SCHOOL PROSPECTUS 2010/2011 DORCHESTER ST BIRINUS CHURCH OF ENGLAND PRIMARY SCHOOL QUEEN STREET DORCHESTER ON THAMES WALLINGFORD OXON OX10 7HR TEL & FAX: 01865 340081 EMAIL [email protected] HEADTEACHER : Mr RUSSELL LEIGH CHAIR OF GOVERNORS : MR DAVID HERLIHY OUR LOCATION Road map showing the location of Dorchester-on-Thames between Oxford and Wallingford Street plan of Dorchester-on-Thames showing Queen Street LIST OF STAFF HEADTEACHER Mr Russell Leigh TEACHERS Class 1 Mrs Sue Kitson Class 2 Miss Denise Williams Class 3 Mrs Gabrielle McEvoy Class 4 Mrs Julie Clarke PPA Cover Victoria Wheele TEACHING ASSISTANTS Mrs Pamela Chappell Mrs Karen Johnstone Mrs Linda Burns Mrs Vicky Wheele Ms Sally-Ann Hilton Mrs Sara Brower RECEPTIONIST/ ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Mrs Teresa Flinders SNAST Kathy McMullin LUNCHTIME SUPERVISORS Mrs Debbie Field Miss Kelly Anne Ray Mrs Sally-Anne Townsend CANTEEN ASSISTANT Mrs Debbie Field CARETAKER Mrs Debbie Field List of St Birinus Primary School Governors & Committee Membership @ January 2011 Name Governor Type Finance Resources Staffing Pupils and (eg Parent/ Committee Committee Committee Curriculum Community/LA) Committee Russell Leigh Staff - Headteacher David Parent √ √ Herlihy Becky Waller Parent √ √ CHAIR Aiden Parent √ O’Sullivan Mark Community √ √ CHAIR Bristow Mark Community √ √ Stevenson Sue Kitson Staff √ √ Sue Lucas Foundation √ √ Sue Booys Foundation √ √ CHAIR Helen Russell LA √ √ Tim Talbot Associate √ Duncan Associate √ Lochhead INTRODUCTION We hope this prospectus will provide you with all the information you need about our school. Any further information may be obtained from Teresa, our school secretary, or from Mr Leigh, our Headteacher. Visits You are very welcome to visit. We would encourage you to visit during the working day as this will help you to get a better feel for our school. If you would like to visit, please phone, e-mail or call in to make an appointment. Catchment area of the school The villages of Dorchester-on-Thames and Drayton St. Leonard constitute the catchment area for our school. Children living outside the catchment area may also be admitted, provided our standard number of 15 places per year group is not exceeded. St. Birinus is a feeder primary school for Fitzharrys, John Mason and Larkmead Secondary Schools in Abingdon. Parents may also apply for places in other secondary schools. Our geographical location means that we regularly send children on to six or more secondary schools. Abingdon Partnership St. Birinus is part of the Abingdon Partnership of Schools. We are actively involved with our local cluster of schools within the Abingdon Partnership: Clifton Hampden, Culham, Milton, Sutton Courtenay, Drayton and St. Michaels, Steventon. Our ethos and aims Recognising its historic foundation, we aim to preserve and develop the religious character of our school in accordance with the Church of England and in particular with the Abbey and the church at parish and diocesan level. As a Church of England School we are monitored and inspected by advisers from the Oxford Diocese. We aim to establish a happy and caring environment where children feel safe and secure. We regard each child as an individual and treat them as such. We promote an ethos based on mutual respect and Christian values. We work hard to maintain and develop a sense of the school as a community where everyone is valued. We aim to create an environment of trust and openness in which children, parents, staff and governors work effectively together. We set and maintain high standards of behaviour and discipline and encourage children to be responsible for their own actions and their environment. We promote a positive attitude towards learning and encourage children to develop good working habits. Through the curriculum and other activities, we help children to develop confidence in themselves and their abilities so enabling them to reach their full potential in their academic, spiritual, moral, cultural and social development. Our aim is to establish these principles firmly so that they underpin children’s attitudes as they move from here to their secondary schools and on into the wider community outside school. The Village of Dorchester on Thames Dorchester-on-Thames is a small village, 9 miles south of Oxford. The village sits at the confluence of the rivers Thames and Thame. It is actually the River Thame that runs through the village. There is evidence of human settlement in Dorchester from Neolithic times. To the south, Iron Age people occupied a hill fort on Castle Hill; later the Celtic people protected their settlement by building the Dyke Hills, a rare example of a pre-Roman town, about half a mile from the present village. Dorchester today lies over the old Romano-British walled town, of which