WHO

Senior Leadership Team

To meet some of our teachers, please visit the news section of our website and read the #FridayFastFive profiles.

School Governors

The Chair of Governors is Mr Mark Elsey who can be contacted via Mr Steve Douty, Bursar and Clerk to the Governors, Reigate Grammar School. E: bursar@reigategrammar.org, T: 01737 222231.

You can access a list of the full governing body and teaching and support staff on the school website or request a printed version from the school office.

FRIENDS OF REIGATE ST MARY’S SCHOOL (FOSMA)

The Friends of Reigate St Mary’s School (FOSMA) organise fun activities and events throughout the year, including our sensational fireworks display, resulting in fundraising for extra equipment within school. Membership of FOSMA is open to all parents. Volunteer helpers and new committee members are always welcome, and an AGM is held in the Autumn term. Contact: fosma@outlook.com

THE ST MARY’S SOCIAL HUB (SMaSH)

SMaSH is open to all parents and carers linked to the school. They currently run a Dog (or no dog!) Walking Club, a Running Club and a Book Club, which can be found via the search feature on Classlist. Join the Classlist groups to receive updates and find out more or contact: smashclubs@outlook.com

Smart School Council

Involving every pupil in the school, our SMART School Council is the forum for students to discuss issues that concern them, and to make suggestions for ways to improve pupil experience. We want every pupil to use their voice and develop their ideas and leadership skills, whether via class meetings or through membership of action or communication teams.

Areas where the School Council have affected change range from ensuring there are enough footballs to play with during break times, to considering how to make the playground a friendly place. From improving after-school provision, to giving feedback to the cooks and Bursar about school dinners, the School Council is the voice of the students.

Eco Committee

At Reigate St Mary’s, we believe that protecting our environment is extremely important. Therefore, we run an Eco Committee and children from Year 3 to Year 6 represent their classes, headed up by our Year 6 Green Leaders. Their job is to monitor our progress as an eco school with Green Flag status, ensuring that the school is run as efficiently as possible, keeping our carbon footprint down, recycling all that we can and embracing all eco-friendly best practice.

WHO FORM REPS & CLASSLIST

Parent representatives from each year group (usually one from each class) volunteer for the role of form rep and liaise with the school, organise volunteers for events, coordinate social gatherings and generally help parents within the same year group remain connected, informed and organised. Due to data protection controls, we cannot produce class lists with contact information for form reps to circulate. Instead, we encourage parents to register with www.classlist.com

This secure web-based network enables parents to manage and update the information they wish to share with others in their own class and year group. Classlist is for parent-to-parent contact only and does not contain communication from the school to parents. To register, simply access the website, select ‘join now’ and follow the instructions. For security reasons, all parents’ registrations are verified and approved by the designated form rep.

Houses

The system of Houses helps foster a family atmosphere within the school, enabling children to be part of a school-wide team, rather than just within their age group, and fostering a healthy sense of competition. All children are allocated a House and siblings are kept in the same House where possible.

HOBSON (Green)

Named after the first Headmaster of Reigate St Mary’s.

Head of House: Mr Tim Austin

Mascot: Serena (Williams)

OSMOND (Yellow)

Named after a former Governor.

Head of House: Mr Simon Williams

Mascot: Simone (Biles)

MALCOLMSON (Blue)

Named after the first Chairman of Governors of Reigate St Mary’s.

Head of House: Mr Peter Alden

Mascot: Mo (Farah)

SEARLE (Red)

Named after Godfrey Searle who owned the house and set up the trust to help support the education of the choristers.

Head of House: Mrs Phillipa Rushby

Mascot: Jesse (Owens)

House Competitions

A variety of House competitions take place throughout the year. These include football, netball, cross-country, hockey, rugby, cricket, sports days, athletics, music and general knowledge quizzes. An annual Inter-House Charity Day is held at the end of the Summer term. All pupils from Reception upwards are involved in House activities which add to the final House scores. The Godfrey Searle Cup is awarded at the end of each term for the most successful House in all of the combined Inter-House activities.

House Meetings

Two or three times a term there will be a House meeting, led by the Head of House, for pupils to focus attention on the House team, discussing forthcoming events, successes and possibly areas for improvement. These take place at normal school assembly time and often involve a story, activity and cross-age-group challenges.

House Mascots

Each House has a bear, who attends assemblies and events, as their House mascot. The children in each House voted on the name for their bear, looking at the essential shared school values of perseverance, dedication, resilience and believing in themselves, which were demonstrated by each of the famous role models.

House Tokens

House point counters are awarded for individual work and behaviour and are collected and displayed in prominent colourful tubes in the foyer of Beech House. At the end of each term the totals are tallied and celebrated as a House effort in our end-of-term assemblies.

How

THE SCHOOL’S AIMS & ETHOS

We are a community where:

• We seek to make every child feel valued and safe and provide an environment where they can be recognised for their individual strengths, talents, effort and progress.

