Thank you very much for your attendance at our first Parents’ Evening of the year as it is a great opportunity for us to work together to support your child’s learning. If you missed having a meeting with the teacher on these two days, it isn’t too late, and please feel free to make an appointment through the office for an alternative time to meet with your child’s class teacher.

As part of the Parents’ Evening, we asked parents to complete our annual questionnaire and gave you the opportunity to give us some feedback on how we are doing as we are always keen to continue to improve out school. We take all concerns and comments very seriously, and although the feedback was very positive we want to address any worries you may have.

Are you finding communication between school and home ?

Following the parent vote last year, we cut down on sending home paper-based newsletters. Each week we publish our newsletter on the website, school app and ‘StudyBugs’. ‘StudyBugs’ is a fairly new system which allows communication between the school and parents/carers, so please do download it onto your phone via your app store. See a member of school staff if you need some help!

We will endeavour to publish dates of coffee mornings and ‘open sessions’ more in advance to allow more parents to attend.

Are you concerned about homework?

We hold homework club which is open to Year 1 to Year 6 Monday after school. Additionally, at lunchtimes we hold ‘homework help’ drop-in sessions which pupils can attend to seek support. If you are still worried about the homework that your child is receiving, then please speak to their class teacher.

Are you happy with breakfast club?

Some parents have expressed concerns about supervision following breakfast club.

The safety of your children is of paramount importance to all of the staff at Curwen. To reassure you, all Reception and Year 1 children go straight to their classrooms. Year 2 upwards go out to the playground where they are supervised by members of breakfast club and other school staff including the Pastoral Team and members of the school’s leadership team.

If bullying happens, does the school deal with it when notified?

As a school we think that incidents of bullying are extremely rare and that on the whole, although the children might have disagreements from time to time, they are supported in quickly sorting these out before they escalate to bullying. In school, we have a team of pastoral officers who support the children in resolving any issues that might arise and these members of staff are in the school playground before and after school should you wish to chat with them.

Our pastoral officers are Mr Cameron, Ms O Hanlon and Mrs Twatchman

Ms Sandhu oversees this team and is also available for meetings by making an appointment through the office.

Other things that we have in place to reduce bullying incidents are:

• anti-bullying week each year when the children discuss the consequences of bullying.
• peer mentors at lunchtime who are children that help resolve any problems in the playground.
• staff supervising in different areas of the playground throughout the day.

Does the school respond well to any concerns you raise?

As a school we have asked parents, if at all possible, not to raise classroom concerns with the class teacher at 8.55am in the morning. This is because the children quickly go off to reading groups at 9am and we don’t want other children missing out on their learning because one teacher has been delayed in completing their registers. However there are a number of other options available, if you do have any concerns you would like to discuss with us.

These include:

• You are welcome to telephone or call into the school office and ask to arrange an appointment to see the class teachers at a mutually convenient time.
• Before and after school, there are always members of the schools’ Senior Management Team in the playground or in the foyer who are available to discuss things.
• Members of our pastoral team (named above) are also available at these times.
• You are welcome to use the school email address of info@curwen.ttlt.academy to email any concerns and these will then be forwarded onto the correct person to help with the issue.

Hopefully these points have gone some way to explain some of the areas that you were unsure or less happy about. If there is anything on here that is still unclear, or that you would like to discuss further, please do not hesitate to contact us through the above channels.