the southern and western boundaries can still be traced. This town became the centre of a Saxon settlement. The present day allotments were once the Hempcroft. Cynegils the king of the West Saxons was baptised in the River Thame by St Birinus in 635 and Dorchester became the episcopal centre for Wessex. Later it came under the control of Offa, King of Mercia, which led to the See of Dorchester stretching from the Thames to the Humber, in 1075 Remegius removed the See to Lincoln. In 1140 Dorchester’s Augustinian monastery was founded and the Abbey was built on the old Saxon foundations. At the time of the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s, the church building was saved for posterity through its purchase for £140 by local wealthy man Richard Beauforest who left it to the village in his will. As Wallingford and Oxford grew, Dorchester’s importance as a centre decreased. However, its location on the main roads from Gloucester and from Oxford to London ensured its role as a focal point for travellers, with several inns as well as two stagecoach inns. The road was one of the earliest to become a toll road. The building of the bypass (the present A4074) in the 20 th century brought further changes. Please visit www.dorchester-on-thames.co.uk for further information. Drayton St Leonard Drayton St. Leonard is our neighbouring village. The River Thame passes by the south east corner of the village and is near the end of its journey, as two miles downstream it joins with the River Thames at Dorchester. The village can be traced back several hundred years in its present form and can actually be traced back to medieval settlements. Of the present 100 houses about half have been built this century with the rest being older. There are several interesting old thatched cottages which nestle next to more modern ones. The village church, St Catherine and St Leonard, is an interesting building built mainly of stone, though now pebbledashed with most of it being several hundred years old. The village hall was formerly the original two roomed school and is used for many local functions. There are two working farms in the village. Please visit www.dsl.iofm.net for further information. ST. BIRINUS ADMISSIONS POLICY FOR FOUNDATION STAGE CHILDREN STARTING SCHOOL The basis on which children may start school is dependent on their age. Our current Admissions Policy allows for the following options: Children born between 1 September- 31 August • Children may start school from September 2011 on a full time basis . • School will advise parents at a meeting in the Summer Term as to arrangements for children settling in to school. School Admissions Form If your child is due to start school in September 2011 and you want to apply for a place at Dorchester St Birinus, we need you to complete a school Pupil Enrolment Form for us to keep on file. Please note that this form is purely for the school’s administrative use. It is not the official application form. These forms provide us with your child’s name, age and address details so that we can send out any relevant information and booklets to you. The school Pupil Enrolment form can be collected from Teresa in the office. Making a formal application for a place in school The official Common Application Form (CAF Primary) is to be found in the ‘Starting School’ booklet. Your completed Common Application Form has to be returned to the school office in 17 January 2011. We will keep a record of all the CAF forms we receive and will then forward them to the Admissions Team. For additional information regarding admission to Primary Schools in Oxfordshire, contact: The Admissions Team Children’s Services Macclesfield House New Road Oxford OX1 1NA Tel: 01865 815175 Fax: 01865 783198 E-mail: [email protected] MEETINGS AND VISITS PRIOR TO THE FOUNDATION STAGE CHILDREN STARTING SCHOOL In May 2011, once the Admissions Team have allocated places, we will invite the parents of all those children due to start school with us in 2011/12 to an informal information evening so that we can tell you more about our provision for the Foundation Stage children and discuss with you the various options for when your child could start school. We also invite parents to a further meeting, in the term before school entry. This meeting is an opportunity for us to talk to parents about our home/school partnership and, for parents to ask any questions or share any concerns they might have about their child starting school. The children are also invited to spend a morning with Mrs Kitson in Class 1. Children attending Dorchester Pre-School also visit Class 1 for story sessions in the term before they start school. Children who do not attend Dorchester Pre-school may also visit for story sessions if parents so wish but parents will need to make arrangements with Mrs.