2023-2024
Introduction
Welcome to Westonbirt Prep School. Whether you are a new or existing parent, this booklet is designed to provide you with the useful information that you need to interact with or understand the day to day running of the school for you as parents, the children and the school staff.
If you require any further information or have any suggestions for further useful information that could be included, please contact the school office and we will gladly help you out.
Contents
Page 2: The School Day, Uniform and Absence
Page 3: The school site
Page 4: Who should I contact?
Page 6: Extra Curricular activities, Transport and Medical Needs
Page 7: Safeguarding
Page 8: Curriculum
Page 9: Assessment
Page 10: Reporting, Feedback and Homework
Page 11: Learning Support, Sport and Personal Development
Page 12: Behaviour, Rewards and Sanctions
Page 14: Catering
Useful Terms:
Prep School: Reception to Year 6
Upper Prep: Years 5 and 6
Lower Prep: Years 3 and 4
Prep: Years 3-6
Pre Prep: Reception to Year 2
Querns House: Main building including school office, Head’s office and lunch hall.
Cedars House: Nursery and Pre Prep building, next to the turning circle.
The Outdoor Tent: School Hall, located in the playing field.
The Garden Block: Temporary classrooms inc Reception, Year 4 and staffroom.
Senior Meadow: Additional parking area on right hand side of main drive.
Prep Meadow: Training fields on left of the drive, just before tennis courts.
Orangery: Theatre located at the senior school
School Day
The day begins at 8:00 and drop off runs until 8:30. Details of locations and times for each class will be provided.
If your child arrives at school later than 8:30, pre-arranged or otherwise, please bring them to the main front door of Querns House and ring the doorbell. Your child will be registered as late and taken to their class. Please do not take them directly to their class.
The day comprises 5 hour-long lessons. Two of these are followed by a break then another is followed by lunch and finally two more in the afternoon. There are shorter phonics, reading and assembly slots throughout the day that will be included in the class timetable.
Pick up ranges between 15:30 and 16:00 and again, details will be provided for each class.
Clubs run until between 16 00 and 17.00 (Pick up between 17:00 and 17:15) and after school care provision runs until 18:00.
Uniform
Westonbirt Prep has a uniform list that you will have been sent upon joining. If you would like an updated list, please contact the school office.
Winter uniform should be worn in the autumn and spring terms and summer uniform for the summer term. There will be overlaps in this which are weather dependent each year and will be communicated as and when is appropriate.
If your child is unable to wear an item of uniform for any reason, please let their form teacher know. Whilst we expect children to be in the correct uniform, we also understand that at times there are reasons why this cannot be the case for periods of time and will be as accommodating as possible.
Please ensure that all uniform and equipment is clearly labelled with your child’s name. In order to get any missing kit back to the owner, this is vital. If your child returns home with another child’s uniform items, please return them to the rightful owner or to the school office via the form teacher as soon as possible.
The sports team will send a list of kit required for each term If Prep (Years 3-6) pupils have sport before break, they wear their kit into school. If it is after break, they wear uniform and will change.
Pre Prep (Reception – Year 2) will wear sports kit on sports days (this could be up to three days a week) unless otherwise communicated.
Absence
If your child is going to be absent from school, please email the school office or your child’s form teacher at the earliest possible opportunity. The school office phone is staffed from 8.00 or you can leave a message prior to this.
If your child is going to be absent or picked up during the school day for a medical appointment or similar, please do let us know in advance. If you wish to request absence for other reasons, please write to the Headmaster via Mrs Lesley Higgins with your request.
Please be aware that we conduct termly reviews of absence as a senior management team. If your child’s attendance is below 90% or we have concerns about patterns of absence or lateness, we may contact you to discuss how we can support you and your child to improve this. Equally, if you wish to discuss these areas yourself and how we can help then please do contact your child’s form teacher.
Who Should I Contact?
The guide below is designed to ensure that any queries or concerns you have are directed to the correct person in order to be dealt with in a timely manner. Initially, most queries can go through the Form Tutor as they will be able to address the majority of issues but below is a list of staff and areas covered should you wish to contact a specific person.
