1. Welcome to St Joseph’s Catholic High School

2. People you need to know Form Tutor: Head of Year: Miss White
Safeguarding Lead: Mr Kinsella
Deputy Safeguarding Lead: Mrs Brook

3. The Role of the Form Tutor
First point of contact
Monitor attendance, punctuality, behaviour, progress & achievement
Safety & Wellbeing of your child
Monitor and sign pupil planners
Monitor uniform, jewellery and equipment
Engagement with parents

4. The Role of Parents
Inform the school of any absence on the morning of each absence; Vital from a safeguarding perspective.
Support the Form Tutor, HoY and any other staff in guiding your child successfully through their time at St Joseph’s;
Help your child by supporting the school’s rules, policies and ethos;
Ensure all homework is completed to the best of your child’s ability;
Inform school office of any information changes;

5. Pupil Appearance
School uniform is non negotiable, and must be worn correctly at all times;
Hair – Unusual or extreme hair styles and unnatural colours/bleached/two tone hair is not allowed;
Jewellery must not be worn – the exception is one pair of studs in the ears and a wristwatch;
Children sometimes push the boundaries when it comes to footwear…so for clarity…

6. Permitted Footwear (Shoes)

7. Not permitted Footwear

9. School Ethos St Joseph’s has an excellent reputation in the community;
We have a strict code of behaviour which is based upon courtesy, responsibility and mutual respect;
We expect ALL pupils to respect our behaviour code, and need the support of parents in reinforcing its principles;
We will not under any circumstances accept or tolerate abusive, violent or disruptive behaviour.

10. Opportunities St Joseph’s offers many fantastic opportunities:
Educational enrichment experiences
Sporting activities
Duke of Edinburgh
Adventure activities
Roles of responsibility & leadership
But most importantly:
An excellent education
A superb structure of care, support and guidance.

11. Staff in our school collect information about you ALL the time:
Classwork
Homework
Effort
Attitude to Learning
Behaviour and Attendance…

12. In addition to this, three times per year staff are asked to formally record your PROGRESS in what we call TRAWLS.
Every subject teacher records how much PROGRESS you are making, relative to your STARTING POINT.
All of these PROGRESS Grades are then averaged to give you your overall AVERAGE PROGRESS GRADE.

13. STARTING POINTS: Depending on your Key Stage 2 scores, every student in St Joseph’s is allocated a ‘Starting Point’ or ‘SP’.
The year group is roughly divided into five groups of students (roughly 20% of students each) – the most able students are SP5, down to SP1.
We then measure how much PROGRESS your child is making (various assessment methods) using the terms:

14. BELOW: This means you are below where you should be relative to your Starting Point
DEVELOPING: This is working towards where you should be relative to your SP
SECURE: This is where you should be relative to your SP
EXTENDING: This means you are making more progress than expected, relative to your SP.

15. Transition
During the first couple of weeks, your children will have to acclimatise to a new school, new teachers, new friends…
You can Expect:
Tantrums & maybe tears (including from parents)
Homework – lots of it!
Detentions… Tiredness… Stress…
Friendship issues… Fall outs…
These and much more, are perfectly NORMAL; but if you have any concerns please contact us, and speak to your child’s tutor in the first instance.
All we ask is that you Work with us and TRUST us.

19. Food at St Joseph’s High School
Food at St Joseph’s High School
As part of a broad and balanced curriculum, your child will study Food in Year 7.
Part of this course is obviously cooking!
We ask for a nominal payment of £25 to cover the cost of ingredients over the year – or we offer other options to suit you.
Letter that was sent to parents:
(Spares available)

20. Additional Music at St Joseph’s School
We have a number of peripatetic teachers who come into school to teach a variety of singing and instrumental lessons.
Letter that was sent to parents:
(spare copies available)

21. St Joseph’s School Gateway:
Basically a means to allow us to contact you, and allow you to pay for things on line. Safe & Secure.

22. ClassCharts The main form of communication between school and parents;
Allows instant access to your child’s behavior logs – positive and negative;
Allows pupils to see their own progress and achievement;
Allows you to see what homework is set and for when;
Please log in when you get the details!

23. Pupil & Parent Views Year 7
We are happy to share the results of our most recent surveys:
Pupils feel SAFE at St. Josephs School : 100% agree (74% strongly agree);
Pupils are HAPPY in St. Joseph’s School: 100% agree (64% strongly agree); 
The school ensures children are Well Looked After: 100% agree (75.4% strongly agree)  
There is a Good Standard of Behaviour: 100% agree (64.3% strongly agree)
St. Josephs Responds Well to Parental Concerns:: 100% agree (61.5% strongly agree)
St. Josephs Deals with Cases of Bullying Effectively: 100% agree (64% strongly agree)

24. Some Key Dates Girls Uniform Sale: Wed 26th June @ Banklands
Boys Uniform Sale: Thur 27th Banklands
Year 7 Settling in Evening: Thur 7th November
Year 7 Progress Evening: Thur 9th July 2020