Information for Parents

Important Information

Click on the headings below to view each section.  If you require a paper copy of any documents please contact the school office.

Admission arrangements for Paganel Primary School.

If you wish your child to attend Paganel Primary School then a place must be applied for by contacting the Local Authority  Admissions Department.

Parents/Carers can contact the Admissions Department on 0121 675 0555, alternatively you can go via the Birmingham City Council website www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions

On entering the site open the ‘schools and learning’ section and select admissions from the menu on the left hand side of the page.

If you are interested in your child attending the school we strongly urge you to visit the school. To do this simply contact the school office on 0121 464 5040 and ask if you can arrange a visit for you and your child to look around the school.

Children are expected to attend School every day unless there is a good reason not to.

If your child is too unwell to attend school please contact the school office in the morning to let us know that they won’t be in that day. If they are ill for more than one day please make sure you call every morning of your child’s absence.

If you know that your child is going to be absent from School e.g. Hospital or Clinical appointments please let the office staff know in advance. Non-emergency appointments, such as dental check-ups; eye-tests; GP check-ups etc, should be scheduled for out of school hours or non-term time.

Leave during term time will not be authorised. Requests will not be considered for any leave during term time.

Unauthorised absences: when an explanation for the absence is not given, or days for which there is not an adequate reason your child will receive an unauthorised absence mark. Unacceptable excuses for a day off include: going to buy shoes or clothing – getting up late – a day off for the child’s birthday – going to see relatives, term time holidays or visits abroad.

We are required by the Government to monitor all absences and do so every week. If your child is absent then they miss valuable lessons. An average of one day missed each week adds up to one whole school year missed in four years! PLEASE help us to educate your child by ensuring they attend every day.

‘Fast Track’ on Attendance

We monitor every child’s attendance daily. As part of the Fast track on Attendance initiative, any child with 10 or more unauthorised absences within the last year will be placed in an ‘Action Group’. Any further unauthorised absence will result in  possible court action.

If your child’s attendance falls below 96%. You will then be invited into school to discuss your child’s attendance with the Attendance Officer or Headteacher.

In the worst case, you may have to go to court and receive a fine. The Court section have successfully prosecuted two families from Paganel.

Working together should help us sort out any difficulties so this does not happen.

Mrs Sale our Attendance Support can offer you support . You can contact her in the Main office or on the school telephone number: 0121 464 5040.

It is not true that pupils catch up on missed work. Research shows that by missing lessons, pupils soon fall behind.

It is not true that lessons are repeated at a later date.

It is not true that you are entitled to 10 days extra holiday each year.

REMEMBER, EVERY SCHOOL DAY COUNTS

Children have 13 weeks holiday every year. This is plenty of time to go on holiday and visit family.  With effect from 1st September 2013 The Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations.

Holidays during school time are not allowed and will not be authorised.

It is a parent’s legal responsibility to ensure their children receive appropriate education.  Failing to send your child to school regularly without good reason is a criminal offence.  

Legal action that may be taken includes:

Issuing penalty notices: Each parent receives a penalty notice for each child who has unauthorised absence. The penalty is £60 or £120 depending on how soon payment is made.  So, if there are two parents and two children the total penalties could be up to £480. Failure to pay may result in prosecution.

Taking parents to court for unauthorised absence: Education Act 1996 Section 444(1) – court can fine each parent up to £1000 per child, order payment of prosecution costs and/or impose a Parenting Order.

Taking parents to court for persistent unauthorised absence: Education Act 1996 Section 444(1A) – court can fine each parent up to £2,500 per child, order payment of the prosecution costs, impose a Parenting Order and/or sentence you to a period of imprisonment of up to 3 months.

Being taken to court could result in you having a criminal record.

In the case of illness or accident, it is essential that we have an upto date telephone number and address where parents can be contacted quickly. You will be given a form to fill in to supply this information. If you change address, place of employment or MOBILE PHONE number, please let us know immediately.

Visits form an integral part of the curriculum.  A form of consent must be signed for each child, for each visit made.

Voluntary contributions towards the cost of the visits which take place wholly in the school day will be sought in accordance with the Charging and Remissions Policy set by the School Governors.  Last year visits included London, Camping, Weston-Super-Mare, Think Tank, Black Country Museum.  If parents find it difficult to make a contribution towards a visit, then a brief word with the Head teacher is advisable and the School may be able to help.

