Woodfield Newsletter

Friday 17th March 2023

Brent Disability Forum
Parents, carers and friends are invited to the launch of the Brent Disability forum, on Thursday April 27th to discuss topics that matter to disabled people in Brent. It will be held at the Brent Civic Centre, Engineer Way Wembley HA9 0FJ from 1:00pm - 3:00pm.

You can reserve your place for free by booking a place here.
 

Oral Health Session
Link to Zoom meeting

Parent Governor Election at Woodfield School
In our school we have provision for four Parent Governors on the Governing Body and there are currently two vacancies.

The Governing Body, with the School Leadership Team, has overall responsibility for the running of the school. The role of the Governing Body is a strategic one and its key functions are to:

• Set the aims and objectives for the school.
• Set the policies for achieving those aims and objectives.
• Set the targets for achieving those aims and objectives.
• Monitor and evaluate the progress which the school is making towards achieving its aims and objectives.
• Be a source of challenge and support (a critical friend).

All Governors, regardless of Governor type, have the same roles and responsibilities. Serving as a Governor is a privileged and responsible role. You will have the opportunity to make a difference, not only for our current children but for pupils in years to come. Your contribution will be vital in enabling the Governing Body to support and challenge our school to be the very best that it can be.

No special qualifications are needed, and the most important thing is to have a keen interest in the school and be prepared to play an active part in the governing body’s work. This includes attending Governing Body meetings, reviewing documentation and preparing for meetings and visiting the school as part of monitoring visits. Training is available for all governors and the governing body has an expectation that those new to being a Governor will take up such opportunities.

Appendix One summarises the circumstances under which someone cannot serve as a governor. In addition, parents or carers who have paid employment in the school for 500 or more hours per academic year or who are elected members of the Local Authority are not eligible to stand in these elections.

Nominations must be from parents or carers with children at the school on the day that nominations close. If you would like to stand for election please complete the enclosed nomination form (Appendix Two) and return it to the school no later than 17 March 2023. You may also include a short personal statement to support your nomination, which should be no longer than 250 words. Any text over 250 words will be removed. Self nominations will be accepted, but if you are nominating another parent please seek their prior consent. If there are more nominations than vacancies the election will be by ballot. If that is necessary, voting papers will be sent to all parents together with details of the ballot procedure.

Late arrival/early departure to/from school
Over the course of this academic year, we have had too many pupils arriving late to school, especially those who are independent travellers or are dropped off by parents or carers. additionally, some parents and carers are requesting office staff to extract their child from class well before 3:00pm, our finish time.

It is important that children arrive in school on time everyday for a number of reasons.

• It is the legal responsibility of parent/carers to ensure that children attend their registered school on time each day.
• If a child is late they miss important information about the day's activities, which may involve a change of routine.
• A child that is late will miss school work.
• Children that arrive in good time for registration are able to talk to their friends before school and settle into the school day with them.
• A child that is late disrupts staff and other children.

Reminder: We are Nut Free at Woodfield
Just a reminder to parents and carers, especially those of children who bring in a packed lunch, we have several members of our community who are highly allergic to nuts. Please do not send your child to school with any product that may contain nuts or traces of nuts. If you are unsure about a product, err on the side of caution and don't send it in to school with your child.

College Open Days, for interested parents and carers.

MIS Change
We have changed our management computer systems from School Pod/Teachers to Parents/School Money to Arbor. Your child's records etc have been transferred over to the new system. We will send out further information to you in the coming weeks.

Arbor has a parent App for smart phones, which allows you to manage payments (will replace School Money) and use it to check in on your child’s attendance, for example. Login details for the app will be sent to you in due course. This app is now up and running at Woodfield, the technical problems we experienced have been solved.

You can download the App for iOS or Android using the links below.

Photo and video permissions
This message is in regards to you giving the school permission to use your child's photograph or video in different ways

At Woodfield School, we sometimes take photographs of pupils. We use these photos in your child's reports, for evidence in EfL to record your child's progress, and sometimes on the school’s prospectus, on the school’s website, newsletter, on display boards around school, in our computerized pupil records to recognize each pupil (this is for school use only)

Compass Learning Partnership considers the age of 12 to be an appropriate threshold at which to seek consent directly from a child. However this is considered on a case by case basis given a student’s individual capacity to provide consent.

Our Privacy Notice has been provided to students in relation to the use of this information, is available on the school website or by clicking this link https://www.compasslp.co.uk/820/clp-privacy-notice.

There are some things that we cannot do unless you tell us that we can. We have set these out on the online form. Please could you read this form very carefully and tick the appropriate options. This will let us know which of these things you are happy for us to do, and which you are not.

If at anytime you have changed your mind about the consent, simply complete the form again. Your most recent responses will always take precedence. if you are unsure if you have completed the form, just submit a new set of responses. You have the option to download a copy of your responses for your reference once you have submitted the form.

