Children
The Meadows is a place where you can feed your imagination and grow through a range of enrichment and social activities as well as the curriculum and lessons. Have a look at our extra-curricular timetables and come and see for yourself.
• Timetable for term 3 (2023) updated (Pdf)
Many of our clubs are run by teachers and volunteers and are free of charge. The highlighted clubs are run by external companies. Please contact them directly for more information.
Letters will be sent out about clubs, and can also be requested from the office. A register is taken for each club at each session. If your child has attended school and then does not attend a club for which they are registered we have a statutory responsibility to ensure that they are safe.
We would therefore be most grateful if you could advise the office if your child will not be attending a club on a particular day.
Many thanks for your assistance.
Welcome to Zest childcare
For more information please see the Zest childcare wrap around welcome pack (Pdf)
If you would like more information please contact us: zestchildcare@themeadowsprimaryschool.org.uk
FAQs, terms and conditions
View our childcare provision FAQs and booking terms and conditions (Pdf).
We are pleased to be able to share information with parents and carers about Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA).
What is ELSA?
There will always be children and young people in schools facing life challenges that detract from their ability to engage with learning. Some will require greater support to increase their emotional literacy than others. ELSA is an initiative developed and supported by educational psychologists. It recognises that children learn better and are happier in school if their emotional needs are also addressed.
We are lucky enough to have a qualified Emotional Literacy Support Assistant at The Meadows Primary School. They have been trained by Educational Psychologists to plan and deliver programmes of support to pupils who are experiencing temporary or longer term additional emotional needs. The ELSA work is delivered on an individual basis and in small groups.
Sessions are fun and positive, we use a range of activities such as: games, role-play, drawing and circle time. ELSA sessions take place in our very own 'ELSA room' which provides a calm, safe space for the child to feel supported and nurtured.
In ELSA we aim to provide support for a wide range of emotional needs:
• Recognising emotions
• Self-esteem
• Social skills
• Expressing feelings
• Friendship and social skills
• Anger management
• Loss and bereavement
• Coping skills and strategies
How does ELSA work?
Children are usually referred for ELSA support by their class teacher, Senior Leaders or on occasion the SENCo. The ELSA assistant will plan and support pupils in developing new skills and coping strategies. These allow them to manage social and emotional demands more effectively. They carry out follow up sessions with the child to see how their emotional well-being is.
Supporting - not fixing
Remember, ELSAs are not there to fix children's problems. What we can do is provide emotional support. We aim to establish a warm, respectful relationship with a pupil and to provide a reflective space where they are able to share honestly their thoughts and feelings.
It needs to be appreciated that change cannot necessarily be achieved rapidly and is dependent upon the context and complexity of the presenting issues. For children with complex or long-term needs it is unrealistic to expect ELSA intervention to resolve all their difficulties, however support will be designed to target specific aspects of a child's need. Training and development of ELSAs is an ongoing process and wisdom is required to recognise when issues are beyond the level of expertise that could reasonably be expected of an ELSA. The Educational Psychologist that works with our school would be able to offer advice on suitability or nature of ELSA involvement in complex cases.
The ELSA model developed in Leicestershire
ELSAs are Learning Support Assistants who receive six days of additional training from educational psychologists on aspects of emotional literacy including emotional awareness, self-esteem, anger management, social and friendship skills, social communication difficulties, loss, bereavement and family break-up. ELSAs receive supervision from educational psychologists. Our school may also ask an educational psychologist working with their school to advise the ELSA on how to support a pupil for whom there is particular concern.
More information
Online safety newsletter: April 2024 (Pdf)
Parent Online Safety February 2024 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety January 2024 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety December 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety November 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety October 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety September 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety April 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety January 2023 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety December 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety November 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety October 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety September 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety July 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety June 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety May 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety April 2022 Newsletter
Parent Online Safety March 2022 Newsletter
Online safety is extremely important. The school’s internet service is tailored for use by primary school children and provides a secure and safe network.
We ask our children to sign their Acceptable Use Agreement. This is designed to encourage behaviour that will help them stay safe online and become responsible users of IT. We ask parents to go through these agreements with their children, as we believe it is very important for school and parents to be working together on this issue.
You can see the acceptable use agreements for each age group:
• Early Years: acceptable use aggreement (Pdf)
• Key Stage 1: acceptable use agreement (Pdf)
• Key Stage 2: acceptable use agreement (Pdf)
Please also see our online safety policy.
Protecting children on social networks
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/ This an up-to-date guide from O2 and the NSPCC to the most popular social networks used by children. It includes minimum age requirements and reviews of suitability for children and young people. This document shows minimum age requirements for a selection of the social media apps that your children may be asking to use. For example, the minimum age for Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok, Kik, Facebook and Twitter is 13.
For more information on keeping your child safe on Tik Tok, please see this helpful factsheet.
Net Aware Guidance to Parents Regarding Conferencing Apps
The following link provides valuable information for parents regarding their child using conferencing apps for remote learning. The link covers the most popular conferencing apps, including MS Teams, and may be helpful to share with parents:
https://www.net-aware.org.uk/news/keeping-kids-safe-on-conferencing-apps/
Advice on games and parental controls
PEGI age ratings are used to ensure that entertainment content, including games, films, tv shows and mobile apps, is clearly labelled with a minimum age recommendation based on the content they have. These age ratings provide guidance to consumers, parents in particular, to help them decide whether or not to buy a particular product for a child. This link explains what age ratings for games really mean: pegi.info/what-do-the-labels-mean Please also see a useful document here for parents about the gaming that primary school-aged children are likely to be doing.
The company National Online Safety has published a series of platform guides aimed at parents and schools that advise how to deal with most of the popular social media and gaming platforms that children are using, such as Fortnite, Fifa and Clash of Clans. You can see the resources on their website or follow them on Twitter.
It is important that any device your child has access to, has parental controls set up. Children are naturally curious and may end up searching for something without your knowledge, and viewing something that upsets them. The NSPCC guide tells you how to set up controls on the most commonly used devices and on search engines.
There is also this usefu guide
Cyberbullying advice
From the Department for Education, advice for parents and carers on dealing with cyberbullying.
Useful links
www.childnet.com/parents-and-carers is full of award-winning and user-friendly resources for use with and without your children.
Digital five-a-day from the Children's Commissioner: easy to follow, practical steps for children and parents to achieve a healthy and balanced digital diet
www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents is the site run by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre, part of the police. Again, this is full of engaging and accessible material.
www.getsafeonline.org is a very practical site that aims to provide computer users and small businesses with free, independent user-friendly advice that will allow them to use the internet confidently, safely and securely.
www.digizen.org is run by Childnet to provide information about using social network sites and social media sites creatively and safely, with advice on preventing and responding to cyberbullying.
The NSPCC website contains general advice for parents and younger children on online grooming (and more): https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect/ contains information on grooming and online abuse, and suggests ways of discussing these matters with your child in an age-appropriate way.
There are thousands of useful websites to help support your learning at home.
For websites specific to your class that your teacher recommends, please visit your class page.
Other helpful pages:
- BBC KS1 (age 5-7) Bitesize subjects
- BBC KS2 (age 7-11) Bitesize subjects
- Primary games - a range of great games for all ages