Sometimes children have minor injuries at school; our staff are trained in first aid and will treat them as necessary. If your child has a more serious injury or becomes ill while at school, we will contact you immediately. Therefore it is very important that you provide us with up to date telephone numbers of where you can be contacted throughout the day.

If a child wears glasses or a hearing aid or has any diagnosed allergies it is essential that the school is made aware of this – a medical form must be completed at admission. The school must be informed if there are any changes to your child’s ongoing medical needs.

If your child has asthma and requires an inhaler, please make sure that your child’s inhaler is in school at all times, together with instructions for dosage. Doctors will usually provide you with a spare one to keep in school. It is up to the parent to make sure that the medication is in date and has not run out. You will need to fill out an asthma permission form for us to store and administer your child’s inhaler, this can be done at the school office. In the case of an emergency, i.e. a broken inhaler, the school has adopted use of a school based emergency inhaler. Authorisation for the school to administer this is at the bottom of the asthma permission form.

Parents are often faced with the dilemma of whether to send their child to School after an illness. If your child is feeling better, and is not contagious, they can return to school. We can administer antibiotics that have a named prescription label, and requires at least 4 doses per day. School policy does not cover the administration of pain relief. Please come to the office to fill out a medication form if you require medicine to be administered during school hours. Sometimes, doctors can be asked to prescribe medicine so that it can be administered in fewer doses. If you have any concerns regarding medication please contact the school.

Please consult the School if your child has been suffering from an infectious illness as we have an official list of exclusion periods.  No child should attend school until at least 48 hours after symptoms of vomiting or sickness have ceased.

The Health Service Nurse will see any child who has been referred by the School.  If you want the Nurse to see your child, we can arrange an appointment for you.  Our School Nurse advises pupils and parents on a range of health issues and can refer children to the School Doctor.

We follow the Birmingham City Council Guidelines. If we feel that any child is at risk then we are obliged to refer the matter to Social Services.

We believe in and follow the Equality Act 2010.  We recognise Paganel Primary School as a multi-racial school in a multi-racial community. We aim to ensure that our curriculum and general ethos reflects and values the rich diversity of culture present in our midst. The school is committed to emphasising the common elements and values of our multiple cultures, and aims to provide positive images for our children, regardless of race, gender, background, ability or disability.

We recognise that the effectiveness of our policy depends on the full support of all parents, pupils, governors and staff. Please support our policy at all times.

Workshops are a chance for parents to learn a little more about how to help their children at home, keep parents up to date on any new ideas in school and a chance to work with their child in the classroom with the children.

We are committed to school and families working together to help children make great progress. We talk with parents about ways to continually improve and for new ideas. They also provide opportunities for staff and families to get to know each other better. Relationships are very important to us.

We were asked by our parents/carers to formulate a code of conduct so we all agree on appropriate behaviour on the playground and other areas associated with school.

The final version is available to download below. This has been approved by governors and discussed with parents/carers.

Thank you to everyone for your support with this.

We encourage our parents/carers to speak to teachers directly at drop off or collection times if they have a question or concern about their child in school.

For more in depth discussion about your child’s progress we hold parent-teacher consultation evenings in Autumn and Spring terms.

Parents/carers can book appointments for these evenings via our online system.

We have updated our Privacy Notice to address the new standards introduced by the European data protection law, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Our privacy notices set out how we, Paganel Primary School, collect, store and handle personal information and what your information rights are.

At Paganel we have made the decision to become a ‘Restorative Practise’ school. The Paganel team would like to involve as many people as possible in this step and will endeavour to do all they can to share the training, information and techniques.

Restorative approaches look at alternative ways of thinking when addressing behavioural issues, but are not simply behaviour management tools. Working restoratively will develop stronger, mutually respectful friendships, a better understanding of our own feelings and will equip our children with the ability to make decisions on issues that affect their lives.

A comparison between different ways of thinking and responding in authoritarian and restorative manners:

Authoritarian approaches

The focus is on:

Restorative approaches

The focus is on:

Rule breaking Harm done to individuals
Blame or guilt Responsibility and problem solving
Confrontational processes Dialogue and negotiation
Punishment to deter Repair, apology and reparation
Impersonal processes Personal processes
And as a result; And as a result;
The needs of those affected are often not met The needs of those affected are addressed
The unmet needs behind the behaviour are ignored The unmet needs behind the behaviour are addressed
Accountability= being punished Accountability= putting things right

What is a restorative response to harm or conflict?