If, following your initial conversation, your question is not resolved, you should contact a member of senior management for the specific area as detailed below. This team is comprised of: Deputy Head (Academic); Deputy Head (Pastoral) and Headmaster. All staff email addresses are firstname.secondname@westonbirtschool.uk . To contact Mr Price, please email or telephone Mrs Lesley Higgins
The school office contact details are 01666881400 or prep@westonbirtschool.uk .
Form tutor Sports staff School office Headmaster’s PA (Mrs Higgins) Senior Management
Any issues relating to homework, curriculum and pastoral areas.
Swimming queries –Miss Potts
Notification of absence, lateness or early pick up.
To make an appointment with Mr Price.
Miss Emily Leggate: Pastoral (behaviour, relationships and personal development)
School trips or activities Sport teams, curriculum, achievements – Mrs Farmer
Notification of achievements for assemblies.
Class based questions eg timetable, equipment
Bookings for tea and after school clubs.
Request for absence/holiday.
Mrs Ann Dicks: Education, learning and teaching
Reporting any medical needs, permission for administering medicines.
Miss Emily Leggate: Safeguarding
For finance and billing queries, please contact finance@westonbirtschool.uk and to access any school communication for your child, please check the parent portal. You will be provided with log in details for this but if you have any issues, please contact alice.mount@westonbirtschool.uk .
Roles and areas of responsibility
Mr Sean Price (Headmaster)
Mrs Ann Dicks (Deputy Head, Academic) – learning and teaching, assessment, pupil progress, curriculum
Miss Emily Leggate (Deputy Head, Pastoral) – safeguarding, welfare of pupils, wellbeing, behaviour/rewards, after school activities.
Miss Katherine Thomas (Pre Prep Phase Leader)
TBC (Y3 and Y4 Phase Leader)
Mrs Rose Hall (nee Skevington) (Y5 and Y6 Phase Leader)
Mrs Rachel Farmer (Head of Sport) – fixtures, curriculum, teams, overall sport provision.
Miss Adele Potts (Swimming) – curriculum, galas, overall swimming provision.
Mrs Emma Leigh-Currill (SENDCO) – All Learning Support provision including identification of needs, internal and external communications, individual plans and delivery of support.
Prep School Teaching Staff:
Reception: Mrs Rebecca Richardson-Pegg and Miss Alice Bell
Year 1: Mr Ben Stirling and Miss Katherine Thomas
Year 2: Mrs Joanne Webster
Year 3: Miss Laura Mole and Miss Pippa Cole
Year 4: Miss Katie Betts and Mrs Kate Armitage
Year 5: Mrs Rose Hall (nee Skevington) and Mr Tim Barnett
Year 6: Mr Jamie Jankowski, Miss Emily Leggate, Mrs Emma Ourahou
Music: Mrs Alison Porter
Drama: Mrs Miriam Ayling
French: Mrs Briony Shepheard
Sport: Mrs Rachel Farmer (Prep PE, Games and Sport), Miss Adele Potts (Swimming),
Extra-curricular and after school activities
We are pleased to offer a wide range of after school clubs and activities. These activities will cover all year groups and a variety of areas such sports, art, science etc, prep and Stay and Play. A list of clubs for each term will be displayed on the parent portal where you can sign up and costs can be found on the fee schedule.
Children are given a small snack prior to the club and pick up is between 17:00 and 17:15.
Those staying after this point will be signed up for Tea which will be a savoury choice such as sandwiches, bagels, sausage rolls etc as well as fruit and a dessert. Provision runs until 18:00.
Ad-hoc sessions are available. These should be booked by 9.00 on the day that they are staying by ringing or emailing the office
Some lessons and clubs such as tennis, golf, speech and drama and peripatetic music lessons take place during the school day. You will be sent an online form to sign up for these and the teacher will be in touch with the times of your child’s lessons. Wherever possible these avoid lessons and where this is not possible, every effort is made to avoid core subjects.
