Information for new parents
A very warm welcome to Charlton Primary School. We are so pleased that you have chosen our school and we all look forward to working with you and your children.
Our school, which accommodates up to 420 primary-aged pupils, and 26 pre-school children, has a wide-range of facilities:
- A purpose built building for our Reception children, and accompanying outside space
- Vast grounds- incorporating large school playing field, wild areas, outdoor classroom, Forest School
- A large school hall
- The Lodge (used for Early reading, meetings and group work)
- WiFi throughout the building
- Interactive white boards in each classroom
- Sound system and lighting for productions in the hall
- A purpose-built kitchen
- 14 large, light classrooms which are well resourced
- A library
- Arts room/ Food technology room
- Group/ intervention/break out spaces
- ELSA room
- Computing facilities – Chromebooks, iPads, laptops
Our well respected and popular school, which serves families in Wantage, Grove and beyond, first began welcoming children into Reception over 50 years ago.
This page will inform you about our school and hopefully answer some of the questions you may have. However, if you find that your question has not been answered, please do feel free to contact the school office: officech@charlton.vale-academy.org.
What happens once I accept a place?
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- Please confirm that you will be taking up your child’s place as soon as possible.
- Once you have confirmed your place, we will be in touch again with a further information about your child’s class, teacher so that you can start to organise uniform.
- You will also be asked if you would like to book your child in for Breakfast Club or after school club (subject to availability). See this secton of the website for more information about our Before and After School Clubs.
Settling in...
For children joining in year, a senior member of the team will meet with families to offer an official welcome. This will provide the opportunity to discuss your child and answer any questions you may have. We will also send you a link to our admission form where you can note down lots of useful information about your child.
We have produced the following documents containing information for families of children joining Year 1-6:
Tours
If you haven't already visited, please do get in touch to arrange a personalised tour with a member of our senior leadership team. We strongly encourage families to visit our school before applying for a place for their child. Please contact the school office to arrange a visit:
Telephone: 01235 762861
Email: officech@charlton.vale-academy.org
Parent Partnerships – how can you get involved?
At Charlton, we recognise the importance and value of parental involvement in the life of the school. We believe that education is a collaborative enterprise involving families, staff and children. There are many ways that you can play an active role:
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- Keep up to date with our regular whole school letters and comprehensive termly newsletter by downloading the School Jotter App
- Attend our Discussion Evenings
- Join our Welcome Meetings in the autumn term; these meetings are designed for parents/carers to meet teacher ahead of the new academic year, and to learn about the year ahead
- Join our Open Classroom events
- Become a volunteer (here)
- Join fantastic PTA (here)
- Take part in parent surveys to share your views
- Join the Local Governing Body (here)
Term Dates
https://charltonprimary.ovw10.devwebsite.co.uk/term-dates
Uniform
At Charlton, our values, be happy, be kind, be responsible, underpin all that we do. We want all members of our community to feel welcome and to enjoy a sense of belonging. Our values play a crucial part in achieving this. Uniform also plays a vital part in creating a sense of belonging and a sense of pride in belonging to our Charlton community. In addition, wearing a uniform, which is practical and distinctive further focused learning is enabled; thus, avoiding children being distracted in class by their own clothing choices or those of others. Having a uniform is an important in making children feel equal to one another in terms of appearance, engendering a sense of equality.
THE SCHOOL JOTTER MOBILE APP
Keep up to date with the latest school news and events, all through your smartphone or tablet.
Why you need the School Jotter app:
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Keep up to date: find out about events currently taking place
- Save time: Reduces duplication of time and resources
- Important information: Never miss an important school event, discussion evening or open event again, with the school’s calendar.
The App is available to all parents for FREE on the iOS and Google Play stores, and will allow parents/carers to receive notifications of the latest updates - including events, trips, updates and newsletters.
Lunches
Edwards and Ward provide hot school meals to our pupils every day. These are cooked on site by our wonderful catering team.
School lunches are prepared to very strict guidelines to ensure that they meet nutritional standards. If your child has any identified allergies and requires a special diet, please let the school know and complete the form below:
https://edwardsandward.co.uk/registration-form/
All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to a free school meal each day. Lunch menus will be sent out a term in advance so parents and children can make choices and then send these into the office.
Mid-morning snacks
All our children in Reception, Years 1 and 2 also receive a free piece of fruit or vegetable every day through the School Fruit and Vegetables Scheme (SFVS). Children in Acorns are encouraged to bring in a piece of fruit or vegetable to have as a mid-morning snack during their break time as these are not provided under the scheme.
We would encourage families to pack a similar snack (fruit, vegetable or a dairy snack e.g. yogurt) for children in Years 3-6. This mid-morning snack is highly beneficial to their concentration in lessons. We do discourage crisps and chocolate bars as snacks.
We encourage all children to bring a water bottle (water only please), which is labelled with their name.
Please follow the links below for further information: