Parents & PTA

Fundraise for Free

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for Christ Church CE Primary School – Shrewsbury with easyfundraising?

There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.

All you need to do is:

1. Go to Easy Fundraising and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to Christ Church CE Primary School – Shrewsbury at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and Christ Church CE Primary School – Shrewsbury will be really grateful for your donations.

Thank you for your support.

NSPCC Support

PTA helping with refreshments at Sports Day

Parents

Summer and Autumn Term 2023 – Parent Consultation

We are currently consulting with our parents on a Governing Body proposal that we should join a Multi-Academy Trust to ensure that our school continues to help children grow and flourish, both now and in the years ahead.  Please read:

Consultation Letter for Parents June 23 

Frequently Asked Questions for Parents about joining a MAT

We welcome parental involvement in school life.  You know your child best and we want to form strong home-school partnerships with all our families.

At the start of a child’s school career we visit you at home so that you can tell us anything you want us to know about your child.  There will then be formal and informal opportunities to be involved.

In the Autumn and Spring term we have parents’ evenings for a more formal chat about your child’s well-being and progress in School.  In the Summer term we send home a written report about their progress and attainment over the year and there is then an opportunity to meet with your child’s class teacher if you would like to find out more and look at their work, as we hold an open afternoon.

Each year we are committed to providing information for parents on an aspect of the School curriculum or on Safeguarding.  For example, sharing information about keeping children safe Shropshire Child Exploitation – Leaflet for Parents Carers (from May 2022). In October 2022 we held a session for parents jointly with NSPCC on Online Harm – something parents are very concerned about.  We gave out handouts: NSPCC_OnlineSafetyWorkshop_ResourceSheet and NSPCC_OnlineSafetyWorkshop_Factsheet .

We also give parents support with understanding our curriculum – on this website you will find lots of information about our curriculum coverage, schemes of work and what you can do as a parent to support learning.  We send home termly or half termly curriculum grids which you will also find on the class pages of the website.  We also hold face to face meetings.  In September 2022 we held a meeting for new parents about how we teach children to read using phonics.  In November 2022 we invited parents to a maths workshop, so they could understand our curriculum and support children’s learning better at home.   You can find more about supporting your child’s learning in maths on our dedicated maths page of the website or use these helpful videos https://whiterosemaths.com/maths-with-michael#watch 

In previous years we have also held an information evening on e-safety and how to keep your child safe whilst they are using the internet, apps and games.  You can read through the powerpoint we used here Parenting-in-the-digital-world-presentation for parents  and link to the film clips used/recommended here Film Clips used in E-Safety training   

We have parental consultation opportunities regularly.  For example, we have asked parents about visits and how they felt about cost, contribution to the curriculum and pupil engagement.  We regularly share our PSHE (Personal, Social & Health Education) curriculum with parents and provide opportunities to look through our RSE (Relationships and Sex Education) curriculum, so that parents are co-creators of this important curriculum area.  During 2019-20 and 2020-21 we telephoned and emailed parents regularly as part of Covid restriction support and also emailed out surveys to get your views on the type of remote learning that supported your child.

Every Spring term we do a written survey with all our families and ask them about aspects of school life.  You can see what they thought here Parents’ Survey 2023

Click How-to-Help-Children – questions parents can ask for some great questions and tips about how to ask your child about their school day and help them to reflect on their learning.  If you are worried about your child’s emotional and mental well-being – then please do chat to us.  The NHS has an excellent support page for parents at https://thismayhelp.me/ where parents can find out information about:

  • Children’s mental health
  • Online activity and gaming
  • Self harm
  • Eating disorders
  • Teenager safety
  • Eating Disorders

You may also find some useful resources in this toolkit: https://citymha.org.uk/Resources/Parents-Toolkit

Acorn Class Reception parents and prospective parents are welcome to come in for weekly Stay & Play sessions – ring the Office for details of these or ask Mrs Martin.  There are also other opportunities which are advertised in the newsletter such as parents’ lunches, open mornings to see children at work and coming to support sports teams when they play sporting fixtures.  We also take care to communicate well with pictures and news of what is happening in school via our weekly emailed newsletter and our social media channels.

Informally, we seek to be a friendly, welcoming school where parents can always speak to someone if they have a concern or something their child has done which they would like us to celebrate!  We love hearing about out-of-school achievements.  The Headteacher is at the Main Entrance every morning welcoming children and families and is available for a quick chat.  Class teachers are available again at the end of the day by the Main Entrance.

On Fridays we invite parents of our celebration leaf and star learner awards to come and join us from 9.05 to 9.30am where they will be able to see their child celebrated in front of the whole school.  If a parent is unable to attend, then grandparents are welcome.  Teachers email award winners on Wednesday after school to let them know.

We aim to see parents who need to talk to us urgently, the same day, but hope that you appreciate that as a school with a Teaching Head, it is not always possible to see the Headteacher that day and you may be asked to come in for a before or after school meeting instead or make a mutually convenient time later in the week.

PTA

The PTA are our wider school community who work together to enrich our children’s lives.  If your child comes to Christ Church CE Primary then you are part of the PTA, together with teachers and other friends of the school.  The PTA is a properly constituted Parent Teacher Association with a committee led by a Chair, with a Secretary and Treasurer who prepare accounts and minutes of meetings.  Anyone is welcome to come to committee meetings and they are advertised on the weekly newsletter.

The PTA do two linked and very important jobs.  Firstly they organise community building events which are great fun and help children and families to get to know each other and develop links and friendships.  Having a family-like feel is part of what makes us special and so we value the fun and laughter of our fayres, discos and social events.  Secondly they raise funds to enable us to buy important resources for children’s learning.  In these times of straightened budgets this role has been essential.  In the past, among many other contributions the PTA have bought 6 iPads, the Inspire Maths Scheme and resources for Science.  We would not have been able to buy these items out of our normal school budget.  But with the help of the PTA, our children are not missing out on curriculum developments which are easier for larger schools to afford.