St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, Natland CONTENTS 1 Contents 2 Introduction 3 School Ethos 4 A Brief History New Developments Natland and Oxenholme PreSchool 5 Contact Details Teaching Staff Classroom Support Staff Support Staff 6 Mosaics Staff Pre School Manager Instrumental Music Teachers Students 7 Governing Body 8 Community Links Pupils with Disabilities Security 9 Visiting Arrangements Times of the School Day 10 Current School Organisation 10-11 Teaching and Learning 12-18 Curriculum Subject Statements 19 Extra Curricular Activities 20 Homework Children with Special Educational Needs Religious Education and Worship 21 Sex Education School Rules 22 Code of Conduct for Behaviour 23 Behaviour and Discipline Parent/Teacher Conferences 24 Pastoral Care 25 School Dress 26 School Meals ‘MOSAICS’ Out of School Provision 27 St. Mark’s School P.T.A. (Parent Teacher Association) Attendance and Absence Charging for School Activities 28 Insurance Matters Secondary Education 29 Formal Complaints Disclaimer Appendix 1 School Holiday Dates 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 Appendix 2 School Admissions Policy 1 St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, Natland INTRODUCTION The winged lion, symbol of St Mark, represents the strength we can all find in God combined with the potential to achieve great things and ‘soar on wings like eagles.’ St Mark’s is a successful, happy and welcoming rural school serving the children of Natland, the Oaks, the Beeches, Strawberry Fields, Oxenholme and beyond. Our most recent Ofsted inspection report (December 2016) states that St Mark’s continues to be a good school. The opening paragraph of the report states, ‘The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection. You have an accurate understanding of the key reasons why the school continues to be successful and why it is a popular choice of parents in the area. Using this knowledge, you have continued to build on the strengths seen during the last inspection, maintaining the high standard seen in reading and making sure that the pupils continue to be happy and exceptionally well cared for. You know where there is still work to do, based on your accurate and ongoing reviews of the work of the school.’ We are very proud of our school and its place at the heart of the local community. Our most recent SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools) judged the distinctiveness and effectiveness of St Mark’s C of E School as a Church of England School as outstanding: The Christian character of the school is deeply embedded and permeates all aspects of school life. This has a direct and positive impact on pupils’ wellbeing and on their spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. The distinctively Christian values are lived out within the school and ensure exceptionally strong relationships across staff and pupils. The excellent Christian leadership of the school ensures that school improvement is highly effective and underpinned by Christian values. Collective worship plays a significant part in developing pupils’ spirituality. We try to build everything that we do on a set of 15 Christian values: compassion creation endurance fellowship forgiveness friendship hope humility justice peace reverence service thankfulness trust wisdom Our focus this year will be on: Humility, Reverence and Creation. These values, looked at over a four year rolling programme, form the basis for the worship life of the school, underpin our approach to discipline and our expectations for behaviour and influence the way in which all members of the school community conduct themselves. 2 St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, Natland Our aim is to maintain high academic standards year on year but more importantly work hard to ensure good progress is made by all children. Consistent with our caring and inclusive ethos, any child with particular or special needs or disabilities is well supported by our dedicated team of support staff. Being a Voluntary Aided (V.A.) Church school provides many opportunities for independence, flexibility and creativity within a clear moral framework that puts individual self-worth and our 15 Christian Values at the heart of all teaching and learning. We try to provide as many and as wide a variety of opportunities in sports and the arts for all pupils during each school year. We actively promote healthy eating, healthy lifestyles and pupil involvement in decision making. Catering is provided by local company Orian with the majority of our children regularly eating hot, healthy meals freshly prepared on the premises. SCHOOL ETHOS We aim to provide a safe, caring and inclusive environment in which everyone is able to learn, try new things and grow as a fully rounded individual: finding strength in God and soaring on wings like eagles. We aim to provide education in accordance with the principles and practices of the Church of England. Worship, good quality religious education and spiritual development are at the heart of every aspect of the work of our school. Celebration, inclusion, forgiveness, grace and mercy are some of the key aspects of school life that give it a distinctive Christian ethos. We are currently working to develop our understanding of the values that underpin the work of a church school. The focus this school year will be on: humility, reverence and creation. Such values operate as a filter for decision making at every level and help to guide the activities and life of the school. A brief summary of the vision statement for St. Mark’s appears, in no particular order, below: to foster a clear Christian ethos to support, recognise and celebrate the achievement and progress of all children to develop effective learning behaviours to encourage progress, maintain high standards and constantly strive for improvement to be a focal point, support and resource for the community to have close and mutually supportive links with the local church to develop strong links with other educational providers to work openly and in partnership with the Kendal Collaborative Partnership (our cluster of local schools) to be welcoming, accessible and actively encouraging of parental involvement to participate enthusiastically in educational initiatives to participate in a wide range of sporting and cultural events to provide high quality, relevant professional development for all staff to maintain the fabric of the building and its environment to ensure safety and inspire learning to build our educational practice on recent rigorous research 3 St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, Natland A BRIEF HISTORY In 2003 a new school hall was added along with other alterations giving an additional classroom and a new corridor linking the two main sections of the school. In 2006 a seventh classroom was established by re-working existing rooms and the library was brought to the centre of the school. A dedicated outside area for the younger children was created in 2007 as an extension to the Reception classroom. More recent work has included re-roofing, replacement of the main heating boilers, toilet refurbishment and an extension to the car park. In 2014 new office space and a new school entrance were added. Work was completed on alterations to two classrooms and a new classroom has been built. In 2019 the heating system was completely upgraded. The school roll is likely to grow as large housing projects are completed in the catchment area and so the recent projects have been carried out to ensure that we have 7 teaching spaces able to accommodate 30 pupils. The school is set in extensive grounds incorporating a large playground, playing field, adventure play area, an outside classroom, kitchen garden and a wildlife area. Each year we harvest a wide range of home grown fruit and vegetables as our ‘Hidden Haven’ has become established. NEW DEVELOPMENTS St Mark’s PTA has led the way in the last year in raising £27,000 for development of the playground. The children now enjoy the safety and opportunity offered by the new Multi-Use Games Area (MUGA). We also have a large shelter over one corner of the playground and a wide range of sports and educational markings painted on the surface of the playground. NATLAND AND OXENHOLME PRE-SCHOOL Since June 2018 St Mark’s school has hosted the long-established Natland and Oxenholme Pre-School in the school building. The Pre-School was based in the local Natland village hall but has been re-established as a partner with the school. A room is leased to the trustees who continue to manage the provision which is separately registered with Ofsted. They are now able to offer morning and afternoon sessions each day of the week during school terms. Families using the Pre-School are able to use the school’s MOSAICS breakfast and after-school clubs which when used in conjunction with pre-school sessions can provide full wrap-around care, from 7.45 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. Pre School visit the Hidden Haven 4 St Mark’s Church of England Primary School, Natland CONTACT DETAILS School Address St. Mark's Church of England Primary School Oxenholme Lane, Natland, Kendal, LA9 7QH. Telephone 015395 60719 Fax 015395 61769 E-mail [email protected] Website www.stmarksschoolnatland.co.uk Headteacher Mr. Peter Barfoot TEACHING STAFF Mr P Barfoot Headteacher Mrs J Grant Deputy Headteacher / Year 1 Mrs D Thorne EYFS Reception Mrs K Hardy Special Needs Co-ordinator (0.2) Mrs S Robinson Year 2 (0.5) Mrs J Yarker Year 2 (0.5) Mrs H Cook Year 3 (0.8) Mrs