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November 2023
Dear Parents,
As you probably remember we gave you an online questionnaire recently to seek your views on our school. Thank you very much for your replies, there were 108 responses in total. The vast majority of you responded that you agree or strongly agree with all the statements and are pleased with the school.
Q1. 99% of you believe that your child enjoys at school.
Q2. 98% believe that your child feels safe at school.
Q3. 98% believe that your child is taught well.
Q4. 95% believe there is a good standard of behaviour in school.
Q5. 96% believe that the school deals effectively with bullying. This includes parents who replied that they “Don’t know” as they have had no experience of their child being bullied.
Q6. 99% say they are happy with the values and attitudes the school teaches.
Q6. 97% believe they are made to feel welcome in school.
Q7. 98% say that school seeks the views of parents and take account of their suggestions. This includes 9% who said they didn’t know.
Q8. 97% believe that school gives them a clear understanding of what is taught in the curriculum.
Q9. 96% say that school gives them a clear understanding of what is taught in Religious Education.
Q10. 95% believe that school enables their child to enjoy and achieve a good standard of work in Religious Education. 5% say they didn’t know.
Q11. 95% believe that school enables their child to enjoy and achieve a good standard of work in a range of subjects.
Q12. 93% say that school keeps them well informed about their child’s progress in subjects including RE. This includes 7% who said they didn’t know.
Q13. 96% would recommend this school to another parent.
Even though the results of the questionnaire were very positive we are always keen to continue to improve as a school and address any issues and concerns. We take your concerns very seriously and have responded in some of the following ways.
As a result of the survey we will continue to promote our annual anti bullying or Friendship fortnight which culminates in our Assembly in the Round where the children reflect and celebrate on what they have learnt. As ever, if you have a concern about your child feeling unhappy, for whatever reason, please contact the school so we can do our best to address it.
In response to how well we make you aware of what your child is learning we continue to hold a parents evening or Pupil Progress evening in the Autumn and Spring term and you receive a written report in the Summer term.
We have also introduced Parent open class sessions for you to come into school and look at your child’s books with your child.
Homework diaries/reading record books are a good way to keep in regular communication with staff and for you to put forward any concerns. Each half term we publish a medium term plan of what your child will be learning in class.
On the Curriculum page of the website and on your class pages, all information about each subject and each year group is kept updated there for you.
If there are any other ways you would like us to help keep you informed of your child’s progress and learning, please contact Mrs Dowell at school and we may be able to put other strategies into place.
Homework is important, as you know, to help your child to consolidate and practise key skills and knowledge. The one to one support you are able to give your child, in for instance reading, cannot be under-estimated. We thank you again for your support with homework and are continually overwhelmed by the quality of the work produced with the topic projects.
Here are a few of the many positive comments made on the survey which we fully appreciate.
“Just an excellent school from top to bottom!”
“Absolutely over the moon with the start my son has received. The teachers are outstanding, the levels/amounts of work and different topics are brilliant and my son looks forward to attending school each day.”
“My child and family as a whole, have been fully supported by the school in more ways than one. They continue to do so and I can’t fault the school/teachers in any way at all. I always highly recommend the school and will continue to do so.”
“Brilliant school, very happy we decided to go here.”
“We love this school! Like a little family, everyone is amazing and you can really see how much work goes into each day! We love all your rewards and praise given for achievements and our daughter adores school. We can’t ask for anything more! Thank you all!”
Thank you once again for your continued support.
Mairead O’Neill Dowell
Our school nurse will no longer be offering a drop in session located in our school for parents. The meetings will now take place virtually each term and we feel this will be a lot more convenient to you as the meetings can be accessed from wherever you are by following this link https://nhs.vc/schoolnursesseftonprincest
The first appointment will take place on Wednesday 15th November 2023 between 1.00-4.00 pm. Please see attached leaflet for further information but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact school.
Attendance Information
You will have heard on the news recently about the national drop in children’s attendance at school post Covid Pandemic. At St Robert Bellarmine we have traditionally had very good whole school attendance but sadly this has declined here following the national trend in line with the national figures. We are refreshing and reminding parents about our policies and procedures for attendance here. We have consulted again with our School Council regarding attendance.
Parents will receive regular updates on attendance from school. The Headteacher and all the staff monitor attendance daily, weekly, half termly and termly. Children are rewarded in school for excellent attendance and they are very clear about why excellent attendance is important.
Why is regular school attendance so important for my child?
Regular attendance at school means that your child can make the most of their education and improve their chances in adult life.
School can also help develop your child’s social skills such as making and developing friendships. A regular and punctual attendance pattern will also help your child when they go to secondary school and later when they enter the world of work.
The link between attendance and attainment in school is clear.
The more a pupil is in school the more they increase their opportunity to fulfil their potential.
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100%-97% Pupils in this category have excellent attendance
Above 97% Less than 6 days absence a year, Excellent Attendance! These pupils will almost certainly get the best grades they can, leading to better prospects for the future. Pupils will also get into a habit of attending school which will help in the future.
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97%-95% Pupils in this category have good attendance
96% 10 days absence in a year. These pupils are likely to achieve good grades and form a habit of attending school regularly.
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94%-90% Pupils in this category have a school attendance that needs to improve
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90% and below Pupils in this category have poor attendance
90% 19 days absence a year. The Government classes young people in this group as ‘Persistent Absentees’ and it will be almost impossible to keep up with work with this level of absence.
Families of pupils in this categaory will be:
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Punctuality
Schools are legally required to take a register of pupils first thing in the morning and at some point in the afternoon.
If a pupil is late but the register is still open they are marked as late. If the register has already closed when a pupil arrives late and without a satisfactory explanation, it will be classed as late after the register has closed which will count as an absence. Our registers close at 9:30am.
