

Mrs T Parker Mrs C Robson Mrs O’Shea

Mrs J Gilliland

Mrs J Wilson-Clarke

Mr R Riley

Rev P Wilson Mrs N Sweed Mrs H Renton Mrs R Friar

Miss A Ashmore Mr S Carey Mrs R Wilcox Mr B Jackson

Mrs A Graves Mr R Silvester Mr P Rosbottom Mr D Graham

School sessions: School starts at 8.40am.

Nursery sessions: Each session lasts for 2 hours and 30 minutes.

There are approximately 235 children on role with provision for 78 part time places in Nursery. The standard admission number is 90 per year. The age range of pupils in full time education is 4+ to 7+.

Parents are welcome to visit the school at any time. If you have a query or a problem the best time to talk to your child’s class teacher is after school as mornings tend to be very busy. However the Headteacher is always happy to see you at any time. Parents who are considering sending their child to Travis are most welcome to visit the school.

The school is organised into 6 classes and each class is of mixed ability. The Teachers and Teaching Assistants work as teams, planning all areas of the curriculum together and liaising closely with each other as children move from one year group to the next.

Your child will be taught individually, in a group or as part of the whole class. Teaching Assistants are employed in each year group to enhance the quality of provision in all year groups.

THE PLACING OF CHILDREN IN CLASSES IS AT THE DISCRETION OF THE HEADTEACHER.

The total number of teaching hours during the normal school week is 22 hours 30 minutes. This total does not include the daily act of Collective Worship, registration time or break times.

Our modern Nursery, opened in 2004, is situated within the main school building and has its own enclosed playing area. There are places for 39 children in each session. There is one qualified Teacher, one HLTA and one qualified Nursery Assistant.

The Nursery is seen as an integral part of Travis school and strong links are forged to ensure that each child’s transition from Nursery to main school is as smooth as possible. The Nursery and Reception staff work closely together to ensure that the Foundation Stage curriculum for 3 to 5 year olds is well planned and ensures all children make good progress.

Travis school was built on the present site adjacent to St. Lawrence Church in 1968.

The school boasts six classrooms, a computer suite, library and a community learning suite. There is a central hall that is used for PE, Collective Worship and as a dining area. The school has comprehensive disabled facilities including ramped access to all areas, disabled toilet and shower facilities and Braille signs throughout school.

The school has excellent outside facilities that include enclosed, ‘outside’ classrooms for both Reception and Year 1 children, with safety flooring, a ‘trim trail’ that is used for PE and at lunchtimes, a large playground marked with a variety of games, a playing field, a wild area with pond, a garden area and many mature trees that are home to squirrels and a variety of birds.

This is a Church of England Voluntary Aided School with close connections with our local parish church, St. Lawrence, Hatfield. We hold religious services at major festivals such as Harvest, Christmas and Easter when parents, relatives and friends are very welcome to join us. The programme of Religious Education is approved by the Sheffield Diocese.

At the end of Key Stage One children from Travis generally apply to Manor C of E Junior School. The two schools work in close harmony to ensure the transition is a natural progression between the two key stages.

A limited choice menu operates each day consisting of two main courses and upto six dessert options for all children attending full time school. The Local Authority (LA) fixes the cost of the meal and the present charge is £7.50 per week.

Dinner money for the whole week is collected on Monday. The LA states that no child may have a meal unless it has previously been paid for. Please send dinner money to school each Monday morning in a named envelope. Cheques should be made payable to D.M.B.C.

The LA grants free meals to families in receipt of certain benefits. Leaflets giving details of the income scales and application forms can be obtained from

DMBC

Colonnades House

Duke Street

Doncaster

All children in this school can receive a carton of milk at the cost of £9.00 per term, cheques made payable to D.M.B.C. at the beginning of each term. Children who receive free school meals are entitled to receive free milk.

