Parents’ Information Booklet - Year 7

Contents

Page 3 - How to contact Thomas Clarkson Academy

Page 4 - Uniform Policy 2017

Page 5 - How to Order School Uniform

Page 5 - Equipment Required

Page 6 - Student Attendance

Page 7 - Example Timetable

Page 8 - Pupil Premium

Page 9 - Parentpay

Page 10 - Show my Homework

Page 11 - SIMS Parentpay

Page 12 - Medication In School

Page 13 - Data Protection

Page 15 - Term Dates

How to contact Thomas Clarkson Academy

You may need to contact the school to speak to us.

To contact us by phone: 01945 585237

select

Option 2 – Parents of a student in school

THEN

Option 1 – To report an absence. (This must be done before 8.30am each morning)

Option 2 – Student Services Team

Option 0 – Customer Services

To contact us via email:

General Enquiries

Finance Team

Raising Standards Leader Year 7 – Miss Amy Anderson

Student Services for Pastoral Concerns

Assistant Principal, KS3 – Mr Matt Dobbing

Thomas Clarkson Academy Uniform Policy 2017

The Thomas Clarkson Academy uniform reflects the professional attitude that we expect from our students.

Uniform

  • Academy tie
  • White shirt
  • Black blazer with academy logo
  • Black plain shoes
  • Suitable carrying bag
  • Black trousers or skirt – below the knee
  • Black or white socks
  • Neutral or black tights

PE/Dance Kit

  • Navy polo shirt with academy logo
  • Reversible multi-sport Top with academy logo for boys and racer sweat for girls
  • Navy academy shorts
  • Navy academy Tracksuit bottoms
  • Navy games socks (long)
  • Plain black or navy, or academy drawstring bag to carry PE/Dance Kit
  • Trainers

Jewellery

  • 1 plain non widening ear stud per ear
  • 1 ring (simple, unraised) per hand
  • 1 wristwatch
  • No necklaces and bangles

Hair

  • Colour and style should be a natural colour and not reflect fashion fads

Nails

  • Students should not wear nail varnish, false nails or ‘gelled’ nails on health and safety grounds. Students may be asked to remove these. For sports, fingernails must be short and well trimmed.

Make-up

  • Should not be worn in Key Stage 3 (years 7,8 &9). Students in KS4 (years 10 & 11) may wear discreet makeup-foundations and mascara are acceptable.

Body piercings

  • Nose, eyebrow, tongue and other body piercings are a health and safety hazard and are not acceptable even with a plaster covering or a retainer.

The academy accepts no liability for the loss of personal property on the academy site. The Assistant Vice Principal of Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare will have the final say on any uniform dispute.

How to order your school uniform

Thomas Clarkson Academy uniform can be ordered onlinedirect from our supplier, SWI.

Please see the uniform information on our Academy website. This can be found as follows: then choose Parents/Carers – Uniform.

You can order Uniform and PE Kit 24 hours a day online via the SWI ordering system. You can also place your orders in the following ways:

  • Order Online: Visit our website at order via PARENTS ONLINE.
  • By Post: Send your completed order form with payment by cheque or credit card to the address at the top of this form. Please note all cheques are to be made payable to SWI.
  • By Telephone: Call our team on 01928 752 610.
  • By Fax: Complete the order form, including your credit card details and fax to us on 0845 519 0055

Sizing Your Child for more information on how to size your child, please view the sizing guide on our website at

If you require further assistance, please call us on 01928 752 610

Equipment Required

We expect the students to come to school ready to learn with the correct equipment. We recommend as a basic requirement list they have the following equipment:

Every Day:

  • Black Biro pens
  • Pencils
  • Pencil Sharpener
  • Colouring pencils
  • Ruler
  • Eraser
  • Clear plastic pencil case
  • Clear Water bottle

Maths/Science Lessons:

  • Scientific Calculator – we recommend Casio FX83GTPLUS

Student Attendance

Please remember:

  • Regular attendance is a legal requirement
  • Attendance is expected to be above 98%
  • If attendance falls below 98%, students will be monitored closely and may be referred to the Education Welfare Officer (EWO).
  • Holidays during Term Time will not be authorised. An unauthorised holiday may result in a fixed penalty fine.
  • Always try to arrange routine medical appointments for outside the academy day.
  • In normal circumstances TCA will only authorise 3 consecutive days of absence and any further days will require supporting medical evidence such as a hospital letter, a prescription or evidence of a doctor’s appointment etc.

If your child does need to be absent from school, please contact the academy daily to notify of your son/daughter’s absence using one of the following options:

Tel:01945 585237 and choose option 2 then option 1 to leave a voice mail message. Parents or carersshould phone the Academy on the first day of theirchild's absence before 8.30am

Online: choose Parents/Carers from the list across the top of the page. Attendance is the first option in the drop down menu.