Transport
The school runs several bus routes in the local and wider areas. Children from Year 1 upwards may travel on the bus and all staff are trained in safeguarding as per the school policy. Buses drop off at school between 8.00 and 8.30 and leave school between 5.20 and 5.40. For more information, please contact the school office.
Medical needs:
The school staff are trained in first aid and we also have a dedicated school nurse on site during school hours. Most injuries and ailments will be dealt with by staff but for head injuries and serious illnesses and accidents, our school nurse is on hand to advise or deal with the pupil. We have an isolation area in the senior school Health and Wellbeing Centre if required.
We will endeavour to provide a safe environment for all children. You will be sent forms regarding both allergies and medical requirements each term. Please complete these forms and return them if you have anything to report. This information will be shared with the teachers, catering, administration and medical teams to ensure that all necessary provisions are made. If you have further questions regarding this or changing needs then please contact the office to let them know as early as possible.
You will also receive a form when you join the school to give consent or otherwise to administer general medicines such as paracetamol, anti- histamine, ibuprofen etc.
If your child has to take prescription medicines whilst at school, you will need to bring the medicine to the office and complete two specific forms. Please make an appointment with the office to do this.
If your child has an accident at school, they will be treated with an appropriate response and you will receive an accident form. If it is a head injury, you will receive a more detailed form, some head injury advice and will be contacted by the school. If your child is ill at school and unable to remain, you will be contacted to pick them up at the earliest possible convenience.
If your child has been sick or suffered from diarrhoea, they must remain off school for 48 hours minimum from the last incident.
Safeguarding
At Westonbirt Prep School we take the issue of safeguarding our pupils extremely seriously. The welfare of the children in our care is of the utmost priority and as such, staff are given updated training at least termly and safeguarding is a standing item on the agenda of all meetings.
At the prep school, we have a Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) in Miss Emily Leggate. The responsibility for safeguarding lies with every member of the school staff on a day to day basis and the coordination of this with the above people. Our safeguarding team work alongside the senior school DSL, Mrs Nicola Gill
The following notes are based upon the statutory guidance for schools and colleges - Keeping Children Safe in Education.
Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is defined for the purposes of this guidance as:
• protecting children from maltreatment
• preventing impairment of children’s health or development
• ensuring that children grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care
• taking action to enable all children to have the best outcomes.
Everyone who comes into contact with children and their families has a role to play in safeguarding the pupils in our care; all school staff, regardless of their role, play a vital part in the safeguarding process as disclosures can be made to anyone and concerns raised at any point. The system allows the DSL to ensure that we provide help for children and families and, where possible, prevent concerns from escalating.
The school’s full Safeguarding Policy can be found on our website. If you have any concerns about any of these areas, please feel free to contact with Miss Leggate to discuss further.
If you have concerns for your child or others, however large or small, please contact Miss Leggate or raise the matter with your child’s class teacher as soon as you are able.
Curriculum
The curriculum at Westonbirt Prep is a rich and varied one. We aim to provide children with a wide range of experiences, opportunities and knowledge that will allow them to develop and progress in each subject as well as inspiring a love of learning and thirst for knowledge. We ensure that our curriculum promotes our school aims of curiosity, creativity and courage and is appropriate for a diverse range of ages, personalities, backgrounds and interests.
Our curriculum is planned thematically with each year group having an overarching topic that we integrate across the curriculum at every opportunity. We plan our thematic curriculum in three phases. We agree a long-term plan for each phase. This indicates what topics are to be taught in each term to which age groups and is reviewed each year to ensure that the topics are relevant and engaging.
Through our half termly and termly medium-term plans, we identify the objectives and teaching strategies for each subject and topic. We utilise the National Curriculum as a starting point for this but supplement it with our own enhancements. Our skills-based curriculum is the starting point for planning and has been created to ensure that children’s educational experience will provide them with skills in all subjects that they can use confidently in a variety of contexts.