Regular attendance is essential if your child is to learn and reach his or her full potential. To comply with DfES regulations a record of attendance and absence is kept for all children. If your child is absent we ask that you notify us on the first day of absence. Office staff will telephone you if we receive no message.

Children should only be absent from school if:

It is the Government expectation that children take holidays outside of school term and information will be passed to the Education Welfare Office for any child whose attendance is below expectation. Primary school children are expected to attend for at least 95% - 363 out of 380 sessions in school.

Hatfield Travis Infant and Nursery School is an inclusive school which seeks to remove barriers to admissions and learning for all children regardless of race, sex and disability.

Medicines will therefore be administered under the following strict guidelines:

Medicines such as antibiotics or pain relief used to treat common ailments such as tonsillitis/cold etc should be administered by a parent/carer outside school hours.

Where this is not possible due to the drug prescribed, parents are welcome to come up to school to administer medicine to their child. School will not routinely administer such medicines.

Senior staff will administer medication to children with chronic conditions/disabilities where not to do so would preclude the child’s inclusion in Travis School.

Sex education is not taught formally in this school.

The school uniform consists of a red sweatshirt or cardigan, white/red polo shirt and grey or black trousers or skirt. Sweatshirts, fleeces, cardigans, polo shirts and sun hats with the school logo are available for purchase from the school office. The wearing of uniform is very much encouraged. For Health and Safety reasons we ask that children do not wear jewellery to school.

There are four levels at which a complaint can be made:

Governors

At Travis, Teachers work extremely hard to boost the self esteem of our children. We work to ensure all our children know they are gifted and talented in very different ways. The world needs the skills of everybody to make it go round and our children need to know they are valued and wanted.

During their time at Travis we encourage children to explore and identify a variety of talents across the curriculum, for some this may be Numeracy or Literacy, for others Sport or Music and for yet others the mature way they interact with their peers.

Our aim is that all children feel good about themselves and recognise the talents and strengths of others.

The linguistic intelligence is exemplified by those who have a good command of language, both written and spoken. They have a large vocabulary and enjoy reading, writing and speaking. They listen attentively, express themselves freely and are often good spellers.

At Travis we provide for a Word Smart child through:

Characteristics

Children with a high degree of visual/spatial

intelligence has the ability to understand the position of self/objects in relation to other people or objects in 3D and manipulate their internal images. They can visualise and organise things spatially.

At Travis we provide for a 2D/3D Smart child through:

Characteristics:

Found in:

Artists, architects, sculptors, navigators, engineers etc.

Activities to strengthen 2D/3D intelligence:

The naturalist intelligence is exemplified by those who have an affinity with the natural world. They have a good understanding of plants and animals and enjoy the outside worlds.

At Travis we provide for a Nature Smart child through:

Characteristics

Interpersonal intelligence is shown in the ability to influence other people, to anticipate their likely reactions and to empathise. Those strong in this intelligence are good at conflict resolution, negotiation and persuasion. They work well as leaders and in teams.

At Travis we provide for a People Smart child through:

Characteristics

Practical intelligence is demonstrated by those who learn effectively when using tools. They think about how their learning/skills may be useful to themselves or others and are keen to put this into practice. They want real experiences whenever possible.

At Travis we provide for a Practical Smart child through:

Characteristics

We also provide opportunities for parent and child to learn together through our Family Learning Friday, where children select an activity from a range of subject areas and complete the activity alongside their parent or relative.

At Travis learning is a lifelong journey and we instil this by organising and implementing courses for parents, which not only enhance their skills, but also develop their skills for working with their own child at home. These include SHARE, I.C.T. Courses, Maths Workshop and Creative Writing Workshop.

At Hatfield Travis Infant School we enrich the children’s learning experiences through offering a variety of After School Clubs. Each half term we offer a sporting activity and a non-sporting activity so that we appeal to the strengths and interests of different children. These after school activities are intended to be a ‘taster’ from which some children springboard further into pursuit of hobbies and interests.