• Children will develop emotionally and spiritually. They will be encouraged to develop a strong moral compass where academic excellence is balanced with an understanding of social responsibility and care for one another

• They will learn to work cooperatively and gain confidence in public speaking and performances

• Excellence in academic, sporting and artistic achievement are abundant, but where children enjoy coming to school and form happy and strong relationships which will often endure for life

• Children experience a broad range of extracurricular opportunities to develop skills and try new and exciting activities which might become leisure activities for life .

Our Charter Of Values

We treat other people as we would like to be treated.

We forgive.

We are always honest, truthful and fair.

We listen to each other.

We are kind and helpful.

We do our best to be our best self

Assemblies

At RSM our shared values are based on Christian principles, but we welcome families of all faiths and none, as everyone in the school community subscribes to our values of kindness, honesty and forgiveness.

Lower School – All children from Kindergarten to Year 2 have a weekly assembly in the sports hall led by Mrs Selkirk. Every second week, they have a Monday assembly led by either Mr Culverwell or Mrs Selkirk. The children come together to sing, to learn, to reflect and sometimes to pray together.

Upper School – Children from Years 3 to 6 attend a traditional Matins service twice a week on Tuesday and Friday mornings in St Mary’s Church. These are traditional cathedral-style services involving the RGS Godfrey Searle Choristers, and the children are exposed to the highest quality of music and singing. Year groups take it in turn to do the readings and prayers. However, the traditional is very much tempered with the modern and children enjoy singing, dancing and doing actions to modern worship songs in the Monday assemblies and Thursday song practices, along with themes to support our school values.

TERMLY VALUES & THINKING SKILLS

On a two-year rotation we promote a set of values and thinking skills which are discussed and taught in assemblies and integrated into the curriculum for all pupils throughout the year groups.

Values

Cycle 1: courage, trust and appreciation. Cycle 2: respect, freedom and patience.

Thinking Skills

Cycle 1: good judgement, risk taking and resilience. Cycle 2: empathy, collaboration and reflectiveness.

Growth Mindset

Instilled across all ages and in all parts of the curriculum, a growth mindset celebrates hard work and effort not innate talent. Children are encouraged to regularly discuss and share things that they have persevered at, and at the end of the year, each form celebrates everyone’s hard work instead of a traditional prize giving. In focusing on the journey and in embracing mistakes and failure as part of improving, your child will build the resilience and risk-taking required to succeed.

Positive Behaviour

Whole classes are rewarded marbles for excellent behaviour and, once sufficient have been collected, the children earn a ‘marble treat’ for their class. We have a restorative approach to behaviour management encouraging children to reflect on their actions and on how these impact others.

EDUCATION FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (ESR)

Education for Social Responsibility helps children to think about the core values that will lead to happy and fulfilled lives, within stable and caring communities while protecting the planet for the future.

A Broad Curriculum

RSM provides a rich, broad and stimulating curriculum. This begins within the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum (Green Shoots to Reception) and continues into Key Stages 1 & 2. The children cover STEM, computing, languages, science, philosophy, PSHE, the humanities (history, geography and religious studies), art, drama, music and sport as well as the core subjects of maths and English.

Committed staff are recruited for their desire to see children flourish and overcome hurdles, trained in the art of learning, focused on building relationships. When coupled with staff ratios that facilitate individual attention and the conversations that matter, real growth happens.

PHILOSOPHY 4 CHILDREN (P4C)

With an emphasis on lifelong learning, children from Reception upwards are part of a P4C programme that develops critical and abstract thinking. Your child learns to question, evaluate, decide and articulate. In listening to others, and building on their ideas, academic standards are lifted for everyone and your child develops important soft skills such as communication and teamwork.

Community Outreach

Time is allocated within the curriculum to discuss the needs of others and think of ways to help them. Our dedicated community outreach coordinator helps the children to implement their suggestions. Initiatives include the Easter Project, an annual Water Walk and visits to a local old people’s home.

Compassion

Each year group sponsors the education of a child through the Compassion charity programme. This comprises of an annual, optional donation of £22 (payable via SchoolsBuddy). The pupils from Reception to Year 6 learn about the life, culture and the life opportunities of their sponsored child and they write to them regularly.

How

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN SCHOOL & HOME

Weekly Email Bulletin

Sent to all parents on a Friday containing news, photos and videos from the previous week as well as upcoming dates for your diary and important notices.

iSAMS

The school has an email and texting alert service system in place which uses the school database iSAMS. Please keep the school office up to date with any changes to your mobile phone, home or email address.

Tapestry

Teachers in Green Shoots, Kindergarten and Reception use a secure online learning journal called Tapestry to build a record of each child using photos, videos and diary entries. Parents can view their child’s progress and leave comments or upload their own files to the journal, so a complete picture of their development is built.

Termly Year Group Updates

Once a term, parents in each year group will have a collective update from class teachers and members of the senior leadership team. This takes place via Microsoft Teams and also provides an opportunity for parents to ask general questions. These are called Virtual Coffee Mornings in the Lower School and Year Group Updates in the Upper School.