Form teachers have pastoral and academic responsibility for their classes. They (and the other teachers in the year where there is more than one class) will be responsible for the core subjects and several others. As the children graduate through the school, they are increasingly provided with specialist teaching in a variety of subjects. Below is an outline of the subjects taught by specialists in 2023-2024.
Assessment
As a school, we are often asked how our system works here so we have outlined the process by which we make our assessments and what we intend to achieve. It is important to note at this point that as a school, we are not required to follow the National Curriculum (NC) but in order to ensure that we are providing a broad and balanced educational provision, we use the NC and our own bespoke skills-based curriculum as a framework for our long-term planning and our assessments are based on these. Therefore, the judgements that we make using our assessments enable us to track pupil attainment and progress against a national standard and age-related expectation.
Assessments are used to: measure attainment; plan for future teaching and learning; highlight gaps in knowledge; identify those children who need stretching or additional support; inform future school choices and to report a child’s learning to their parents. We use a wide array of assessments. The traditional ‘test’ format, or summative assessment, provides insight into exam technique, prepares children for future exams and assesses independent recall of curriculum content.
At Westonbirt, we use summative assessments termly throughout Year 1 to Year 6 for maths and English (PUMA/PIRA/spelling). Upon joining the school at Year 4 or above or during the Summer term for Year 4, pupils sit a cognitive ability test (CATs) which gives an indication of a child’s natural cognitive reasoning, identifying strengths and areas for development. Pupils in Year 6 will sit the CATs test during January ready for senior school entry. The test consists of:
• Verbal reasoning: tasks involving words
• Non-verbal reasoning: tasks involving shapes and patterns
• Quantitative reasoning: tasks involving numbers
• Spatial ability: tasks involving mentally generating and transforming visual images
Formative (informal) assessment is ongoing and teacher led. This can be taken from observations, book work and independent tasks and can be gathered from written or verbal feedback from a child. Formative assessments for the wider curriculum subjects are recorded regularly to inform teacher assessment of attainment. As a school, we believe that it is vital that we use a combination of all of these methods to truly assess a child and gain the whole picture of their development; this broader picture is what we use to report progress to parents and guardians.
During the EYFS years, the impact of our curriculum is measured by assessment procedures which allow us to meet the children’s individual needs. We measure the percentage of pupils achieving age-related expectations throughout the academic year and put supportive interventions in place if and when needed. Class teachers use the online platform Tapestry to make observations and record learning. These observations inform future planning and ensure that all children build on their current knowledge and skills in order to reach their Early Learning Goals at the end of the year. In the Early Years Foundation Stage children’s progress is reviewed termly in order to monitor progress and curriculum outcomes. From the information gleaned children’s next steps are written. These next steps are written to be meaningful and achievable for the children and all progress is celebrated.
Reporting and feedback to parents
Communication is always welcome and we encourage parents to contact their child’s form tutor at any point throughout the year to discuss academic or pastoral matters.
Parent consultations are currently held twice per year (autumn and spring terms) and take place between parents and the form teacher. These meetings provide an opportunity to discuss the academic progress of your child along with how they are generally getting along in school.
Report cards are written at the end of the Autumn term and give pupils a target for progression in a range of subjects. This is a short report with attainment and effort grades.
A full written report for all subjects is sent out to parents at the end of the academic year (Summer term).
Homework
Reading
Reading is encouraged both at school and at home and we urge pupils to read a range of fiction and non-fiction texts. Reading at home forms part of our homework expectation and should be as regular as possible. Our aim is to inspire children to pick up a book and read for pleasure.
Pre Prep (Reception to Year 2) – pupils will read to an adult regularly throughout the week. They will bring home a book daily and which is matched to their current reading level. Books will be changed at the discretion of the form tutor as and when the child is ready; a child may keep a book for a longer period of time to enable them to grasp word decoding, understanding word meanings and to develop discussion and prediction of events in the book by answering questions about the text. Pupils will follow our school reading scheme which progresses through vocabulary difficulty and understanding of the content.
