School policies cover every aspect of school life! Here is a selection of our school's policies. We have chosen the policies that parents are most likely to need to refer to or be interested in.
If you would like a paper copy of any of our policies or would like details of other policies not displayed here, please contact Mrs Pearson in the office.
Valuing Diversity (including British Values / Behaviour Policy / Anti-bullying)
There is a statutory requirement for schools to ‘actively promote’ British Values. This is born out of recognition that the UK is a ‘far from cohesive society’. The expectations are largely based on the Public Sector Equality Duty 2010 and have been roughly defined as:
At Heathlands, we have been positively promoting these values for several years, since the introduction of our Valuing Diversity Strategy. We continue to develop this within school to ensure that, not only do we meet statutory requirements, but also that our children understand that these are underlying ‘human values’ rather than ones which are only ‘British’.
Our Valuing Diversity Strategy is the underlying principle throughout our school community. It is about all individuals being valued and having a voice. It combines equality, rights and responsibilities with behaviour management and anti-bullying strategies to ensure the equality of all, pupils and adults alike.
This document contains information about the development of this ethos and will be added to in the future in order to make clear the ways in which we will foster these skills and attitudes.
Equality Act 2010
Under the Equality Act 2010, schools have obligations not to discriminate against people with a protected characteristic. As the Act harmonises the previous equality legislation much of what is required of schools is already being carried out by Heathlands and this strategy is aimed at ensuring our statutory duties are met.
The protected characteristics for the schools provisions are:
NB Age and being married or in a civil partnership are NOT protected characteristics for the school's provisions.
Special Educational Needs Policy (SEN)
At Heathlands, we take time and care to ensure the needs of all individuals are met. This includes children with Special Educational Needs.
Children with additional needs are on our SEN Concerns / SEN Support list. Children on the SEN support list have a termly review and provision map where targets are set in order for us to track the pupils' progress carefully. We review the provision with parents/carers to ensure that they are fully involved with their child's development.
We have good links with outside agencies such as the Education Pyschology Service, Speech and Language Therapists (SALT) and our school nurse. We can access these agencies and many other services for advice and guidance on meeting the needs of our SEN children.
We have many skilled teaching assistants in school who work with SEN children in a variety of ways. These TAs update training regularly and work closely with class teachers to ensure that children's needs are met.
Children with SEN are fully involved in the life of the school and are happy and settled here at Heathlands.
Charging and Remissions
At Heathlands, we aim to provide our pupils with a wealth of experiences. Any activity which forms an essential part of the day to day curriculum will be paid for by school.
In order to enhance the breadth of experiences for our pupils, we often organise additional experiences in the form of visits or visitors to school. These are above the statutory curriculum requirements and in order for these things to take place, we rely on voluntary contributions from our parents. Usually, the school will subsidise these activities in order to keep the cost down, but if the additional cost of the event is not covered by parental contributions, we would take this as an indication that parents do not feel it is important. In these cases, we would take on board parental views and the event would be cancelled.
We follow the Nottinghamshire guidance on this matter and a copy of this is attached.
Safeguarding and Child Protection
At Heathlands, everybody has a duty to safeguard children inside/outside the school environment. This has two aspects: arrangements to take all reasonable measures to ensure that risks of harm to children’s welfare are minimised and also arrangements to take all appropriate actions to address concerns about the welfare of a child or children, working to agreed local policies and procedures in full partnership with other agencies.
Our safeguarding and child protection policy adheres to Nottinghamshire guidance and is attached.
Privacy Notice - GDPR
The purpose of a Privacy Notice is to explain how a family's personal information may be used. It details why information is collected and who we may share it with. As a School we need to be complaint with the new GDPR regulations, and this new Privacy Notice is published in accordance with the guidelines.
Please read the Privacy Notice for more details.
Complaints Procedure
At Heathlands, we value our relationship with parents, carers and the local community. School staff are happy to receive suggestions and comments on what goes on within school, and this can help to identify areas of success and where improvements can be made.
We understand that there may be occasions when individuals will want to raise concerns and it is important that anyone who does so is treated seriously and fairly. It is in everyone's interest that complaints are resolved at the earliest possible stage. Every effort should be made to resolve the matter informally. Many enquiries and concerns can be dealt with by a teacher, the headteacher or other members of staff, without needing to resort to a formal procedure.
If it is not possible to resolve the matter informally the person raising the concern may decide to pursue a formal complaint.
The school's complaint procedure is based on the Nottinghamshire guidance and is attached.