We rely on parents to use their best endeavours to help their children to take a full part in the activities of the School, to attend School each day during term time, to be punctual, to work hard, to be well behaved and to comply with the School Rules and Code of Conduct.

1. Induction Meeting

During the first term of the new school session, you will be invited to attend an online induction meeting where you will get the opportunity to meet your child’s class teacher online along with other parents. The meeting will give you:

• clarification on the main aspects of the curriculum;

• an indication of the expectations we have for your child;

• ideas for supporting your child; and

• answers to any questions you may have.

2. Snacks

• A small healthy snack for morning break, for example some fruit, cheese and crackers or a muesli bar.

• A refillable sports cap style water bottle - children are encouraged to drink water throughout the day.

• A small snack for 2:10pm on ACE days.

• Treat Snack Friday - last Friday of every month – one small treat of your choice.

• Please note that fizzy drinks, sweets, chocolate, crisps and nuts should not be brought to school for daily snack.

• Birthday cakes should not be brought to class.

3. After School Care

If you are not able to collect your child at the end of the school day, you may register them in our After School Club (ASC) service, which offers a wide range of activities and an after school snack. Children in ASC are supervised at all times.  It is important to ensure that your child is collected from the After School Club via the Forest Avenue entrance by 6pm at the latest or you will incur extra charges. Please note that spaces for this service are limited. For further information on this service and to check availability, please see contact afterschool@albynschool.org. 

4. Picking Up from School, Co-Curricular Activities, Trips and After School Club

To ensure the safety of all children, we do not allow Lower School pupils to wait outside or anywhere in the school unsupervised at the end of the school day. It is important that you adhere to the end times of co-curricular clubs and arrive promptly to collect your children from their after school activities. If you are to be delayed when collecting your child, please ensure that you contact the school to notify us of the reason for your delay and the estimated time of your arrival. In the instance of late collection, children may be asked to wait for parents at Main Reception where, while staff are present, one-to-one supervision is not possible. Frequent late collection of your child will be noted and followed up by a member of staff.

 Collection for After School Club is from the Forest Avenue entrance to the Lower School. Children attending after school co-curricular activities that finish before 5pm are also to be collected from the Forest Avenue entrance. Collection from clubs that finish after 5pm is from the front reception area of the school at the Queen’s Road entrance. For trips/activities finishing after 5pm you are welcome to use empty staff spaces in the car park (except for the two minibus spaces at the top of the car park) in addition to the drop off zone. If the car park is full please do not block its entrance and Queen’s Road while waiting for a space; instead, please park in the surrounding streets. For instance, Forest Avenue, Forest Road and the west of Queens Road all have free on street parking from 5.00pm.

 Note that pupils involved with after school co-curricular sport need to be collected from the sporting venue where they are playing and not the school. Where Lower School children are being collected from a co-curricular sporting activity, then a parent or their representative must come in to the venue to sign that pupil out. Pupils will not be allowed to leave until they have been signed out.

 The PE & Sport department reminds parents to please ensure that pupils are collected promptly from co-curricular activities. Late collection (more than 10 minutes after the activity has finished) will result in a letter informing parents that their child will not be able to participate in the activity the following week. If a pupil is not collected on time twice in a term, they will be not be able to continue that co-curricular activity for the remainder of the term. 

5. Home Learning

Home Learning (homework) takes a variety of forms, depending on the age of your child. It will include routine tasks such as reading, spelling or mental arithmetic to have ready for the following day. It may also include research or investigative work which would be expected to be done over a period of a few days or even weeks.

It is important for the children to establish the habit of setting aside some quiet time each evening, in order to complete the tasks assigned to them. This will help them to become self-disciplined and organised which will benefit the whole of their education. 

In place of homework diaries, we will use Google Classroom or other online methods to communicate homework.  Parents should check this regularly with their child. 

6. Clans

The School is organised into four Clans for games and other competitions. The Clans and their colours are Douglas, blue; Forbes, yellow; Gordon, green; and Stuart, red. Pupils are allocated a Clan on entry to the school. 

7. School Colours and Awards in the Lower School

Colours are to celebrate the achievements and contributions of all pupils at Albyn School, across a diverse range of activities. Lower School pupils can get Lower Colours, for P3-P5 pupils, and Junior Colours for P6- S2 pupils. At each age level, pupils may gain recognition for participation, excellence and representation across five categories: Citizenship; Co-curricular; Expressive Arts; Sport and Super-Curriculum. Pupils will be nominated for Colours by staff using specific criteria. Pupils who podium in a national event or represent the country will be eligible for National Colours. There will be three Colours assemblies held over the year.

At the Closing Ceremony the following cups and awards may be presented:

• Zena Cooper Cup for Art

• Maclean Music Cup for Music

• Primary 7 Mathematical Challenge Cup

• Presly Prize for Perseverance in Music

• Graham Cup for Poetry in P4

• Graham Cup for Poetry in P5

• Graham Cup for Poetry in P6

• Graham Cup for Poetry in P7

• Johnstone Citizenship Award

• Thorp Cup for Endeavour

• Charlie Todd Award

• Proxime Accessit

• Lower School Dux

8. Behaviour

The behavioural expectations of pupils and adults connected to the school are clearly stated in the School Terms and Conditions.  It is a proven fact that children model their behaviour and attitudes on the significant adults in their lives. Parents, teachers and other adults within the school have an important role to play in shaping appropriate behaviour.  Parents are requested to support the school’s disciplinary approach in order that pupils learn that their actions have consequences. Pupils will be praised for good choices. At other times they will be disciplined for making wrong choices or displaying unacceptable behaviour.  Unacceptable behaviour will be dealt with according to the Lower School Behaviour Management Policy.