Prep (Year 3 to 6) – pupils will read to an adult regularly. Pupils in Y3 and Y4 have a range of books available in class. Some pupils will continue with the reading scheme. Pupils can also choose suitable books from the school library, local library or from book shelves at home; staff will check that these are a suitable level for individuals with regards to content and vocabulary understanding. Pupils in Y5 and Y6 can choose books from the school library along with reading books from home or the local library.
Other subjects
PrePrep – pupils will be provided with words to learn for reading. Year 1 and Year 2 will have a weekly set of spellings to learn which can also be practised using the online programme ‘Spelling Shed’. Maths homework may also be set according to the information given by each form tutor; this will be set in rotation with or in addition to topic-based project style homework.
Prep – weekly spellings will be set for all year groups which can be practised using the online programme ‘Spelling Shed’. Weekly maths homework will be set for all year groups. Additional subjects may also be set by form tutors, including some cognitive work (Atom Learning). Year 5 and 6 may have work set by specialist teachers
Homework will be recorded by the pupils or teachers in home school books and planners, along with deadlines for completion.
Learning Support
We provide Learning Support to children with Special Educational Need and Disabilities (SEND). This support and intervention ranges from in class strategies to group work to one to one sessions or in-class support. If we identify that there may be a requirement for this, our SEND coordinator (SENCO), Emma Leigh-Currill, will assist the class teacher in making a decision on what is required to support the child or to move the process forward. Parents will be contacted and a dialogue started to establish the next steps needed. This may include specialist assessments conducted by the SENCO or the recommendation of external assessments to be undertaken.
Sport
Sport is an important part of our school life. We endeavour to provide wide ranging opportunities to all of our children to learn and experience sports at an individual and team level. Prior to the start of each term, you will be sent a list of the required kit. Please ensure that kit is named and in school for the required days. If there are any issues with kit or being able to participate, please let your child’s form teacher know as soon as possible.
In PrePrep (Reception to Year 2), children swim weekly and have two PE/games sessions that incorporate health related fitness, coordination, dance, gymnastics, athletics and various team sports. These introduce a plethora of skills and understanding to prepare the children for future progression and to engage them in a variety of sports.
In Prep (Year 3 – 6), children swim weekly and have a PE lesson covering the areas as above. They also have a games fixtures afternoon and a coaching session in the week. Please note that these sometimes finish later than the end of the school day. This will be communicated, along with the teams for the coming week, in the Friday newsletter.
Games sports and fixture days are as follows:
Year 3 and 4: Monday afternoon fixtures
Year 5 and 6: Wednesday afternoon fixtures.
Boys: Autumn term- rugby; Spring term- hockey; Summer term- cricket and athletics.
Girls: Autumn term- hockey; Spring term- netball; Summer term- cricket and athletics.
Cricket is played as a mixed gender sport, with a kwik cricket and the introduction of ‘hard ball’ cricket as they progress to Years 5 and 5 where appropriate.
All fixtures are published at the start of the term on the school calendar (subject to change- please check the portal for the most up to date version) and a team sheet with details of the upcoming week is sent on a Friday afternoon in the newsletter. Please check these as this can often differ from the original calendar. Fixtures also include swim galas, athletics events and cross-country events.
Personal Development
The pastoral care of the children is paramount to WBP. Wellbeing is embedded in our community, curriculum and care throughout the school. We enable children to learn techniques and strategies to enable them to cope with challenges they face throughout their lives and this teaching is embedded in our weekly mindfulness sessions, Wellbeing Wednesday assemblies, PHSE (Personal, Social, Health Education), RSE lessons and everyday interactions with the children. Our role is to support all children by providing them with strategies and someone to talk to or to listen when they are faced with challenge, as well as to create dialogue with parents and staff to reinforce this. We also aim to build confidence, resilience, independence, ambition and meet our school aims of Curiosity, Creativity and Courage. Children are encouraged to be empathetic, compassionate and kind and learn how to be tolerant and understanding of all people. They also develop their knowledge and understanding of how to keep themselves safe and healthy, including when online.