If you do not contact us regarding your child’s absence, you will be contacted via text message requesting a reason for the absence or the Education Welfare Officer and/or Academy staff may visit your home.

Example Timetable
Mon / Tues / Weds / Thurs / Fri
TT / Tutor Time SU2 P007 / Tutor Time SU2 P008 / Tutor Time SU2 P009 / Tutor Time SU2 P010 / Tutor Time SU2 P011
1 / English SU2 P007 / Science SU2 P008 / PE SU2 P009 / DT SU2 P010 / Ex Arts SU2 P011
2 / Maths SU2 P007 / English SU2 P008 / Science SU2 P009 / Humanities SU2 P010 / PE SU2 P011
3 / Science SU2 P007 / Maths SU2 P008 / English SU2 P009 / Maths SU2 P010 / DT SU2 P011
4 / Humanities SU2 P007 / Maths SU2 P008 / English SU2 P009 / Ex Arts SU2 P010 / Science SU2 P011
5 / Individual Student Intervention and After School Activities

Your child’s timetable will look similar to the example above. It will show the subject they are studying, the teachers’ initials and the room they will be taught in.

School Day Timings

Tutor Time - 08:30-08:50

Period 1 – 08:50-10:35

Period 2 – 10:35-11:50

Period 3 – 11:50-13:45

Period 4 – 13:45-14:55

Period 5 – 14:55-15:50

Pupil Premium Funding

Please help us to access additional funding for schools and ensure your child receives their entitlement. They could be eligible to receive free food every day and the school could receive £935 per student to be spent by the school on their education.

Ever6

Any student who is in full time education up to and including Year 11 is able to claim. In order to claim, a parent/carer must be claiming one of the following benefits:

  • Income Support
  • Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
  • Income-related employment and support allowance
  • Support under part VI of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999
  • Child Tax Credit but who are not entitled to working tax credit and whose annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) does not exceed £16,190
  • Guarantee element of state pension credit
  • Universal Credit

Please notewhere a parent is entitled to Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after their employment ceases, or after they start to work less than 16 hours per week, their children are entitled to free school meals.

Please go to the website below to complete the application form online, or complete the form in your pack.

Students Adopted from Care/Leave Care on a Special Guardianship or Residence Order

In addition, eligibility for pupil premium includes those students who were looked after immediately before being adopted or being placed on a Special Guardianship or Residence Order. It will be for those who have parental responsibility (adoptive parents, special guardians and carers of former Looked After Children on residence/child arrangements orders) to decide if they wish to self- declare their children’s status to schools. Parents and carers are requested to provide supporting evidence, for example, a photocopy of the adoption order. Parents may conceal sensitive information (e.g. the name of the birth parents) if they wish.

Service Children

Children whose parent(s) are Service personnel serving in regular HM Forces Military, exercising parental care and responsibility, and designated as Personnel Category 1 or 2 are entitled to Pupil Premium, although at a lower rate. Please inform us if you fall under this category.

Parentpay

Parentpay offers you the freedom to make payments wherever and whenever you like, 24 hours a day, using either your debit or credit card, safe in the knowledge that the payment website has been securely checked by many Local Authorities and uses the highest internet security standards.

As TCA is a cashless academy, we issue a Parentpay activation letter for each child who is moving to TCA. The letter will include the username and password parents need to activate their child’s account on the Parentpay site. If you do not receive your letter before the start of school, or you mislay it, you should contact the college to request a copy.

When activating your child’s account, the Parentpay website will ask you to change your username and password to something unique that you can easily remember. No one else will have access to your Parentpay account, unless you request a separate login for an additional payer such as spouse or grandparent. There is no charge to you for using the payment facility and you can rest assured that no credit or debit card details are stored in any part of the system, unless you request them to be saved.

Once registered for your first Parentpay account you can:

  • Add multiple student accounts to the first payment account (even if they are at different schools) giving you one place to pay for everything your child may need
  • Top up your child’s Academy school meals account by as little as £5.00 per top up
  • View which items your child purchases from the canteen each day
  • Pay parental contributions for educational visits, pre-booked instrumental tuition
  • Purchase optional items, which may become available to your child during their time at TCA
  • Set up free email notifications of new student trips and resources, to be sent to you as new items are added to the site
  • Request a second payer login to enable another family member (such as a spouse or grandparent) to pay towards items for your child
  • View a history of any online or paypoint payments you have made to us.

If you have any questions regarding the Parentpay system, please feel free to contact the Academy at

Show my Homework

Show My Homework is our virtual homework solution that enables schools to easily and effectively track and monitor homework.

Parents and students are able to login and check what homework has beenset.

How it works:

All teachers create and publish their homework online. Parents and students can manage submission of homework.

Here, you and your child/children can log into your own personalised accounts and see just the homework relevant to you. You can review submission times, see grades and communicate with teachers around specific assignments. We’ve even got forgotten passwords covered - you can check for any homework set on the public homework calendar without ever having to log in!

