Reception 2022 Information

Open Evening

We will be inviting all of our new parents and carers to a meeting on Tuesday 21st June at 6pm where we will take you through our admissions arrangements for welcoming your child to Air Balloon in September.  In addition to this meeting, there will be opportunities during the summer term for you and your child to visit the school, meet their teacher and other children in their class.

In addition, there will be some Stay and Play sessions arranged for July to enable the children to come and meet their teacher and Early Years Practitioner. More details on these sessions will be sent nearer the time

Communications

Over the coming weeks we will be in regular contact with you to update you with details of the admissions process so that you and your child can feel confident and happy about the next stage of their education journey.   At Air Balloon, we use Arbor as our communications system.  This includes emails, an online Parent Portal and an App for smartphones.  

Any emails sent from us will come from no-reply@mail.arbor-education.com so we would recommend adding this email address to your safe-sender list.  Whilst you wont be able to access the App or Parent Portal just yet, once your child starts with us in September, you will receive an email to register for an account and will be able to use it to update your child’s details, update consents, book parents’ evening appointments, receive short in-app messages and send us messages.

You can find our more about Arbor here: Introduction to Arbor for Parents and Guardians

School Uniform

We know that many parents and carers will be keen for their child to start their time at Air Balloon in school uniform.

Your child’s uniform can still be ordered, prior to the summer holidays, directly from our uniform supplier – AWS Workwear. Any uniform ordered will be delivered to the school for collection during the first week of term when you come for your meeting with the class teacher. This means that when your child starts attending school with other children, they will be able to wear their uniform.

If you would like to order uniform now, please visit the AWS website (www.aws-ltd.co.uk) and select Schoolwear and Air Balloon Hill Primary School from the menu (or go directly to our page here).  Unfortunately, we are unable to provide sample sizes for children to try on, however you will find details of uniform sizing below.

Our full school uniform policy can be found here: Uniform Policy 

With the exception of our school jumpers and cardigans, all of our uniform can be purchased in supermarkets and other high street stores. The uniform is simple to avoid unnecessary expense for parents.  School jumpers and cardigans can be ordered directly from our Uniform Supplier along with school-logo book bags. 

We often have second-hand uniform sales and these are a great opportunity to purchase pre-loved uniform items at a fraction of the normal cost.  Alternatively, you can order second-hand jumpers and cardigans by completing a green order form which can be collected from the main foyer.

If you have any concerns about the cost of uniform, please contact Mrs King in the school office.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide sample sizes for children to try on, however, below you will find a useful sizing guide to help you to order.

All items of school uniform should be clearly labelled with your child’s name.

School Meals

Since September 2015, the school catering has been provided in-house. The school is passionate about providing your child with a healthy, nutritious and delicious meal every day. The children are our customers and so it is really important to us that they enjoy their dining experience at school.

Our menus include a wide-range of dishes which allow children to try different foods and experience foods from different cultures.

We guarantee to only use fresh, high quality ingredients and will use British Red Tractor and MSC sustainable fish whenever possible. All of our eggs are free-range and meals will always contain at least 2 portions of fruit or vegetables. We use fresh fruit and vegetables from our own allotment whenever possible and offer Yeo Valley organic yogurts as one of our daily dessert options.

If your child has any food allergies or intolerances, it is vital that you let us know about these so that we can make sure we are able to meet your child’s dietary requirements. Please tell us about any allergies on the online form we have emailed to you and a member of staff will be in touch to discuss your child’s needs.

We are able to offer Halal meals to all children if required and a vegetarian option is also available every day.

The school is part of The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme and each child in Reception and KS1 receives a piece of fruit (or sometimes vegetable) every day. We are trying to follow the path of encouraging healthy eating, and therefore do not allow any other snacks. Free milk is provided for children under five, and after their fifth birthday you can pay for milk through the dairy – the office will supply all the details.

If you have any questions or queries about school meals, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Sarah Nichols

Kitchen Manager

Below you will find some examples of our school menus along with some of the ‘special event’ menus we have provided – please click on the image to see it in detail. There are also some photographs of our food displays – click through the photos to see what we offer.  For a copy of our Spring/Summer Menu that will continue until October half-term, please click here

Space Cadets – Wrap-Around Care

We are very fortunate to have Breakfast, After-School and Holiday Club wrap-around care provision at Air Balloon. ‘Space Cadets’ is housed in it’s own building, with direct access, through the Space Cadets gate, where staff have created a warm friendly environment, catering for all ages.

You can find lots of information about Space Cadets on their page on our website and in this information booklet that you can download:

Breakfast Club is open from 7.30am to 8.45am (last drop-off time is 8.20am)  – you do currently need to book in advance.  More information about booking will be shared at our Information Evening on 21st June.

