Our School Community

Parents and Carers

Positive Relationships

Positive relationships with families is a priority at Herbert Thompson Primary School because we believe that our children thrive and achieve more when their families are fully involved in their school. The extensive work with families over time has led to the school achieving the Investors in Families award and the school is currently preparing for a re-accreditation of this award. After lockdown, the school was awarded an Investors in Families Lockdown Award for recognition of staff members' commitment, innovation and excellent practice to communicating and engaging with families in very difficult circumstances.

Home School Agreement

The school asks all families to sign a Home School Agreement on entry to the school and parents/carers are asked to inform the school if they wish to make any changes to this agreement. This agreement includes the requirements of school and home and details the use of photographs and internet use. A copy of this can be obtained from Reception and can also be found on the school website.

Appointments with Staff

Parents and Carers are always welcome to come in to meet with class teachers to discuss any worries or ask questions. The teachers and many support staff come on to the yard after school every day with the children, if you need to have a brief chat. The teachers are always eager to talk and share any good news of the day. If you would like to speak to your child’s class teacher for longer, please arrange an appointment via Mrs Perry in the school office, who will give you an appointment slip to complete. If there is a problem at home that might be affecting your child in school, it is important you tell us about it. You can either speak to your child’s teacher or make an appointment with Mrs. Marsh, Mrs Jones or Mrs Moore. We will always contact you if we are concerned about your child.

Reports to Parents or Carers

Every term you will be given progress updates about your child; sometimes these will be verbally (such as through parent consultations) and at other times these reports will be in writing. For example, you will receive a progress update at the end of the Autumn Term and then a more detailed written reports are given at the end of the Summer Term.

Parent Consultations

Parent Consultations are held twice a year in the Autumn and Spring Terms. This will give you an opportunity to discuss your child’s progress and find out about how they have settled into their class. These meetings are so important for your children’s success at school so please make every effort to attend. You are of course welcome to contact the teachers at other times if you have any worries or concerns.

Important Communication

For environmental reasons, we are limiting our letters sent home from school. Our main ways of communicating are as follows:

Twitter - this is used to share what is happening in classes. Visit us @HTPSchool.

Facebook - we have a closed group (Herbert Thompson 2020) where important whole school information is shared from Nursery - Year 6.

See Saw App- this is used in Foundation Phase for communicating messages and sharing what is happening in school.

School Text Service- this is used to communicate short messages and urgent messages. Please ensure that you always let us know your up to date numbers.

School Website- copies of letters and important information will be updated on our school website (in the Parent section).

You can request to receive hard copies of letters, newsletters etc by contacting Mrs Perry in the school office.

Key Communication to Expect:

Via the methods above, newsletter will be sent out monthly to ensure that everyone knows about any matters of concern, important dates and events happening in the school.

On a weekly basis there will also be Headteacher Updates to inform you of the most important updates.

In the school entrance you will also find Promoting Partnership Leaflets (and these can also be found on the website). These inform you about a range of key topics, policies and procedures at Herbert Thompson.

Friends of Herbert Thompson

We are very fortunate to have a group that is a registered charity supporting us as a school. Being a charity enables us to access a range of grants and fundraising opportunities that we wouldn't ordinarily be able to have. We are hoping to revamp our 'Friends of Herbert Thompson' group this year and if you are interested in being involved, please let us know.

Parent Council

Parent Council meets half-termly with Mrs Pullin, Mrs Dickson and Mrs Richards. The purpose of the Parent Council is to ensure that our families have a genuine voice in how our school can be improved. We will be looking for new volunteers this year, please let us know if you are interested in being involved.

Ensuring you child is ready for learning

In order for your child to have a settled start to the day, please ensure they:

• Are in bed and asleep early each night,

• Have had breakfast before school or go to breakfast club,

• Have a water bottle to drink plenty of water,

• Complete all set homework,

• Arrive in school on time every day,

• Have excellent attendance (at least 95% or above).

“Strong relationships with families has always been important to us but never more so that Lockdown 2020. Relationships were strengthened across the community and we realised that we needed each other more than ever”.