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The ‘House’ System
Our house system was introduced by the Pointer sisters over 60 years ago. Your child will belong to one of these houses and will be awarded house points and/or badges for considerate behaviour, politeness, hard work, etc. Competitions and events such as Sports Day are often organised with the house system in mind. For example, the House Cup is awarded at the end of every term to the team with the highest total. House points and merit badges are awarded on a daily basis. Furthermore, we have a Head Boy, Head Girl, four House Captains, four Prefects, and in each class, a Form Captain. When a pupil accumulates 50 house points he/she will be sent to the Headmaster to receive a certificate of merit and a present from the ‘treasure box’. We have found this sort of approach which tangibly rewards good efforts and/or achievement elicits a very positive response from all children.
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Badges and Awards
Should your child become a Prefect, Head Boy/Girl or Head of House, he/she will be given a badge to denote this. Badges and awards are also given for success in our many different extracurricular activities (e.g. chess, music, etc). These are given after consultation with the appropriate members of staff including the Headmaster as an honour and something to be worn with pride. Button badges denoting house colour are also available to all children. We ask that all children wear these badges to school as it helps us to identify quickly the house to which the child belongs.
Should your child win a school cup (for excellence in some area of school life) at the end of the Summer Term, it will be subsequently engraved with your child’s name and kept on permanent display in the school. It would be very much appreciated if this could be returned at the beginning of the Autumn Term. We like to display all cups and shields in the front corridor.
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Arrivals
The school day begins at 8.45am (Years 1-6), [or 9.00am for Nursery and Reception], although we begin our Breakfast Club at 8.00am (This is located at 19 Stratheden Road). If your child does not attend this early facility, he/she should be brought to the school between 8.30 and 8.45am when there will be a member of staff on duty in the front and back playground. Your child should not enter the school grounds before 8.30am as this is when our playground supervisor begins her duty. Children should not in any event arrive before 8.30am unless in the Breakfast Club. If there are unavoidable reasons for bringing your child before 8.30am, it is on the understanding that you will supervise your own child until the school’s supervisor arrives at 8.30am. Children should not enter the classrooms until the bell is rung at 8.45am (unless it is raining).
Parents are kindly asked to say their goodbyes in the front playground (at both sites) and not to accompany their children into the school buildings, the rear playground and most especially, the classrooms.
At 37 Shooters Hill Road (the Nursery & Reception site) the school day begins at 9.00am for Nursery and Reception children. Children can start to arrive in the front playground from 8.45am, when staff will be on duty to supervise children. If parents need to leave at any point before 9.00am, they are able to do so as long as they inform a member of staff and hand the child over to that staff member. Children should not enter the classrooms before the bell is rung at 9.00am (unless it is raining). At 9.00am the bell will go and children line up in front of their teacher, who will then lead them into their class. The school day ends 3.15 for Reception and Nursery, unless your child in the Nursery is attending a morning session which ends at 11.45am. Parents with children in Reception wait in the front playground for the teacher to dismiss them. Children are only dismissed when a parent or approved carer is present. Parents with children in the Nursery wait outside the Nursery entrance to collect their child.
Parents are invited to attend their child’s class assemblies, twice a year, though on a limited basis as space is at a premium. These assemblies combine song, drama, prayer and a story (usually, but not always, from the Bible). They are always enjoyable times when the whole school comes together perhaps to sing ‘Happy Birthday’, or to hear someone discuss their growing guinea-pig or read out
a poem or story of which they are particularly proud. Whole class assemblies also occur once a week and usually reflect some aspect of class work.
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Departures
After school, Nursery and Reception teachers will dismiss their pupils at 3.15pm, from the front playground, from where they should be promptly collected. Year 1 & 2 pupils are dismissed at 3.30pm from the front door. Older children (Year 3 up) will leave at 3.45pm by the front entrance (unless staying for Extracurricular Clubs or Homework Club) and only when they know that their parent or guardian is waiting there. The school should always be notified (before the event) if your child is to be collected by taxi or an adult unknown to them and/or us.
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Timing/Punctuality
With so many children, parents and staff on site, Parents will appreciate the need for good order and respect for ‘necessary’ school rules. One aspect that will greatly facilitate the ‘good order’ and efficiency of the school is punctuality in the bringing of your child to school and his/her subsequent collection – if the correct time frames are adhered to, the smooth and orderly running of the school can be maintained.
The school policy on ‘late collection’ is that there is a 15-minute period of grace regarding collection for those who finish at:
- 3.15pm (Nursery & Reception)
- 3.30pm (Years 1 & 2)
- 3.45pm (Years 3, 4, 5 & 6)
For example, a Year 3 child who is not collected at 3.45 p.m. will go to the Afternoon Club (for up to quarter of an hour) where there will be no charge until 4.00 p.m. After this time has passed, the parent/guardian will be charged, as if the child had been there for 1 hour (i.e. £5.00). (The Afternoon Club Supervisor will always be the final arbiter in a dispute over the precise time of collection.) We have clocks in the school which are radio-controlled and therefore highly accurate.
Children who stay for Extra-Curricular clubs should also be collected at the correct time, which is most usually 4.30 p.m. Some clubs, however, do finish at later times. The staff who manage please delete these words our extensive Extra-Curricular programme are always grateful for the punctual collection of children. Nevertheless, if a child is not collected within 10 minutes of a club ending, he/she will be taken to the Afternoon Club, where a charge will be made. In these cases of unplanned attendance at the Afternoon Club, charges will be based upon £5.00 for every hour (or part thereof)
in attendance. Parents should carefully note that the Afternoon Club finishes at 6.00 p.m., when all children must be collected. Any child left uncollected after 6.00pm will be charged £10.00 for every quarter of an hour.