Clubs are led by experts in their field (for example – Doncaster Rovers lead the football club and Doncaster Lawn Tennis Association lead sessions on basic bat/ball skills) because of this there is a small charge for each club. All leaders are checked for suitability to work with children.

Some of the clubs are for parents and children to enjoy together – for example Family Spanish or Sign Language. Others such as First Aid and Arts and Crafts are for the children to enjoy with their friends.

We also run courses for parents and carers to gain qualifications for themselves – such as the ‘Computers Don’t Byte’ course and ‘Share Play Plus’. These courses are held in school time with adults learning about how and what their children are learning. The sessions are partially held with the children there but with time for the adults to ask the course leader questions too.

Information about which clubs are going to be held the following term is sent home by letter. Watch out for details!!

AND FINALLY…

Our aim is to develop an attitude in the children where they meet new learning or areas of difficulty and respond with perseverance and the belief that they will improve with practice and commitment.

It is valuable to remind the children that no one human being was designed to be a genius at EVERYTHING! They will all have one or two hot spots. However, they can all become competent at everything given the right encouragement and opportunities.

At Hatfield Travis we believe that every child is unique and has God given gifts and talents. We work to ensure our children know they are gifted and talented in many different ways and that they are valued and wanted. For this reason all our children are on the gifted and talented register.

As a result, by the time the children leave our school at the end of Key Stage 1 they will have a personal knowledge of their own interests and strengths and have the ability to embrace and grow through new opportunities in life. They should have the confidence and self-knowledge to apply their personal strengths to develop new learning and enjoy the challenge of new experiences.

Parents are warmly welcomed into school to help. You have many valuable skills to offer and we are very grateful for the support you offer to us. Maths workshop, cookery workshop and many craft activities could not run without the support of parents and friends of the school. Please tell you child’s class teacher if you would like to help in school. We ask all parents helping in school to complete a Police Disclosure Notice. Only those parents helping in school regularly are permitted to assist on school visits.

There is a flourishing PTA that works to provide extra equipment for the children. The school would be much poorer without the PTA and we are very grateful for all the extra equipment that has been provided for us over the years. All parents are very welcome to join the PTA.

During the year three Open afternoon/evenings are held when you are invited to school to discuss your child’s progress with their Teacher. These are held in October, March and July. At the October meeting you will be asked to sign the Home-School agreement. A school report is written for your child at the end of each year of full time schooling.

Please contact the Headteacher if you wish to read any of the school’s policies and schemes of work. Reports of our OFSTED inspections can be viewed on the internet at www.ofsted.gov.uk and paper copies can be obtained from the school office.

As a school we are committed to working in close partnership with parents to maximise each child’s learning potential. For this reason parents and carers are provided with home learning activities to support their child’s development from nursery right through to year two. At the beginning of each school year parents are invited to a meeting to explain the homework and learning activities for that year group and how they can support and encourage their child.

Children in nursery are encouraged to bring objects from home connected to the letters of the week.

The nursery library system enables children to borrow books for parents and carers to share with their child.

Alphabags is a home school learning project that enables children to develop their letter recognition through play and runs from April each year.

The nursery notice board lets parents know what is being learned each half term and gives suggested activities to try at home.

Reception:

The most important way of supporting your child during is through sharing books and hearing your child read; this should happen daily.

In addition as the children move through the Reception year children have regular homework activities these include:

Jolly Phonics activity book

Key word key rings

Suggested maths activities

Year One and Two:

Hearing your child read regularly remains the most important way to support your child’s learning.

In addition children will receive:

Weekly spellings to learn

Maths homework activities to complete.

Additional home learning activities for all year groups can be found on our website: www.travis-school.org

CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE:
YOUR CHILDS FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT TEACHER IS YOU!

This information applies to the academic year 2009/10 and is correct at the time of printing in the Summer of 2009. There may be changes affecting relevant arrangements before the start or during the school year.