Our Lower School Behaviour Expectations are displayed in every classroom and encourage our pupils to make good choices and teach them the importance of developing good values. 

Pupils are encouraged to avoid ‘yellow’, ‘red’ and ‘purple’ behaviours. Should a pupil choose to display any of these behaviours, the following ‘steps’ will be taken;

•  A verbal warning will be given to your child to make them aware that the behaviour they are displaying is unacceptable. They will be guided and given encouragement to change their behaviour choice to make a better choice that impacts them and others around them positively.

• If children exhibit yellow behaviour they are encouraged to speak to their parents about their choice of behaviour when they go home. A yellow card notification will appear on the School Portal.  Your child will have 5 minutes of their breaktime talking with Mr Davies, Mrs Brown or Mrs Smith about their behaviour choice and reflecting on how they can make a positive change to their behaviour.

• If children choose to exhibit red behaviour they will spend their morning break time reflecting on their choices with Mrs Brown, Mrs Smith or Mr Davies.  During this time your child will have the opportunity to consider ways to improve their behaviour and make positive changes. A red card notification will appear on the School Portal and you will be contacted by the class teacher or one of the LSLT.

• If purple behaviour is displayed parents will be contacted to attend a meeting at school with Mrs Brown, Mrs Smith or Mr Davies to discuss the behaviour/incident.  Consequences for the behaviour will be decided upon after investigation and any further discussions.

Please note that it is possible to jump over certain steps depending on the severity of the behaviour choice.

All staff, parents and pupils are expected to be courteous and well-mannered at all times in order to promote the development of positive behaviour among the pupils. 

9. PC, internet, tablet and email use

It is expected that all pupils will use the School computers responsibly as per the school’s Acceptable Use Policy. Pupils can read this every time they log on to a computer screen and a paper copy can be obtained on request. Computer use will be monitored and anyone failing to obey the rules of computer use will be disciplined and may have their access taken away. It is advisable that pupils take in their own headphones mainly for hygiene reasons. 

Pupils in P5- P7 will bring into school their own personal ipads that will be connected to the school network. While connected to school network the ipads will be subject to the school's filtering, this means that certain apps and websites may be blocked from working whilst in school. Outside school there will be no filtering and parents should ensure they are happy with the level of protection their own wifi offers. 

10. Mobile Phones

Mobile phones are not permitted in school for Primary 1 to Primary 5 pupils.  Pupils in Primary 6 and 7 may bring a mobile phone to school but it must be turned off between the hours of 8.00am and 3.35pm. The mobile phone should be handed to the class teacher during the school day. 

Mobile phones will not usually be allowed on school trips and excursions. Please also note the following points:

·         All emergency or urgent telephone calls to parents will be made through the school during reception hours.

·         We do not accept responsibility for lost mobile phones. 

11. Support for Learning

If the class teacher thinks that your child would benefit from Support for Learning he or she will discuss this with the Head of Lower School and Head of Support for Learning. We will then invite you into school to discuss your child’s best interests and propose an action plan for him or her. Support for Learning is used for extending a very able child as well as for helping those who are having difficulty with some aspect of learning. 

12. Lost Property

Everything belonging to your child must be named. Pupils should not bring anything valuable to school and must certainly never leave anything important unattended in cloakrooms, classrooms or elsewhere. Pupils must endeavour to take care of their belongings, including P.E. kit, and take the initiative to check lost property benches promptly after losing an item. 

Staff will make efforts to return all named items to children/class teachers. Unnamed kit or other possessions are far less likely to be returned.  Unnamed lost property is placed in the storage chests outside the Mackie Library parents and pupils are encouraged to look for unnamed items here. All unnamed items will be placed in Reception in the holidays for parents to browse through and anything left will be sent to charities. Please be mindful that Reception staff are not responsible for lost property. 

Once a term, kit will be checked, and all unnamed items will be sent home with a note asking that they are named. Please note that many naming methods do eventually wear off and regular checks to ensure names are still visible are advised. 

Whilst it is ultimately the responsibility of your child to take care of their belongings, you can help by emphasising the importance of keeping their kit organised. Small steps such as this will help to prevent property being lost. 

13. Specialist Teachers & Instrumental Tuition

The Lower School is very fortunate to have some lessons taught by our specialist Upper School staff. This starts in Primary 1 and 2 with Music, PE and French. Art is added in Primary 4 and in Primary 6 and Primary 7 EDT, Science, ICT and Maths Challenge are added to the timetable.  

The Music department offers an extensive range of individual instrument tuition and singing lessons for an extra termly charge.  Please contact the Music department for further information. 

14. Reporting Schedule Primary 1 - 7

Please note all parent meetings will take place online.

September - Induction Meetings

October - Parents' Interviews

December - Progress Report

February - Parents' Interviews

June - Full Report 

15. P5-7 Residential Excursions

Normally, in the summer term the pupils in Primary 5 and 6 spend time at Alltnacriche Outdoor Centre, near Aviemore. And our Primary 7 pupils travel to Normandy for a cultural and historical visit.  These are a highly valuable part of learning both academically and in terms of personal development.   

16. Holiday Club

We normally offer a Holiday Club during the Easter, Summer and October holidays from 8.00am to 5.00pm daily. The availability of these will be dependent on government advice, but we hope to be able to run them.  Details, costs and application forms will be available in advance of each holiday on the Portal in the Documents section. The School is closed for some holidays, please refer to the list. 

17. School Expenses

The cost of any trips, excursions and workshops that may run throughout the year(for which you will be notified of in advance through written correspondence) will also be charged to your School Expenses account. Please be aware that at least 48 hours’ notice is required prior to the date of the trip/workshop if your child is unable to attend, otherwise you will still be charged. If you have any queries regarding items listed on an invoice you receive please speak to your child’s class teacher as an initial point of contact.