St Monica's Catholic Primary School

At St. Monica’s, our aim is to share with you the richness of opportunities available to every individual and the purposeful nature of the learning experience. For our pupils and staff, St. Monica’s is not just a school, but a real community of enthusiastic, life long learners.

As an inclusive Catholic community, we promote a set of values that are enduring and seek not only to achieve excellence intellectually, but also spiritually. We strive to nurture and develop our students in order that they may become caring, compassionate human beings ready to make a positive contribution to the wider community.Our Admissions Policy, along with the Supplementary Admissions forms for the current academic year are below.

The Diocese has devised a new Certificate of Catholic Practice (CCP) to ensure uniformity and clarity by Admission Authorities of schools and colleges regarding religious practice. Our overall Admissions Policy, along with the school-wide Supplementary Admissions forms are attached below. Please complete the application form that is specific to your child's age.

Over the years, the internet has become a popular means in our daily lives. It is an extremely rich resource which provides us with various amounts of information and connections. At St Monica’s we believe that it is important children have the opportunity to use this source in a safe, responsible way. The concept of e-safety has thus become a predominate teaching focus in our school.

In order for St Monica’s to protect, educate, intervene and support children with internet use, an e-safety policy has been devised. This document is for staff, pupils and parents; and complies a list of rules and regulations all must abide to in order for safe use of the internet. This document is easily accessible and can be found within the ‘Key Information’ page on this website.

At St Monica’s, staff attend yearly e-safety training sessions which help prepare and support the overt and covert teaching of e-safety. Throughout the month of November, children take part in an e-safety week in which teachers explicitly put their e-safety teaching into practice. A variety of activities, workshops and assemblies are prepared and delivered by the teachers to give pupils knowledge and guidance on the use of this resource. It is always a fun, excitable week in which pupils gain an enormous amount of awareness and understanding.

The role of the Governing Body is strategic and, as set out in the Governors Handbook 2017, is to provide confident, strategic leadership and to create robust accountability, oversight and assurance for educational and financial performance.

Governance is not about fundraising, neither is it about cheer-leading for the school, although governors might do those things. Governors monitor and evaluate the progress of the school towards achievement of its aims and objectives, and act as a critical friend and source of challenge and support to the Headteacher.

The Headteacher is responsible for the internal organisation, management and control of the school and the implementation of the strategic framework established by the Governing Body.

Children should be encouraged to read aloud and read on their own, but being read to is really important, too, so don’t overlook the bedtime story! With just four points to remember, our Handwriting Guide is easy to follow and a great way to support your child. Children have told us that with better handwriting they feel more confident and proud of their learning!

Parents / Carers often say they are less confident about supporting their child with Maths. The first rule is: don’t suggest that Maths is less important than Literacy! Mental calculations, estimating, measuring and telling the time are important skills we use every day. Beware of saying in front of your child that you weren’t good at Maths at school – remember we have high expectations for our children.

All Parents of St Monica's are automatically members of the Parents and Friends Association (PFA). We are proud of the increased zeal and dedication from our core parents and their real commitment to support the vision of the school to make a real impact in their children's education and whole-child development.

As a voluntary aided school, Governors are responsible for the maintenance of the school buildings and must pay at least 10% of expenditure on any building work that is undertaken. This includes any expenditure on ICT infrastructure, boilers, windows and doors installations/replacements. The Governing Body relies on voluntary contributions from parents and friends of the school to be able to achieve this.The efforts of the PFA in generating additional income for the school is therefore crucial and much appreciated.

Weekly homework tasks can be Open-ended Creative Homework, Talk Time Homework and occasionally Practice Makes Perfect Homework. You can help by encouraging, discussing ideas and by ensuring your child has a good working space at home. Please contact your child’s class teacher or the Headteacher with any questions or concerns.

As well as the weekly homework task, your child is expected to learn spellings weekly. Learning the spellings for just a short time each day is more effective than leaving it all to the last minute. It is also a great opportunity for handwriting practice. Reading on a daily basis is also expected.Reading aloud with an adult is important throughout the primary years. Even if your child is a fluent reader, having a discussion about the story (for example, the characters’ personalities and actions, the ‘wow words’ used by the author) is a valuable way to develop reading skills.