Dear Parents/Carers,Thank you for taking an interest in our school and on behalf of the pupils, staffand governors, I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome toyou and your family.

St Merryn School is set in a beautiful location overlooking the sea and is at theheart of our local community. We serve the village of St Merryn along withoutlying areas of Constantine Bay, Harlyn, Treyarnon, Porthcothan and Rumford.At St Merryn School, children are taught to value themselves and others. Allchildren are encouraged to reach their full potential through an innovative,creative curriculum and many extra curricular activities and events.

I am sure you will find our school a warm and welcoming place as it is ourintention that parents and school work together to ensure the best possiblefuture for our children.

Please note that this prospectus cannot cover everything so do feel free tocontact us for additional information or to arrange a visit. We are here to help!

Yours sincerely

Mrs Sarah CudmoreHeadteacher

Our vision is to provide a firmfoundation for each and everychild to enable them to reachtheir full potential and have athirst for lifelong learning.

Bright futures built onfirm foundations.

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The Aims of Our School

• We believe every child matters and should feelincluded, secure and valued.

• We respond to the physical, intellectual, emotional andsocial needs of the individual.

• We provide full, rich, varied and stimulating teachingand learning experiences in a high quality and caringenvironment.

• We work alongside parents to help children reach theirfull potential and aspirations.

• We seek to listen and work with the local and globalcommunity.

Every Child Matters is the government’s vision forchildren’s services. We strive to fulfil the five keyoutcomes which are essential to well-being in childhoodand later life:

Be healthyStay safeEnjoy and achieveMake a positive contributionAchieve economic well-being

At St Merryn School, wetreat all the children in ourcare with equal concern andrespect. This lies at the coreof our policy on Equality.

StaffAll staff hold relevant CRB checks, havebeen appointed through a saferecruitment process and have hadsafeguarding training.

Please see our school website for up todate staff and governor list.

Friends of St MerrynAll parents are automatically members ofFriends. The Friends will organise functionsthroughout the year. These events raisemoney for the school and enable Friendsto provide equipment and activities thatmight not otherwise be available.

Our SchoolSt Merryn School caters for pupils aged 4 - 11yrs. We have approximately 104pupils on roll. The school is housed in an 1876 listed building with a modern, wellequipped hall which was opened by Rick Stein in 2005. It has stage lighting that isused for school performances and community events.

Class 2 (year 1 and 2) and class 3 (year 3 and 4) are adjacent to each other andshare a practical space, toilets and sinks. Class 1 (reception) and Class 4 (year 5and 6) are housed separately; Class 4 being in the main building. Our school libraryhas a huge variety of books. Cooking features as a major part of the curriculumboth during and after school and takes place in our children’s kitchen area.

We have masses of outdoor space for the size of our school, including 2 largeplaygrounds, a garden area with chickens, which the children maintain, woodland,an adventurous activity area and a field. The playgrounds are well marked and thechildren have access to a wide range of resources during break times, led by oursports leaders.

Nearly half of the pupils have a leadership role within school ranging from ecocommittee, librarians and prefects to playground buddies and school council.

The school has access to computers and other ICT resources. We have computersand the use of laptops in every class and our ICT suite has 15 computers allconnected, via broadband, to the internet. We have wireless internet accessthroughout the school and a computerised library system.All classrooms have interactive whiteboards and access to manysoftware packages.

We are on the edgeof the village in aquiet locationoverlooking the sea.

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The CurriculumIt is broad, balanced and appropriate to theindividual needs of the child.

AssessmentWe carry out termly meetings to track pupilsprogress and make sure all pupils are ontarget. This is reported to parents throughtermly consultations and an annual report inthe summer term.

Curriculum Aims • To develop positive attitudes, enjoymentand commitment to learning, as a meansof encouraging and stimulating the bestpossible progress and the highestattainment for all pupils.

• To equip pupils with the essential skills ofliteracy, numeracy, information technologyand life skills.

