EYFS New Parents | The Catholic School of St Gregory the Great

Welcome

Congratulations and thank you for choosing The Catholic School of Saint Gregory The Great for your child. We look forward to meeting you in the near future and we hope that we shall have a very happy and successful relationship with you and your child.

Important Information

By now you should have received the offer letter from the Local Authority. Parents who been offered a place have until Friday 24th April 2020 to respond to the offer: accept, decline or request to be placed on a waiting list.

We recommend that you accept the allocated school place as this in no way affects any request to go on the waiting list or appeal for an alternative school place but does ensure that your child has a school place for September 2020.

Please note if any schools on your waiting list can be offered, your original offer will be withdrawn and given to another child. If you require the original offer back, you may have to go on a waiting list which will be held in accordance with the school’s/academy’s admission criteria.

You will be notified of the outcome of your waiting list request by letter after Friday 15 May 2020. We will not act on any appeals before 15 May 2020. You have until 29 May 2020 to log an appeal.

We will be sending a Welcome Letter to all new Reception parents week beginning 27 April.

We are very much looking forward to welcoming all new children to our school.

What Happens Next?

To help you to get to know us better you will be invited to a Welcome Meeting, this will be held at Saint Gregory’s School. You will receive a letter welcoming you and your child to the school along with key dates for you to add to your diary. You will also be asked to fill in a pupil information form Pupil-Information-Form-0619.pdf if we do not receive this form by the deadline 7th July 2020 it will delay your child's start date.

The Welcome Meeting

The FS (Foundation Stage) team will be there to greet you. Parents/carers are asked to attend this meeting without the children, as this will be an opportunity for you to meet your child’s teacher, the Headteacher and the other new parents in preparation for this exciting new phase in you and your child’s life. At this meeting, the starting school induction procedure will be explained to you; you will be able to book your home visit and find out the date of your child’s special morning and which class they will be in.

Home Visit

On the day we will visit you in your home environment. The visit will last for about 15-20 minutes. This will be an opportunity for you to share with us any information about your child or family that you feel will be helpful, a chance to ask questions, a chance for us to share information with you and most importantly a chance for us to build a relationship with you and your child.

We will use this opportunity to chat with your child too about their interests and will also carry out some activities with them so that we can use this information to help settle them in to school. When the children start school, we find that they feel more comfortable and love to recount their experience with us!

What to expect from your child

Excitement / anxiety / nerves.
Settling in takes different amounts of time for different children.
Tiredness and irritability – early nights, healthy meals.
Teacher available at classroom door before and after school
Need a more formal appointment? Speak to the school office.

Daily Routines

FS have their own allocated area for drop off and pick ups.
Gates open from 8.40am each morning.
Classroom doors open from 8.45am-8.50am.
Your child’s class teacher will be there to greet you each morning/end of day.
When the bell goes the door will shut. If you are late you will need to take your child to the office to sign in.
Punctuality is really important!
Each morning if the children are having hot dinners they will choose from 3 options. It is really helpful if you can talk about these prior to the children coming in.
PE will take place each Thursday – please ensure a PE kit is brought in at the start of each term and we will return it at the end to be washed.
School finishes promptly at 3.05pm. We expect a prompt pick up.

What to pack each day!

All uniform to be labelled – even socks and pants!
Coat every day please.
Book bag – containing reading book and reading record (everyday please!)
If packed lunch – variety of foods and NO NUTS!
Water bottle (only water!)
Weather dependent:-Warm hats, scarves and gloves (the children have free-flow outside) In the summer – sun hats and sun cream (we would advise to apply before school).

Parking

When you come to St Gregory’s, you agree to follow our community rules,
Please DO NOT PARK in the cul-de-sac or Knapp Road.
Instead, park in Waitrose and walk around – it takes 3 minutes.
This is for the safety of all of our children.

How we connect

TAPESTRY - Online learning journal where you can follow your child's learning journey and share with us home experiences too! More info to follow in September.
TWITTER - This is a CLOSED group you have to be a parent/carer of the school to be granted access. More info to follow in September - @SaintGregsChelt – please join!
SCHOOL WEBSITE - As you can see our website is packed full of information. We are a paperless school. We will give you details on how to log on to our school payment/booking apps - you will be able to pay for trips, give permissions, sign up for parents evenings via these systems.
YOUTUBE - Our virtual school
PARENT PAY - Pay for meals, Trips & paid for clubs
PARENTS EVENING - Register for Parent Teacher Reviews (PTRs), Register for FREE clubs & Sporting activities/competitions