After-School Club runs until 6pm every day and a healthy snack is provided at 4.30pm. This does need to be booked in advance.  Please download a Registration Form from here or collect a paper copy from the school office.  More details will be provided at our Information Evening and once Stacey James, our Wrap-Around Care Manager has received your registration form, she will be in touch to discuss your booking.

Holiday Club runs on school in-service days and school holidays and is also bookable in advance – booking forms are available from Space Cadets or the school office ahead of each holiday period and in-service day.

We understand that for working parents, ensuring their child is cared for before and after school when they need to work, is really important and being able to secure that provision as soon as possible will put you mind at rest. 

If you have any queries about our Wrap-Around Care provision, please email Stacey at afterschoolclub@abhps.com 

Preparing for School

There are lots of things you can do to help your child get ready for school. The welcome booklets we send in June will also have some ideas in them. You can use this checklist to talk to your child about the things they need to be able to do before they start school and share it with their teacher in September:

Other things you can do at home are:

1. Read the welcome booklet together, look at the photographs and talk to your child about their teacher and the other people they will meet at school
2. Subscribe to our You Tube Channel and watch some of our staff reading stories
3. Help your child to practise cutting with scissors, holding a pencil properly and getting dressed by themselves.
4. Help your child to take off and put on their socks and shoes (on the correct feet!)
5. Help your child to wash their hands with soap and water.
6. Help your child to count
7. Read lots of stories and talk about the stories and pictures.

School Attendance

At Air Balloon, we want our pupils to enjoy learning, experience success and realise their full potential, which is why regular school attendance is so important.

We want our pupils to attend school every day, unless they are really not well enough to. We believe that children who attend school regularly are more likely to feel settled in school, maintain friendships, keep up with their learning and gain the greatest benefit from their education.

Our Term dates for 2022-23 are:

Term 1: Thursday 1 September 2022 to Friday 21 October 2022

Term 2: Monday 31 October 2022 to Friday 16 December 2022 

Term 3: Tuesday 3 January 2023 to Friday 10 February 2023 

Term 4: Monday 20 February 2023 to Friday 31 March 2023

Term 5: Monday 17 April 2023 to Friday 26 May 2023 

Term 6: Monday 5 June 2023 to Thursday 21 July 2023

Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd September 2022 will be In-Set Days. 

You can download a calendar to print out and pin up here – Term Dates Calendar

 Our full attendance policy can be found here and more information is also available on our Attendance Page.   In September, you will be given a paper copy of our policy along with other useful attendance information.

Medical Information

Making sure that we can support your child with any medical needs – whether that is a long-term medical condition, or a one-off first aid treatment, is really important to us. Our Welfare Room first aiders are always available in the mornings, should you wish to discuss a medical need with them or request that they administer any prescribed medication. For children with long-term health needs or care plans, you will be invited in to meet with Mrs Hennessy, our Assistant Headteacher, to complete any forms necessary and to discuss in detail, your child’s condition.

If you child has asthma, we request that you bring in an inhaler that they can keep in school. We can also, if you give consent, use an emergency inhaler for your child if necessary (for example, if their inhaler has run out, or they have forgotten to bring it in). To do this, we need your consent – you can download the consent form here

First Aid

If your child visits a first aider whilst in school, the incident will be recorded on Medical Tracker and you will receive an email notification to let you know what has happened. If your child suffers an injury to their head or face or the first aider feels that they need to go home, you will receive a phonecall.

Medical Tracker not only allows us to inform parents/carers of first aid incidents and medication administration by email but it also allows us to analyse the data we record.

Important – Please be aware that when we start using Medical Tracker, email messages will be sent from donotreply@medicaltracker.co.uk. Please add this address to your email address books (or approved sender list) to prevent messages from being blocked by your SPAM/JUNK filters.

More information can be found in our Administering Medication and Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions Policy: Administering Medication & Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions Policy – January 2022

GDPR

For more information about GDPR and data sharing and to read our privacy notices, please visit our GDPR page.

Consent Forms

Along with the data collection form which has been emailed to you, we have also sent you a form to complete to give consent for different things including:

1. use of photographs and video images
2. consent to go on supervised walks in the local area

We will also send you a form to check your eligibility to Pupil Premium funding :

1. Infant Pupil Premium Checker Form

We will also send you additional forms to complete if they are relevant to your child:

1. Space Cadets Registration Form
2. Allergies and Intolerances Referral Form
3. Emergency Asthma Inhaler Consent Form

Questions and Queries

If you have any questions that you can’t find the answers to here or elsewhere on our website, please don’t hesitate to email us – airballoonhillp@bristol-schools.uk or speak to Mrs King in the school office – 0117 903 0077

We are all really looking forward to meeting you in the summer.