  • All homework details are accessible 24/7
  • Monitor from a distance: Stay in the loop without being intrusive
  • Enjoy peace of mind and never have to deal with late-night homework battles again!

Your child will be given login details when they start school. Show my homework is accessible via RM Unify.

Parents login using the PIN provided by the school. You can see what homework is set, when it is due, and even get a reminder each afternoon about what homework is due tomorrow to support your child in getting their homework completed on time.

Students who do not have access to the internet at home can use computers at school at lunchtime or in our after school homework clubs.

Install the App

Once your child has started in September, you can download from your smartphone or tablet the app from the Google play or Apple App store – search for Show My Homework.

SIMS Parent App

The Parent App enables you to access real time information about your child, held within the Schools Information Management system (SIMS) via a secure internet channel. Once registered you can do the following:

  • View your child’s timetable
  • View your child’s Attendance
  • View your child’s Progress
  • View Assessment information

Furthermore, using the data collection page you can also update personal information about your child, as a school this will enable us to improve how we engage with you and assist us in supporting your child’s progress. Your child will be given the login details when they start school.

Install the App

Once your child has started in September, you can download from your smartphone or tablet the app from the Google play or Apple App store – search for SIMS parent.

Medication in School

In line with legal requirements and good practice, Thomas Clarkson Academy is required to have a signed consent form from a student’s parents or carers for medication to be taken during the Academy day.

All prescribed medications should be in their original container as dispensed by the pharmacist with the following details:

  • the name of the drug
  • name of the person it is prescribed to
  • the date
  • quantity in the container
  • dose and administration details

Emergency medications, e.g. asthma inhalers and Epi-pens, should be kept on the student at all times. A spare must be left with Customer Service at the Academy. We would ask that even students who have not had a recent attack or reaction have this medication on them at all times.

Parents/Carers should ensure that the Academy has up-to-date medical information so that it can be entered onto the contact system.

If your child requires medication to be kept at school, please contact Customer Services to request a medication permissions form. To contact Customer Service please call 01945 585237.

Data Protection: Brooke Weston Trust Privacy Notice for Parents/Carers

Brooke Weston Trust takes its obligations towards personal data very seriously and is committed to ensuring that the requirements of the Data Protection Act (1998) are met and best practice in maintaining, processing and storing data is followed.

Schools, multi-academy trusts, local education authorities and the Department for Education all hold information on students in order to operate the education system. As this is personal information they must all comply with the Data Protection Act 1998, which means that amongst other things, the data held about students must only be used for specific purposes allowed by law. This notice describes the types of data held by Brooke Weston Trust, why that data is held and who it is shared with.

Brooke Weston Trust holds information on students in order to support their teaching and learning, to monitor and report on their progress and attendance, and to provide appropriate pastoral care. This information includes contact details, assessment and public examination results, attendance information, and characteristics such as ethnic group, special educational needs and any relevant medical information.

Certain transfers of information are carried out by the Trust’s schools to allow the operation of cashless catering systems, school improvement packages, school uniform purchase and first response systems that help safeguard students on their journey to school. The information shared is the minimum required to operate these systems and is limited to name, student identifier (roll number), tutor group and basic contact details.

At certain intervals we are required to pass on some student data to the Local Authority, to other schools to which students are transferring, to the Department for Education (DfE), Examination Boards and to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA).

The Local Authority uses information about students to carry out specific functions for which it is responsible, such as the assessment of any special educational needs the student may have. It also uses the information for statistical purposes and this is performed in such a way that individual students cannot be identified from the data.

The Qualification and Curriculum Authority uses information about students to evaluate the effectiveness of the National Curriculum and the associated assessment arrangements and to ensure that these are continually approved.

The Department for Education uses information about students for statistical purposes to evaluate and develop education policy and monitor the performance of the education service as a whole. The statistics are used in such a way that individual students cannot be identified from them.

Students as data subjects, have certain rights under the Data Protection Act, including a general right of access to personal data held on them. Parents can exercise this right on their behalf if they are too young to do so themselves.

If your child wishes to access their personal data, or you wish to do so on their behalf, then please contact the Trust Data Protection Officer in writing:

  • Director of IT, Brooke Weston Trust, Coomb Road, Great Oakley, Corby, Northants NN18 8LA

Email:

Please note that all rights under the Data Protection Act to do with information about your child rest with them as soon as they are old enough to understand them. This will vary from one child to another and you will wish to consider the position for your child but, as a broad guide, it is reckoned that most children will have a sufficient understanding by the age of 12. We would therefore encourage you to share this notice with your child if they are aged 12 or over.

Separately from the Data Protection Act, DfE regulations provide a student’s parent with the right to view, or to have a copy of their child’s educational record at the school. If you wish to exercise this right you should write to the school.