You can complete the form by clicking this link http://bit.ly/3U2W4xx

Brent Family Wellbeing Centre
The Brent Family Wellbeing Centres provide a range of community-led services that can support you from the moment you know you’re expecting, through pregnancy and birth, until your child is 18 years old (or up to 25 for children and young people with special educational needs). The Centres, offer a wide range of free health, education and welfare services to families and aim to give everyone in Brent the best possible start in life. The Brent Family Wellbeing Centres are free to use by families that live in Brent. If you wish to use the services provided at any of the Centres, you will need to register your family's details, including all of the children you have. It’s simple and easy to do and once you are registered, you can book and manage your sessions and activities in advance. You need to sign into My Account to register for the Family Wellbeing Centres. If you haven't created a My Account yet, you can register for both.

Click this link to either sign in or register

Brent Parent Carer Forum Events
Brent Parent Carer Forum offers information, support and friendship for families of children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). See https://brentpcf.org/ for full details of what they could help you to do! The December sessions are below

School Uniform
Just a reminder about school uniforms, could parents and carers take a couple of minutes to review our uniform policy.

The school uniform consists of the following items:

• Black school trousers or skirt (skirt a minimum of knee length)
• White Polo shirt
• Black Vee Neck school jumper
• Black shoes with flat soles
• Black or white socks
• Plain White vest or T-Shirt to be worn under the polo shirt if needed

The following items of clothing/accessories are not allowed to be worn at school as they are not part of school uniform

• Jewellery, make-up or nail polish. Small stud earrings can be worn if girls have pierced ears.
• Footwear: no boots or open- toe sandals and no heels
• Hooded tops (hoodies) are not allowed to be worn in school
• All uniform, including shoes should be plain black (or white if polo shirt, vest or socks) with no logos.
• If you are in any doubt, please contact the school for a clarification.

Full details available on our website

Emergency Contact
In addition to parent/carer details, we must have at least two other persons as emergency contacts for all our pupils. These people could be grand parents, a sibling aged over 18, aunts, uncles etc.
 
It is vital that we are able to get hold of a contact person in the case of a pupil emergency or illness.  In the past we have had issues in contacting parents or guardians, which not only creates concern for the school but also makes pupils anxious.

Sufra Food Bank
Woodfield is also a referrer to Sufra Foodbank. A charity that provides support to vulnerable families in need of additional help. They provide essential food and toiletries to families experiencing an acute crisis. The size of their food parcels depends on the size of the family that needs support but typically last between 5 to 7 days.  They also offer other support such as:

• Community kitchen - hot meals being delivered to those without cooking facilities as well as the elderly and isolated.
• Advice services & refugee support
• NHS Emergency Food Aid Service - food packs for patients
• Community garden

If you know of anyone who may benefit from the assistance Sufra provides, please contact Patsy to discuss. This is a confidential service, no records regarding any conversations are held by the school, and any referral will be treated with absolute privacy within the school. 

Attendance
We are aiming to have an attendance rate above the national average. We think it is very important that all our pupils benefit from being in school for as many days of learning as possible to ensure they make progress and achieve the results they should. If a school can improve its attendance by 1%, this can result in a 5-6% improvement in attainment. We are asking you to support the school by ensuring your child achieves excellent attendance.  You can read more on our website.

The Brent Parent Carer Forum have just released details of their workshops for September and October. See more details below. The session next week is about managing challenging behaviour.

Please take note of some of the other resources available to help families though difficult financial and health situations we have linked below. For those not resident in Brent, there are similar services to the Brent Resident Support Fund and Open Access Service in other London boroughs. Please contact Patsy who can also direct parents and carers to other support.

Brent Resident Support Fund
The Brent Resident Support fund (RSF) is a discretionary support fund available to Brent residents who are having difficulty due unforeseen financial circumstances this winter. It also includes short term need for support due to an emergency. The fund provides support in the form of an interest free loan, grant or both. See the Brent website for full details and find out how to apply. 

Help with gas bills - are you eligible?
The British Gas Energy Trust offers grants worth up to £1,500 for households with an energy debt between £250 to £750. This opens on July 1 and is available for non-British Gas customers. See the story in the Daily Mirror or on the British Gas Energy trust website.

Brent Cove Open  Access Service
The service has been commissioned by Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust for 16+residents from Brent on an open access basis (individuals can just turnup), including A&E Liaison Psychiatric Services, Home Treatment Teams, Community Mental Health Teams and Single Point of Access). Click the image for more details

Free School Meals to families with no recourse to public funds.
If your family is not currently eligible for free school meals, they may be now. The government has permanently extended free school meal eligibility to children in all households with no recourse to public funds (NRPF), subject to maximum income thresholds.

Please review the guidance on the gov.uk website to check your eligibility, and contact the school or Patsy to assist if you require any help.

The application form can be downloaded here.

Have a great weekend


Nick Cooper

Click for Term Dates on our website

Term dates are subject to change, parents and carers will be informed of any changes.
 

If you would like hard copies (paper) of any document on our website, please contact the school office and they will arrange this
.