Our policies
Some of the key policies that govern our school are summarised here. Click on a heading to expand that section. Contact us to discuss these, to ask for a full version of the policy, or to ask about any of our other policies. (There is no charge for providing complete copies of our policies or any other information on the website.)
Admissions
Entry into Reception class
Applications for places are dealt with by Leeds City Council (0113 222 4414). Leeds Council will handle all questions and issues arising; we remain neutral in this process.
We have one intake each year, at the start of the Autumn Term. Reception pupils are normally admitted to school in the September following their 4th birthday. Prospective parents are most welcome to make an appointment to look around our school or to visit on an Open Day.
Parents are usually asked to complete preference forms in the Autumn of the year before the child starts school. Places are allocated in the late Spring / early Summer Term – we have a maximum intake of 45 children. Following this stage, some parents choose to appeal if their choices have not been met. We’ve recently had a lengthy waiting list at this stage.
Once we know our exact intake, we begin the process of ensuring every child’s entry into school is happy and relaxed. In the Summer Term before the September start, parents come to an Open Evening with their children to find out more about how we work and ask any questions they might still have. This meeting also gives parents the opportunity to meet and talk with the Reception class teacher and other support staff. Soon after, children are invited to visit the Reception class for short visits. Reception class staff from school visit each child at home by our Reception class staff – it’s really helpful to see your child in comfortable surroundings before they start school.
Entry into Years 1 – Years 6
Parents of older children, moving into the area, are welcome to make an appointment to visit the school and to discuss admission with the Head of School. Unlike admission into Reception, an application for a place can be dealt with directly by us. You should use the In-Year Common Preference Form to apply to us and other local schools.
Assemblies (‘Collective Worship’)
The 1988 Education Reform Act requires that ‘all pupils in attendance at a maintained school shall on each day take part in an act of collective worship’ and that this should be ‘wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character’.
At Scholes (Elmet) Primary School, collective worship is set within the context of ‘assemblies’ – which include other features besides those required of collective worship. ‘Worship’ has a wide range of meanings and forms of expression. At Scholes (Elmet), ‘worship’ means reflection on and understanding of those elements of life which are of value and worth – respecting and caring. for example.
We base our assemblies on a broadly Christian character to meet this requirement, but believe fundamentally that the positive ethos we want to promote complements all faiths and indeed secularism, and the social and emotional aspects of living and learning.
We want every member of our school community to feel happy, valued and respected. Each person is treated fairly and well. We are a caring community with mutual trust and respect for all. Our assemblies promote this.
Our school community is made up of people from many different religions and cultures, and of people who have very clearly expressed a secular point of view. Assemblies are non-denominational and conducted in a manner which is sensitive to the faiths and beliefs of all members of the school community. We are proud of the diversity of our school community and as such hold assemblies that reflect and celebrate the traditions and beliefs of all. In this respect, assemblies promote British values.
If you have any questions or concerns, please do contact us.
Assessment
Effective assessment provides information to improve teaching and learning. Teachers, children and parents can work together to raise standards because there are thorough, open assessment procedures in place.
On-going teacher assessment is the most effective way of knowing how a child is progressing. We supplement teacher assessment with end-of-term tests – these are used to inform (never decide) the teacher assessments. In addition, at various stages, there are national assessments to be carried out, too, such as Year 1 phonics screening ‘checks’ and end of Key Stage 2 tests (often known as ‘SATs’).
All subjects are assessed by teacher assessment. In the core subjects, for example:
- In Reading, teachers will listen to children read (assessing their fluency and ability to cope with new words) and question the children to ensure their understanding and opinions of a text are developing. They will also use other techniques including drama, reading tasks and reading comprehensions.
- In Writing, teachers will consider pupils’ written work in books and also their contributions to whole-class and group work. As well as in the English lesson, children write in topic work and therefore teachers are able to assess children’s ability to effectively use their writing skills in wider contexts.
- In Maths, teachers can assess skills and knowledge through methods such as marking written work, questioning (especially open-ended questions) and observing practical work.
See our age-related expectations for more information about core and foundation subjects.
Reporting to pupils and parents
We believe that feedback to pupils is very important as it tells them how well they have done and what they need to do next in order to improve their work. Pupils have many opportunities to reflect and discuss their progress.