• To help develop their identity throughknowledge and understanding of thespiritual, moral, social and culturalheritages of Cornwall, Britain and thewider world.

• To develop principles for distinguishingbetween right and wrong.

• To promote equality of opportunity. • To develop awareness and respect forthe environment.

• To promote an enquiring mind and thecapacity to think creatively, criticallyand rationally.

• To promote self-esteem, helping them toform and maintain worthwhilerelationships.

• To provide varied contexts for pupils toacquire and apply knowledge and skills.

• To provide challenges that preparechildren for the next steps in their education.

Behaviour ManagementAt St Merryn, we take a positive approach towards behaviour. Every Friday wehold a special celebration assembly in order to reward good behaviour and hardwork. All members of staff have high expectations of behaviour and follow theschool policy. Each class has their own rewards that have been createdaccording to the wishes of the children and following our school rules below.

Achievements and AwardsAt St Merryn School we are very proud of our achievements, both curricularand non-curricular. We celebrate the successes of pupils during assembly andcircle time, and encourage all the children to develop their talents, whateverthey may be.

As well as being graded outstanding by Ofsted our achievements to daterange from Healthy School Status, Artsmark Silver, Activemark and we are aBECTA new generation learning school to reaching the highest level in crosscountry, youth speaks and wake and shake. Please see our website for ourmost recent achievements.

Health and WellbeingWe promote physical and emotional health by providing accessible andrelevant information and equipping pupils and staff with the skills and attitudesto make informed decisions about their health. We provide a range of activitiesthat promote healthy living, from teaching children how to cook well balancedmeals to growing their own vegetables.

InclusionWe recognise the diversity of needs within our school and aim to give eachindividual child the support they need. We are striving to create a sociallyinclusive community where all children are accepted for their individuality andunique ability.

Special Educational NeedsChildren’s progress is constantly monitored and assessed and careful recordsare kept. Where a child is not making expected progress, appropriate steps willbe made to support the child.

An Individual Education Plan may be made with termly individual targets,review dates and ideas to help parents to support their child at home.Depending on the need of the child, outside agencies may be sought, such asEducational Psychologists, Speech and Language Therapists or behavioralSpecialists. After further consultation with parents, the Local Authority mayhave to make a statutory assessment based on specialist advice.

Parents will always be kept fully informed at every stage. Our assessmentprocedures will also identify children of very high academic ability and work willbe planned to meet the learning requirements of these children and outsideagencies may be used to supplement school resources.

Listen

Be honest

Work hard

Be kind and gentle

Respect others and their property

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The School Day

8.45am Children arrive at school and go straight to their classroom8:55am School officially opens with Wake and Shake9.00am Session 110.30am Break time10.50am Session 212.00pm Lunch1.00pm Session 32.50pm Assembly3.10pm School ends

Religious EducationNon-denominational Religious Education is provided for children as part of thecurriculum and is in accordance with the locally agreed County ReligiousEducation syllabus. Assembly is an important part of the school day when wemeet together as a community. It is a time when we place emphasis on thedevelopment of values and attitudes towards each other and the world aroundus. Assemblies are non-denominational and although are broadly of a Christiannature, due consideration is given to the multicultural society in which we live.Parents have the right to withdraw their children from religious education andcollective worship should they wish to do so. Their child can be excused andalternative arrangements made. Please contact the school for more information.

Home LearningIt is our policy to provide pupils with home learning opportunities that areenjoyable, manageable and interesting. These could be researching a topic,finding out specific facts or consolidating a maths skill. We encourage allparents to hear their children read for 10 minutes a day while in keystage 1 andin keystage 2 at least 3 times a week.