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Security
The pedestrian gate is supervised by a member of staff from 8.30am otherwise access is by intercom and/or a coded number. If your child is brought to school within the correct time frames, he or she will always be supervised. We have a very high level of security awareness, and so arrivals and departures are carefully attended to. The side gate main entrance at 19 Stratheden Road is locked at 9.05am and entry is by the telephone/intercom system. All callers will be asked to identify themselves and state their purpose. The side gate is only unlocked again when classes depart. The main double gate is always locked opening only for deliveries. At 37 Shooters
Hill Road entrance to the Playground is by intercom only.
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Swimming
All children from Year 1 to Year 6 are transported by private coach to the Arches Swimming Pool in Greenwich. Year 1 children will swim once weekly for one term, which may be on differing days. Years 2,3,4,5,6 currently swim on Fridays. Classes leave the school from 1.30pm and return by 3.30pm. Parents must provide their children with the regulation swim-wear. See School Uniform list (sports kit). Year 1 and 2 children may come to school wearing their Swimming/P.E. kits on Swimming Day.
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Games
All parents should note that every week all the children from Year 1 to Year 6 at Pointers enjoy badminton, basketball/netball football, gymnastics & dance at the Waterfront Leisure Centre, Woolwich an all-weather facility – a coach is used for transportation. In the summer term we take advantage of the good weather and play a variety of games (tennis,cricket, football and rounders, and athletics for sports day) on the nearby Heath itself.
Please note that children in Year 1 through to Year 6 should come to
school wearing their P.E. kits (on their scheduled day) as this will be very helpful to all concerned.
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Absences
Parents should undertake to keep their children in full attendance throughout the academic year. However, they should inform the school with as much notice as is possible if they intend to remove their child temporarily from the school during term time (e.g. for holidays and other unavoidable absences). If a child is absent because of sickness, he or she should always bring an explanatory note on his or her return. Similarly if your child cannot swim or play games, he or she should bring an explanatory note to the Class Teacher.
NB - Parents should remember to contact the school with details of any change of address and/or telephone numbers (emergency contact numbers should always be updated).
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Parking
It is a condition of entry that parents do not park their cars in Langton way to the rear of the school or on the yellow ‘keep clear’ markings to the front of the school. It is imperative for many good reasons that the school maintains good relations with its immediate neighbours.
Langton Way is subject to a public right of way, and is therefore not gated and closed, but it is only the residents who have the legal
right to stop and park. (Langton Way is a private “unadopted” road). Therefore all parents should note carefully the following conditions of entry,
- Parents of all children attending the school will be required to
sign an undertaking not to park in or block Langton Way (see accompanying map for proscribed areas) however briefly. Infringements of this rule will be taken up by the Headmaster personally, and may also result in the offending car being clamped.
- The school does employ a Parking Patroller, who will be on duty a.m. and p.m. He/she will ensure that the above requirement is adhered to.
- The school is implementing a traffic management plan (copy available from the school office, but must not be removed).
This encourages all parents to seriously consider walking or cycling to the school. This would be most helpful to not only the parents/children involved, but also the school’s good reputation
in this heavily populated region.
Parents please note that Stratheden Road is a very busy road and therefore much care should be exercised when dropping off or collecting your child. Please never leave your engine running and always park on the opposite side of the road facing the School, i.e. not on the nearside, where the yellow markings are. Stratheden Road can quickly be reduced to a single lane should parents park on both sides. This restricts emergency vehicles; they frequently use this road. It is therefore a further condition of entry that no parent/guardian parks in the area as described above.
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Ethos
All parents should be aware that the Pointer School maintains a vibrant Christian witness in as much as Christianity is taught and celebrated. The Pointer School nevertheless, also endeavours to introduce awareness (i.e. knowledge) of the other major world faiths. This we believe encourages tolerance and mutual respect.
The majority of the weekly class assemblies will deal with reviews of class work by means of song, dance, drama and music. Many of our assemblies will also examine issues that concern us all.
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Food
Pointers is very keen to promote its no-junk food/organic food policies. All food is prepared on the premises and by very experienced cooks using, in the main, ‘organic’ produce. All our meat, dairy products, fruit, vegetables and bread are organic at source.
The cooks do occasionally use items that have proved impossible to find from organic sources. Parents are required to provide their child with a fruit snack and a bottle of water for mid-morning break (not fruit bars, granola bars, sweets, chocolates or ‘fruit’ based energy sticks; water should be water not the sugared varieties) If your child stays for the Breakfast Club or Afternoon Club, he/she will be amply provided with a healthy selection of ‘organic’ cereals, sandwiches and fruit. Parents should not, therefore, provide their child on these occasions with any other kind of additional snack (as mentioned above), as this will undermine the schools ‘healthy food’ policy and can cause friction with other children and parents.
If your child stays for an Extra Curricular Club which returns later than usual they are given a sandwich by the school before they leave.
The very pleasant and relaxed atmosphere at Pointers is the result of many factors but there could also be a link to the dietary intake of its pupils.
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Cleaning
Parents will also be pleased to note that cleaning (including hand washing) at the Pointer School is largely done by the use of organic non-chemical agents. We use the Belgian company ‘Ecover’, a company which has very much impressed us with not only its range of products but also by its use of natural, non-toxic, child friendly cleansing substances.
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Holiday Club
Holiday clubs are arranged by the school during every holiday (including half terms and Christmas). These are exciting and well managed with fun organised programmes for school hoildays. Please contact the holiday club co-ordinators via the school office on 020 8293 1331.
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