We have a range of strategies that keep parents and carers fully informed of their child’s progress in school.
Each term we offer parents and carers the opportunity to meet their child’s teacher and discuss learning and progress. During the summer term, we give all parents and carers a written report of their child’s progress and achievements during the year. In this report we also identify target areas for the next school year.
Please contact the school if you have questions or comments about any aspect of your child’s work. Staff are nearly always available for a quick discussion before or after school, or an appointment can be made for a longer meeting.
Read our Assessment Policy for Key Stage 1 and 2 here. (This is a shortened version of the full policy.)
Attendance
We encourage good attendance. For example, 100% certificates are awarded to children who have had no absences during the entire year – many children become proud of their excellent attendance record.
However, children who are too ill to come to school or may pass infection to others should not attend. When children are absent from school we ask parents to inform the school office by 9.00am on the first day of absence. We contact parents if we feel their children is too ill to stay at school.
Leave of absence will be given for attendance at medical or dental appointments or for examinations in music, dance etc. However, where possible such appointments should be made outside of school hours.
Charging
The aim of this policy is to set out what charges will be levied for activities, what remissions will be implemented and the circumstances under which voluntary contributions will be requested from parents. The Governing Body of the federation are responsible for determining the content of this policy and the Head of Federation for implementation. Any determination with respect to individual parents will be considered jointly by the Head of Federation and Governing Body.
Read the Charging and Remissions Policy.
Complaints
School leaders and other staff at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School are always happy to hear your views, comments, questions and concerns. This way, we can avoid any problem escalating into something more serious. Complaints are rare; however, all schools are required to have a complaints procedure in place. At Scholes (Elmet), we base ours on Leeds City Council guidelines and we follow its suggested policy and procedures, as set out in Dealing with complaints about schools: a practical toolkit for headteachers and governors.
Our policy sets out the school’s approach to dealing with parental concerns and complaints. It also contains a form which you may find it helpful to use to submit your complaint.
We value good home/school relations and will, therefore, do everything we can to establish and maintain them. This includes seeking to resolve any concerns or complaints promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned. We welcome feedback on what parents feel we do well, or not so well, as a school. We will consider carefully all feedback, whether positive or negative, and will review our policies and practices accordingly.
We will treat all concerns and complaints seriously and courteously and will advise parents and others of the school’s procedures for dealing with their concerns. In return, we expect parents and other complainants to behave respectfully towards all members of the school community. In particular, any disagreement with the school should not be expressed inappropriately or in front of pupils.
The majority of concerns from parents, carers and others are handled under the following general procedures. The procedure is divided into three stages:
- The informal stage aims to resolve the concern through informal contact at the appropriate level in school.
- Stage one is the first formal stage at which written complaints are considered by the Head of School or Head of Federation.
- Stage two is the next stage once stage one has been worked through. It involves a complaints appeal panel of governors.
How each of these stages operates is explained in our policy.
Read the Department for Education’s guidance for schools on best practice.
Data Protection
Sphere Federation aims to ensure that all personal data collected about staff, pupils, parents, governors, visitors and other individuals is collected, stored and processed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the expected provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018) as set out in the Data Protection Bill.
This policy applies to all personal data, regardless of whether it is in paper or electronic format.
It meets the requirements of the GDPR and the expected provisions of the DPA 2018. It is based on guidance published by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on the GDPR and the ICO’s code of practice for subject access requests.
It also reflects the ICO’s code of practice for the use of surveillance cameras and personal information.
In addition, this policy complies with regulation 5 of the Education (Pupil Information) (England) Regulations 2005, which gives parents the right of access to their child’s educational record.
Read about how we pupil information.
Read about how we use staff information.
Read about how we use information about governors and other volunteers.
Equality and accessibility
Read our Single Equality Policy Statement.
At Scholes (Elmet) Primary, we aim to ensure all stakeholders in our school have equal chance to achieve, equal chance to participate, equal chance to fulfil their role in school and the wider community. Equality for all helps us all to develop a sense of identity and to function well in the world. We welcome our responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010. Our policy follows local authority recommendations.