Those affected are invited to share:

  1. What has happened
  2. Thoughts and feelings
  3. How they and others have been affected
  4. What needs to happen to put things right or to make things better in the future.

For this to happen effectively we, as supporting facilitators will aim to:

  • Build a respectful rapport with everyone
  • Listen and respond calmly, empathetically and without interruption or judgement to all sides of an issue
  • Develop a sense of safety and trust
  • Encourage people to express their thoughts, feelings and needs appropriately
  • Appreciate the impact of people’s thoughts, feelings, beliefs and unmet needs on their behaviours.

At Paganel, we have a clear vision of what good behaviour looks like based on clear rules, routines and structures to support our children in feeling safe when they are at school.

A set of rules were established by the children and staff to explicitly explain the school’s core value of RESPECT.

The Rules for RESPECT are as follows:

Responsible for our choices.

Encourage and praise each other.

Show good manners – be polite.

Positive choices.

Everyone shows kindness and is a good friend.

Carefully follow instructions.

Tell the truth.

 

In September, time is taken to explicitly teach the children about the rules of Respect, along with our other two school values:  Persevere and Enquire.  These lessons are taught through PHSE and are centred around core British Values.

Everyone works really hard to ensure that we follow our rules for respect and our followed.

 

Rewards for making the right choices.

Verbal praise is used in an abundance at Paganel.

J2S stars

To draw attention to role models who are following the rules for RESPECT and showing enquiry and perseverance with their work children are awarded J2S stars.

J2S For every 5 J2S stars awarded, the children receive a raffle ticket that gets entered into a class prize draw. The winning ticket is pulled out of a hat on a Friday by each class teacher.

House points

We have four houses and every child is assigned to one.  Through the support of the Steering group, the children chose the names of 4 people who were/have been born in Birmingham or have made a big contribution to the lives of Birmingham people.

They are:

Cadbury (George)

Zephaniah (Benjamin)

Yousfzai (Malala)

Simmonds (Ellie)

Children receive house points for following the rules for RESPECT outside of the classroom (in assembly, on the corridor in the playground). House points (plastic, round tokens)  are deposited in the clear tubes in classrooms and then in two central locations in school, they are then counted every fortnight and the running totals are announced in assembly. Every term there is a reward afternoon for the house that has been awarded the House Cup the most times.

Tea parties

Each term, class teachers will nominate children who consistently demonstrate the school values to attend a tea party with other nominators and their parents. We celebrate with yummy cakes, balloons and certificates.

Restorative Practice.

At Paganel, we use a restorative approach for dealing with conflict. If issues, arise, we use The Paganel Pelican which is a question framework to explore what has happened, how we can repair the situation and make a plan to repair and restore our relationship. This process is also used by our Peer mediators (children in Years 5 and 6) who have been trained to help to solve issues if they arrise in the playground.

Consequences for making the wrong choices.

When a child is seen to not be following our RESPECT rules, they are verbally reminded of the expectation so that they can rectify their behaviour. If this behaviour continues, they receive a yellow card. If a second yellow card is issued, the child will be asked to move to a different area of the room or to another classroom for some time out. On their return, the teacher will use restorative process with the child to find out the root cause of the behaviour and then to plan for how the child can make more positive choices.

If the child receives more than three lots of 2 yellow cards in a week, this becomes a red card. Therefore children will receive a red card. This means that the child will miss enrichment activities that take place on a Friday afternoon. Instead they will go to the reflection room.

Red cards are issued if the behaviour persists after having time out. Red cards will also be issued immediately if there is a risk to safely or deliberate disrespect. Children their breaktimes reflecting upon their behaviour with the Senior Learning Mentor or a member of the leadership team.  Parents will be notified of red cards through a phone call or a message from the class teacher at the end of the school day.

Please see the updated behaviour policy for more information.

The School will make reasonable adjustments to the behaviour policy for pupils with disabilities. In addition to this an individualised response will be taken when behavioural issues might be a result of educational, mental health and other needs or vulnerabilities.