Continual punctuality is important because if, for example, a child arrives 15 minutes late at school each day, they lose almost 2 weeks of education a year!
Holidays during term time
No term time leave for holidays is routinely authorised at St Robert Bellarmine.
Parents who choose to take their child out of school without written permission from the school may be issued with a fixed penalty fine.
Only in exceptional circumstances may a head teacher grant permission for leave.
How can I help my child attend school regularly?
What do I do if my child is absent from school?
What should I do if I’m worried about my child’s school attendance?
The first thing to do is to contact the school to discuss your concerns.
What are my responsibilities regarding my child’s school attendance?
As a parent/carer it is your responsibility to ensure that any child of compulsory school age attends school both regularly and on time. The local authority has a duty to make sure that all parents/carers fulfil this responsibility.
What will happen if my child does not attend school regularly?
School will contact you in the first instance to raise concerns about your child’s attendance, usually with a letter to inform you what your child’s current attendance is.
If they see no improvement, or there are particular difficulties involved, there will be a period of monitoring.
If there is still no improvement a referral will be made to the Education Welfare Service (EWO). This may then lead to an Attendance panel meeting in school with the EWO and the Headteacher.
What if my child’s school attendance does not improve?
Parents whose children are on a school register and fail to ensure the regular and punctual attendance of their child(ren), may be guilty of an offence under Section 444 or 444(1A) of the Education Act 1996 and the Local Authority may issue a Penalty Notice or take enforcement action through the Courts to secure regular attendance.
How will regular school attendance help my child?
School gives your child a wide range of opportunities and experiences in the form of academic lessons, educational trips and school clubs allowing them to develop their interests and achieve their full potential. Regular school attendance means that your child can make the most of their education.
#gottabeintowin
This is our school hashtag to help us to improve our attendance.
Our School Council have come up with some great ideas to help us do it!
Weekly Class reward
Next Friday 6th October 2023 will be our first Freddo Friday Reward.
Termly Rewards
The School Council will review the rewards each term.
FORTHCOMING DATES FOR SUMMER TERM 2023
& Liverpool City Tour
Year 2 & Year 6 @Edge Hill Uni
10am Juniors 1pm Infants
BREAK UP FRIDAY 14th JULY 2023 @ 1.30PM
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
Term ends on
Wed 21st December
At 1:30 p.m.
The children return to school on
WEDNESDAY 4th January
At 8:55 a.m.
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
BREAK UP FOR HALF TERM FRI 21 OCT 3pm
REOPEN MONDAY 31st Oct 8.55
FORTHCOMING DATES FOR SUMMER 2ND HALF TERM 2022
Summer term is an extremely busy time in school. Here is the list of events that are happening next half term for your diary:-
Hall, Manchester Thursday 16th June
be provided to parents) Friday 1st July
Edge Hill University
Y2 & Y6 at 1.00 pm Tuesday 21st June
High Schools Thursday 30th June
Infants 1.00 pm Friday 1st July
(To be confirmed) Thursday 7th July
School Closes for Summer Tuesday 19th July at 1.30 pm
Children return to school on Monday 5th September 2022 at 8.55 am
FORTHCOMING DATES FOR SUMMER TERM 2021
Summer time is an extremely busy time in school. List of events that are happening this half term for your diary:-
Healthy & Active 2 Weeks
Yoga
Dodge Ball (Y3-Y6)
Tennis (Y3-Y6)
Year 2 & Year 6
Year 6 Transition to High Schools
BREAK UP FRIDAY 16th JULY 2021 @ 1.30PM
4 June 2020
Dear Parents,
Hope you are well. Pity the lovely weather has disappeared!
I just wanted to update you on a few things.
We continue to open to children of Key worker families and vulnerable children. If you remember I sent an email before half term explaining this, and that, as per government guidance these still remain the priority groups. The government wanted to open this further to children from Reception, Y1 and Y6 if this was possible to do so in individual schools. Sefton LA took the decision that Sefton schools would not open to those year groups until 15 June, but to remain until then with the Key worker and vulnerable children.
We have a number of children therefore who are eligible to be in school. We have conducted a risk assessment with a health and safety consultancy company, which many of the schools use locally, to support the decisions to be made, to ensure we do whatever possible to make sure we are keeping all children and staff as safe as possible. This is obviously dependent on room sizes, ratios, numbers of staff available etc.
We therefore have a limited number of places available still to key worker families. If these are not taken, we can then offer again to children from Reception, Y1 and Y6. Please let finance.strobertbellarmine@schools.sefton.gov.uk know by 12 o’clock tomorrow (Friday 5 June).
We previously, before half term, had a very small number of requests from parents of children from Reception, Y1 and Y6 who have asked to have a place, if possible, after 15 June when we surveyed this before half term. These have been added to the list already.
We are doing out very best to safely accommodate as many children as possible.
We will continue to set Home learning in exactly the same way we have been doing. Teachers will continue to be in touch with you by email and please keep these communications going, as for many of you, this is your only contact with school. We really do appreciate how difficult it is to keep on helping your children to learn but please do not give up! Just keep trying to do a bit each day, and don’t forget their reading.
Until we receive further information from the government we will continue in this way. We actually only have the same information that you do, we don’t get it in advance.
If you are struggling and need to talk to someone in school please contact me or email your teacher and we will try to help you.
Continue to look at the website because there is a lot of useful information on there.
For Parents of children who may be starting in either Nursery or Reception - the class teachers will soon be in touch with you regarding plans for transition and information packs. We obviously hope things are back to normal come September, but again we will only be able to work with government guidance.
Take care everyone,
Kind regards,
Mairead Dowell