Behaviour: Rewards and Sanctions
The WBP approach to behaviour management is based around positive reinforcement and developing the ability and independence of each child to make the correct choices. This is achieved by ensuring that children have a full understanding of what their rights are as pupils of the school and the responsibilities that sit alongside these. This system is in place for Reception to Year 6 and each class, in collaboration with and empowered by their teacher, decides on the rights and responsibilities that they feel are important to their class. They also identify and understand how this works within the context of the whole school.
Below are some example of the rights and responsibilities that have been discussed.
For children who are promoting the rights of others or setting an example in following their responsibilities, there are rewards such as house points, star of the week awards and public recognition and reward from House Captains, Heads of School and the Headmaster. These can be given at any point throughout the school day and are celebrated in our whole school celebration assembly.
In instances where children are impacting the fulfilment of the rights of their peers or not fulfilling their own responsibilities, there is a staged consequence ladder. Consequences are based around the child reflecting on and learning from their decisions in order to promote positive decisions going forward.
The below is an outline of the graduated consequence ladder which increases with severity or frequency of poor behaviour. Depending on the context, some incidents will be dealt with immediately at a level deemed appropriate by the member of staff involved.
1) Non-verbal warning- Eye contact/body language/agreed class strategy
2) Verbal warning – with clear explanation of behaviour required linked to rights and responsibilities
3) In-class individual quiet reflection time
4) Calming time (5 mins) in buddy class
5) Reflection time with Deputy Head: Child to complete reflection activity which then goes home to parents.
6) Inform Deputy Head, Pastoral (Miss Leggate or other senior leader) of incident and DH to arrange meeting with child within the same school day. Consequences depends on behaviour but could include:
• Loss of playtime
• Apology letters
• Restorative approaches
• Kindness project
• Time out from class with one of the Deputy Head Teachers
7) Escalation to Headmaster, including informing parents.
If you have any queries or concerns about behaviour, rewards or sanctions, please contact your child’s form teacher or Miss Leggate (Deputy Head, Pastoral).
Rights and Responsibilities examples:
We have the right to: It is our responsibility to: feel safe and happy
• Be very kind to everyone and ourselves
• Help each other
• Behave sensibly
• Have fun
• Be responsible
• Appreciate how lucky we are be included
• Look after everyone
• Make new friends
• Make sure all feel part of group work
• Include others
• Be empathetic learn
• Try your best
• Follow instructions carefully
• Can do attitude
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
• Pay attention to express our opinions, ideas and emotions
• Listen and respect others
• Be confident
• Believe in yourself
• Express yourself clearly
• Be a role model
• Choose appropriate way to express opinion be respected
• Treat others how you want to be treated
• Be supportive to all
• Remember your manners
• Celebrate differences
• Respect yours and others’ belongings be unique and celebrated
• Be proud of yourself
• Be confident
• Celebrate everyone’s achievements
• Use your own ideas
• Don’t give up
Catering
Our school catering is provided by Holroyd Howe. The children are served a hot meal each day from Nursery to Year 6 In addition to the main meal, there is the availability of vegetarian options, soups, salads, cold meats, cheese, fruit etc and always a dessert. Children in Pre Prep are served a meal whilst the Prep children are able to select their choices. Nursery to Year 4 eat in Querns Hall and Year 5 and 6 children eat at the senior school lower dining room.
The Prep School has a dedicated catering staff team who get to know the children well and the children’s choices, eating and behaviour is supervised by Holroyd Howe and school’s own staff. Afternoon tea is a savoury choice such as sandwiches, bagels, sausage rolls etc as well as fruit and a dessert. Drinking water is provided. Menus will be communicated via the parent portal.
The provision is reviewed regularly and the team are always keen to introduce activities such as themed days or tasting sessions to engage children in learning more about and enjoying their food.
The school endeavours to cater for all dietary choices and allergies; please see the medical section for more information or contact the office if you have any questions.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding catering, the team would be more than happy to meet you to discuss. Please contact the office and they will put you in touch.
More information on Holroyd Howe can be found on their website.
http://www.holroydhoweindependent.com/about-our-company