We understand equality to mean treating everyone with equal dignity and worth, valuing their particular characteristics such as their age, disability, gender, ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation and socio-economic circumstances. We further understand that people have different needs, situations and goals and therefore achieving equality requires the removal of discriminatory barriers that limit what people, especially children and young people, can do and can be. All children in our school are treated equally, regardless of individual characteristics. We have an inclusive ethos – no children are treated in a disadvantaged manner.
Our Accessibility Policy and Plan (updated 2019) outlines three broad aims to make our school even more accessible:
- Increase the extent to which disabled pupils can participate in the school curriculum
- Improve access to the physical environment (please note, the school building is limited in how we can meet the needs of people with disabilities but we will always endeavour to meet individual needs as appropriate)
- Improve communication between school and pupils, parents / carers
Other policies and school improvement action plans have a statement regarding equal opportunities whenever this may be relevant and useful.
Gifted and Talented
We believe in providing the best possible provision for pupils of all abilities. We plan our teaching and learning so that each child can aspire to the highest level of personal achievement.
Provision is made for children who are high attaining within normal class teaching by, amongst other things:
- probing questions from the teacher
- activities with even greater challenge
- opportunities for greater independence
- opportunities for application of skills and knowledge in different contexts
The Department for Education (DfE) no longer uses the term ‘gifted and talented’ officially. As a result, we do not have a specific policy for pupils who may be gifted and talented. However, please be assured we do recognise how important it is to meet the needs of all pupils, including academically more able pupils.
Medicines in School
Scholes (Elmet) Primary School is committed to reducing the barriers to sharing in school life and learning for all its pupils. Our ‘Managing Medicines’ policy sets out the steps which we take to ensure full access to learning for all our children who have medical needs and are able to attend school.
So that children who require medicines receive the support they need, and that we work within approved guidelines, we follow local and national guidance.
If medicine must be administered during the school day, parents / carers must provide full written information about their child’s medical needs – a form is available to complete.
If a child is responsible enough to carry a particular medicine eg an inhaler, permission from a parent / carer is needed.
Regarding prescription medicines, please note:
- Parents / carers should if possible administer dosages outside of the school day eg if there are three dosages per day, one first thing, one on return home and one at bedtime.
- We will only accept medicines which are essential; that is, where it would be detrimental to the child’s health not to have the medicine during the school day.
- We will not administer medicines that have not been prescribed by a doctor, dentist, nurse prescriber or pharmacist prescriber, unless it is done as part of an individual Health Care Plan. We can inform parents of this policy.
- Medicines should always be provided in the original container.
- Staff never give a non-prescribed medicine to a child unless there is specific prior written permission from the parents / carers; no medicines should be kept in children’s bags.
Positive Relationships (including behaviour)
It is a primary aim of our school that every member of the school community feels happy, valued and respected, and that each person is treated fairly and well. We are a caring community with mutual trust and respect for all.
The primary aim of this policy is to promote good choices which lead to effective relationships so that everyone can support each other, work together and learn well. It aims to promote relationships which are happy, safe and secure.
Roles, rights and responsibilities for pupils
It is the responsibility of pupils to make good choices at all times and with all adults and pupils in school. This will lead to pupils behaving well and building up and maintaining good relationships. Pupils should follow three simple rules to avoid bad choices:
- follow instructions*
- respect everyone and everything
- keep hands, feet and objects to themselves
Following instructions can include ‘3-2-1-Stop’; in our school, this means three things:
- silent voices
- empty hands
- eyes on the speaker
Roles, rights and responsibilities for staff
All staff in our school have high expectations of the children in terms of their relationships, choices and behaviour. A key priority is to reward and praise good choices in order to reinforce good behaviour (including following school rules) and positive relationships.
Roles, rights and responsibilities for parents / carers
The school works collaboratively with parents so children receive consistent messages about how to behave. We aim to build a supportive dialogue between the home and the school. We inform parents immediately if we have concerns about their child’s welfare or behaviour – this includes if a child receives five warnings or if there is a pattern of regularly receiving warnings.
We expect parents to:
- be aware that we have school rules (often communicated to parents) and to support them
- co-operate with the school
- support their child’s learning
- support the school’s decision when applying consequences to deal with any specific incident / issue
Positive consequences
Each teacher and their class develop their own systems of reward and praise, based on the overall school principles set out in this policy. This will include at least individual and class rewards.