WEEKLY OVERVIEWS (Lower School)

Contain information about the children’s learning for the following week. They are available on the Parent Portal every Friday.

Email The Office

If you have any messages for teachers, please email the office at office@reigatestmarys.org

HOME & SCHOOL COMMUNICATION BOOKS (Green Shoots and Kindergarten)

Please check the book on a daily basis as this is a vital means of sharing information with parents. Please also use this book to inform us if anyone else is collecting your child from school.

READING RECORD BOOKS (Reception,Years

1 and 2)

Please record the reading completed at home. Please also use this record book to inform us if anyone else is collecting your child from school.

HOMEWORK DIARIES (Upper School)

Please use these to record reading, note any specific feedback regarding your child’s homework, and to inform us if anyone else is collecting your child from school.

REPORTS & PARENTS’ EVENINGS

Reporting includes both verbal and written feedback to parents about their child’s progress. This takes place at regular intervals throughout the year.

Autumn Term

Lower School Parents’ Evening focusing on settling in and form teacher comments.

Middle and Upper School Parents’ Evenings for Years 3–6 focusing on how your child is settling in as well as English and maths with a form teacher comment.

Spring Term

Written reports for pupils in Years 3–6, in all subjects.

Lower School Parents’ Evening focusing on Early Years Foundation Stage or Key Stage 1 curriculum and form teacher comments.

Summer Term

Middle and Upper School Parents’ Evenings for Years 3–6 focusing on English and maths with a form teacher comment.

Written reports for Lower School pupils, in all subjects.

In addition to receiving a written report and having verbal feedback on Parents’ Evenings, parents may ask to have a meeting with their child’s teachers to discuss progress at other times if they wish.

If you have any queries or concerns at any time, please speak either to the school office or to your child’s form teacher in the first instance. The office team or form teacher will alert the appropriate person to assist you. For sensitive matters please email confidential@reigatestmarys.org

Wellbeing Our Approach

Like you, we want your child to feel loved and to know how to love others. Belonging and relating to others fosters self-esteem, brings happiness and makes a life worth living. Without these cornerstones of wellbeing, your child’s potential will never be fully realised: everything else hinges on it. We all want good outcomes, but we want these accompanied by good mental health, confidence and resilience.

Educating children about how and why to look after their mental and physical health and wellbeing is fundamental to the ethos, values and curriculum at Reigate St Mary’s.

Our wellbeing approach at Reigate St Mary’s is led by Mrs Samantha Selkirk (Head of Lower School) and Mrs Andrea Gower (Assistant Head, Welfare). Further details can be found on the wellbeing pages of our website and our Wellbeing at RSM booklet.

The wellbeing room is a centre and focus for wellbeing within the school. It provides a dedicated space for support groups to meet and a place for children to spend time exploring self-awareness or talking about their anxieties or worries. It has calming colours and comfortable and relaxing furniture, cushions and throws.

Personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) is part of our curriculum and incorporates mindfulness into each session, each week. All staff have received mindfulness training and we have ‘mindful moments’ throughout the school day as and when we think necessary.

Children benefit from regular sessions with external experts including Learning Space and Christian organisation Spark Fish, who facilitate ‘Think Space’ experiences for our children. We also have a Pets As Therapy dog (named Luna) who visits weekly and children are invited to spend time with Luna. Parents have been invited to evening talks on the subject of mental health for all the family and all ages are encouraged to support and participate in events such as Mental Health Awareness Week.

Support is provided where needed by our own ELSA (Educational Literacy Support Assistants) team, and staff are also trained by the Rainbows charity to support children who have experienced bereavement. We also have dedicated school counsellors.

For sensitive matters please email confidential@reigatestmarys.org

Safeguarding Team

Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL): Mrs Andrea Gower

Deputy DSLs: Mrs Samantha Selkirk

Mrs Barbara Hopkins

Mrs Sarah Woodcock

Early Years and Lower School DSL: Miss Sarah Page

Our safeguarding policy can be found on the website.

Wellbeing

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS & DISABILITY (SEND) PROVISION AT RSM

Team

Lisa Masarati (SENCO), Jo Marshall (Assistant SENCO) and their team of specially trained staff provide a mixture of 1:1 and small group support and interventions.

Rooms

We have designated ‘pods’ in the playground for 1:1 and 1:2 support lessons, small group sessions and occupational therapy support. The Treetops Office pod in the centre is the SENCO office and meeting room for parents.

Support

1:1 support (paid for additionally by parents) is available in a range of areas, and provided either by external practitioners or school staff.

We have two specialist dyslexia teachers, a weekly speech and language therapist, occupational therapist (two full days a week) and two school counsellors (one day a week).

In-class 1:1 support may be provided at a high level (e.g. 15 hours per week) through to weekly or twice-weekly individual sessions to work on specific targets.

Group support intervention (provided by the school at no extra cost) includes English and maths booster groups, handwriting interventions, fine-motor group, social and emotional support group, writing intervention, study skills group, touch typing, phonics and language skills groups.