AbsenceIf your child cannot attend school on any day, please ensure that the school isinformed of their absence that morning. If your child is late, parents/carers mustreport to the office with the child to sign in the late book before entering theclass. This allows us to account for all children who should be in school. Theschool will attempt to contact parents of children who have unexplainedabsence. Holidays taken during school term time should be limited to amaximum of 10 days and requests for holidays should always be addressed tothe Headteacher. Where there is persistent absence, the Education WelfareOfficer will work with the school and parents to try and address the issue.

UniformAt St Merryn School we believe that ouruniform supports effective teachingand learning.

• to instil pride • to support positive behaviourand discipline

• to encourage identity with, and support for, school ethos

• to ensure pupils of all races andbackgrounds feel welcome

• to protect children from social pressures to dress in a particular way

• to nurture cohesion and promote good relations between different groupsof pupils

Jewellery and visible body piercing are notpermitted in school for reasons of loss,damage and safety.

There are exceptions:• One pair of earrings which are small studs • A wrist watch

We recommend hair should beappropriately tied back and natural looking(no extreme colours or styles).No make up is allowed in school.

Please see attach page for uniform list. Wealso have an exchange uniform rail which isavailable for purchases(see school secretary).

Cost and Suppliers The St Merryn School uniform is smart,practical and cost effective. Many of theitems on the uniform list are widely availablein high street shops and from internetsuppliers. Bespoke items such assweatshirts and fleeces can be purchasedat a reasonable cost from the school office.

Disabled AccessMost of the facilities are on a level site and areaccessible to disabled pupils. There is adisabled toilet and we have disabled ramps.

The School Accessibility Plan

We intend to:• Improve colour schemes throughout the school• Provide amplification systems (where needed)• Change class room and library access

Secondary TransferFrom St Merryn School the majority of children will transfer to WadebridgeSchool. There are buses running from St Merryn, and the surrounding areawhich will collect your child and drop off after school. In the past, children havealso attended Treviglas and Tretherras (both in Newquay) and Truro School.

We have a number of systems in place to ensure the smoothest possibletransfer to secondary school. During the summer we have secondary teacherswho visit our school to teach our Year 6 pupils. We also have transition dayswhere our children will go to Wadebridge School for Induction days.

AdmissionsWe adhere to the County Admissions Policy whereby to join our school youmust apply through the County Council.

Children can begin school in the academic year in which they turn five. Theymust be full time by the term after their fifth birthday. But before that it is theparents choice as to whether they are full or part time. Part time children donot stay for lunch and finish at 12pm. For more details contact us at school,call Cornwall Council and ask for the school admissions team or look on thecounty website.

Places are allocated by Cornwall Council. If a year group is full, it would goto the appeal committee within Cornwall Council and remains out of theschool’s hands.

Extended ServicesAt St Merryn School we want ourpupils to experience a wide andvaried range of opportunities.

We take every opportunity available to inviteoutside members of the community into ourschool to promote role models and allow ourpupils to learn from others. We have recently hadvisits from musicians, Olympic and Paralympicssports athletes, journalists, writers, farmers, vicarsand dancers to support the children’s interests.

We run a wide range of after school clubs whichchange on a half termly basis. These include someof the following; football, dance, computers,cooking, basketball, art, netball, self esteem(boost), maths and cross country. We also providemusic tuition throughout the school day.

We are very fortunate to have St Merryn Pre-schoolsituated on the same site. Although they are runindependently, we have strong links with them andenjoy working closely to ensure a smoothtransition for all the children. The pre school run abreakfast club.

We also work closely with a wide range ofagencies to support our families. Family learninghave provided training for parents to learnalongside their children in ICT, Maths and Literacy.We also work closely with the Family InformationService who can signpost parents to childcare,family support and choice advice (selecting theright school).

St Merryn SchoolSt MerrynCornwallPL28 8NP

Telephone01841 520683

Websitewww.stmerrynschool.co.uk

Email AddressesHeadteacher:head@st-merryn.cornwall.sch.uk

School secretary:secretary@st-merryn.cornwall.sch.uk

Des

ign:

skd

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