2020 – 2021 Prospectus Great Oaks from Little Acorns Grow… …making learning fun! 1 Welcome to Llangrove CE Academy Dear Parents, Carers and Friends, Thank you for taking an interest in our school. You are warmly invited to discover more about our school by exploring our website: www.llangrove.hmfa.org.uk or, best of all, by arranging a visit where we will happily show all that Llangrove CE Academy has to offer for your child. We are very proud of the achievements of our school and pupils and hope that your association with the school is a happy, positive and rewarding experience. We recognise that every child has the potential to succeed. With this in mind, we aim to create a caring and supportive learning environment, with exciting and engaging learning opportunities to suit individual needs. We place a strong emphasis on effective communication and partnerships with parents and hope you will take advantage of our ‘open door’ policy if you have any queries or concerns. We look forward to working closely with you and your family, to ensure that all children continue to achieve the best that they possibly can. Kind regards, Mr P Box (Executive Head Teacher) and Mrs S Dean (Head of School) Contents Page Our Ethos Statement 3 Our Aims & Ethos and Our School 4 Admission & Transfer 5 A Partnership with Parents 6 Guarding Children’s Safety in School 7 Attendance 8 Behaviour & School Rules 9 School Organisation, School Clubs, School Uniform 10 School Transport and Care Outside School Hours 11 The Curriculum and Early Years 12 Our Curriculum – Core Subjects 13 - 14 Our Curriculum – Foundation Subjects 15 -16 Religious Education, Gifts & Talents and SEN Provision 17 Assessment and Reporting to Parents 18 Links with the Community, the PTFA and Visitors 19 Learning Beyond our Walls and Access to Documents 20 General Information, Staff and Governors 21 School Term Dates 22 School Location & Map 22 2 Our Ethos Statement Llangrove CE Academy shares a common ethos statement with all Church of England schools in the Hereford Diocese, “Recognising its historic foundation, the school will preserve and develop its religious character in accordance with the principles of the Church of England and in partnership with the Church at parish and Diocesan level. The school aims to serve its community by providing an education of the highest quality within the context of Christian belief and practice. It encourages an understanding of the meaning and significance of faith and promotes Christian values through the experience it offers to all its pupils.” We are very proud and thrilled this year that Llangrove CE Academy achieved Outstanding in our SIAMS inspection in November 2017. We are extremely proud of the children’s achievements and felt that the report reflected our caring and nurturing school ethos. The full report is available on the school website. Welcome from Christ Church: “We are pleased to commend our school to you in this foreword. The school has a rural catchment area that encompasses a number of villages, parishes and worship centres. In Llangrove itself, we continue to build on and reinforce the strong links that exist between the school and the church community on every level. The school values the children and their development through education, physical activity and social skills, equipping them to take a positive role in society, as it also values the development of those who guide, lead and teach our children. The education and development of the children is held in a loving, caring Christian environment which has at the core the Christian message, the Christian values and ethos, as well as respecting people of other faiths and those with none. Our role is to be a supporter of the children, parents, the staff, the leadership team and the Governors in spiritual and pastoral matters.“ From the Chair of Governors, Mr Harris : “The village of Llangrove provides an idyllic setting for the learning and development of children, and there has been a church school here since 1875. The school sits within a safe setting, and our excellent staff are committed to the academic, physical, moral, Christian and personal development of all children. In order to meet the needs of all pupils we offer a creative curriculum, individual support and lessons that pupils themselves class as being interesting and fun. Our recent Ofsted report highlighted the outstanding behaviour of our pupils, and their desire to work hard and take pride in their achievements. Co-operation is enhanced through peer support at lunchtime, break time games, imaginative play and adventure in our Forest School areas. We enjoy strong community links and Leapfrogs pre-school group share our site. This ensures that very young children are well prepared for school, and in addition, Leapfrogs also offer extended care and play before and after school. We pride ourselves on the good relationships we have with our parents, and our most recent parent survey confirmed that parents greatly value the work that the school does with their children. Llangrove Parent, Teacher and Friends Association are very active organising additional activities for our pupils. Throughout the year we undertake fundraising activities for national charities. We sincerely encourage you to come and see this lovely, happy school so that you can experience what the pupils and school achieves on a daily basis. As our recent Ofsted report concluded this is a good school, and one we are all justly proud of.” 3 Llangrove CE Academy Aims & Ethos Our aim at Llangrove CE Academy is to give all pupils the opportunity to fulfil their potential by providing encouragement, stimulation and a creative curriculum learning environment. We work together with pupils and parents to ensure that each child leaving our school is as well-equipped as he or she possibly can be to succeed in their teenage and adult lives. We are a Church of England Aided School and Christian Values provide a framework for the day to day life of the school. We aim to ensure that the school provides purposeful, effective education in a happy and stimulating environment where the children feel secure and comfortable within a caring, family atmosphere. Children are helped and encouraged to make positive contribution to all aspects of school life, to develop individual interest and to recognise the abilities and needs of others as caring citizens within the school and the wider community. Our School We believe that our environment provides a wonderful stimulus for learning. Our school is set in the heart of the village community of Llangrove and serves a large rural catchment area. We are a small school of just over sixty pupils, grouped in three classes – Acorn, Beech and Oak . The school comprises of three classrooms grouped around an open practical area; hall, pupil-friendly kitchen, a reference and home-school reading book library, changing rooms and toilets and is extremely well equipped. Our school is completely accessible for the physically disabled including toilet facilities. The hall is used for PE lessons and other lessons, daily collective worship and school meals. There is mobile staging to assist with music/drama productions. We have a class set of wireless laptops and I-Pads and our classrooms and the school hall are equipped with interactive white boards and Wi-Fi. The children also have use of a large separate Art and DT practical area. The school is extremely fortunate in having a large playing field, playground, outside classroom, raised beds school garden and an ecological area with pond. Llangrove is also a member of Activate Education Ltd, a network of Herefordshire Primary schools & academies who design their own programme of Continuing Professional Development for staff using national speakers and consultants to ensure we deliver cutting edge, world class primary education for our children. “The school is very effective in promoting pupil’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development through an exciting and relevant curriculum.” – Ofsted Report October 2014 4 Self-Governing School On 1st February 2012, Llangrove CE (VA) Primary School became a fully self-governing school under the Academies Act 2012. We are now called Llangrove CE Academy and are part of Hereford Marches Federation of Academies. (www.hmfa.org.uk) What’s different about academies? Freedoms Academies benefit from greater freedoms to innovate and raise standards. These include: • freedom from local authority control; • the ability to set their own pay and conditions for staff; • freedom around the delivery of the curriculum; and • the ability to change the lengths of terms and school days. Funding Academies receive the same level of per-pupil funding as they would receive from the local authority as a maintained school, plus additions to cover the services that are no longer provided for them by the local authority. However, academies have greater freedom over how they use their budgets to best benefit their pupils. Academies receive their funding directly from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) rather than from local authorities. Governance The principles of governance are the same in academies as in maintained schools, but the governing body has greater autonomy. Academies are required to have at least two parent governors. Admission and Transfer of Children Our current admission limit is 15 per year group. The governors review the admissions policy annually. Parents or carers are requested to register their children in advance. All new parents or carers are invited to the school for an induction afternoon so that they can see the facilities, feel the atmosphere of the school, meet the Head of School and staff and discuss arrangements. The school also welcomes prospective and current parents to its autumn open days and by appointment throughout the year.