Some of the positive consequences for the good choices and good behaviour that children show are:
- regular verbal feedback to reinforce positive behaviour
- reference to good role models
- children are congratulated
- stickers or other small prizes / treats
- certificates: usually at least one based on learning and at least one based on a Social and Emotional Aspect of Learning are given in Friday Assemblies
- Golden Time if a class has achieved a class target
- Choice Chips are given to children for good choices, good relationships, politeness, co-operation or acts of kindness in school – the class with the most Choice Chips are awarded the Choice Chip Cup in Friday Assemblies.
Sweets are not used as rewards; as a healthy school, we prefer to reward in other ways.
Negative consequences
Staff at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School employ consistently and clearly a hierarchy of negative consequences (our ‘warnings’) if a child breaks a school rule. This is to ensure a safe and effective learning environment in which positive, happy, healthy relationships flourish.
The series of warnings is:
- A reminder about behaviour and choices
- Five minutes off break
- Time out of class and missed break
- Time out of class and 30 minutes of lunch play missed
- Pupil sees Head of School and parents are informed
Serious misbehaviour (eg disrespect to staff, property or cultures, swearing, fighting) is very rare at Scholes (Elmet). Such behaviour would mean warnings are automatically by-passed to four or usually five warnings. Similarly, any pattern in warnings or consistent warnings means parents are contacted. We contact parents to keep them in the picture and to discuss ways to respond and gain a consistent message between home and school.
We do recognise that there are occasionally overriding factors or circumstances, but these are rare and so variation from the warnings system is rare. This is to maintain their effect and impersonal nature ie we aim to remove the personal judgement so children understand and accept the school rules. We allow for differentiation of sanctions where appropriate. This is to reflect different levels of culpability (or fault) while maintaining consistency and fairness of the treatment of pupils.
We expect children to try their best in all activities. If they do not do so, we may ask them to redo or complete a task. We expect children to make good choices and older children to set a good example to younger ones. We expect children to not support the misbehaviour of their peers. We expect and encourage children to tell an adult of misbehaviour.
The class teacher discusses the school rules with each class, and also creates a Classroom Charter as part of their New Beginnings SEAL work. This is agreed by the children and displayed on the wall of the classroom. In this way, every child in the school knows the standard of behaviour that we expect in our school.
Parents / carers say their child feels safe at Scholes (Elmet) Primary School (based on responses in typical Annual Surveys, 2010-2016). One of the reasons for this is that we do not tolerate bullying of any kind. If we discover that an act of bullying or intimidation has taken place, we act immediately to stop any further occurrences of such behaviour. We have specific guidance to follow if an incident of bullying (including cyber-bullying) or racism occurred.
Uniform, PE kit and other items
At Scholes (Elmet) Primary School, we are proud to be members of our school community and we want all our children to feel part of our community and to represent our school. Wearing the school uniform helps us to do this. Children are expected to wear uniform:
- Top: navy sweatshirt or cardigan with logo or other smart navy top
- Shirt: white short sleeved polo shirt (available with logo) or white shirt
- Trousers / skirt: grey
- Summer dress: blue / white check
- Shoes: black, brown or grey shoes or black / white trainers (no heels)
- PE: children should wear white t-shirt, navy shorts / tracksuit bottoms and pumps
Other items are useful. You can buy book bags, PE bags and hats from our uniform suppliers. Also useful are a separate bag for packed lunch (if your child does not have a school dinner) and a water bottle – any clear plastic water bottle, labelled.
Jewellery in school can raise many problems and so only the following items are allowed: watches, studs for pierced ears and items which are required by a religion.
To reduce lost property, please clearly mark all clothing, bags, bottles etc with your child’s name. We do not accept responsibility for any loss or damage to an individual’s property. Found lost property is stored in the school office.
Our uniform suppliers include:
- Rawcliffes, 617 Roundhay Road, Leeds, LS8 4AR, 0113 249 4025, www.schoolwearsolutions.co.uk
- SPT Uniforms, 115 Main Street, Garforth, Leeds, LS25 1AA, 0113 232 0111.
- Myclothing.com, uniform embroidery service.
Download the full uniform policy.