Policies

Our school has many policies.  Here are the ones that we think you would find the most useful.  If there are others that you would like to read, please enquire at the office (there may be a charge for photocopying).  Find out about our policies.

Prospectus

The official prospectus is downloadable here or alternatively the key information is available on the pages here.

Calendar, Diary and Term Dates

The official dates are published by Wiltshire County Council.

Newsletters

These are published fortnightly, on a Thursday.

They will be added to the website under news if you need another look.

Letters

Letters sent home to parents can be found in the archive.

Fitzmaurice School Association (FSA)

We are a group of very friendly parents and teachers working together to raise funds for the school to spend on those ‘icing on the cake’ things whilst having a lot of fun at the same time. Alternatively called the ‘Parent Teachers Association (PTA), all parents/carers of children at Fitzmaurice are automatically members of this group and therefore always warmly invited to attend any committee meeting (dates found in the Newsletter) which are held locally in a Public House!

The FSA has traditionally raised about £8000 per year for the school by putting on lots of exciting events that many of us and the wider community can enjoy. These include school discos for the children and adults; the tri-schools’ fireworks in the Beehive field; an amazing synthetic ice-skating extravaganza held on the playground a week before Christmas; a grown-ups’ Pop Quiz night; the Fitz Factor talent show held in St Margaret’s hall; the fabulous annual Strawberry Fair as well as organising our own Christmas cards, tea-towels and helping at other school events.

All the funds that are raised during the academic year are spent wisely by the school. Our children have enjoyed Christmas parties; lots of purchases for individual classrooms; a fun packed ‘Eco schools week’ including various trips to recycling centres; additional staging for the school hall; expansion of the school grounds equipment; and a whole school fully paid trip to the pantomime in Bath.

We always welcome new faces and new ideas so do come along to our relaxed informal meetings (it’s also a good way to meet new people). You don’t have to commit yourself to anything you don’t want to do and you don’t need to come to every meeting. Please read the latest Newsletter to find the date of the next meeting or contact Melanie Pike or Julia Savage via the school office. Many thanks.

Mel Pike, Chair of FSA, Sept. 2009

Absences

We keep detailed absence records as we have to submit them to the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) .  If your child is ill, please telephone the school as soon as you know that s/he is not going to be able to attend school, and continue to phone in on each day of absence.  If your child has been sick, s/he must be kept at home for 48 hours after the vomiting has stopped in order to reduce the risk of spreading infection.

Latest government guidelines on holiday absence in term time are such that only in very exceptional circumstances will requests for holidays (a maximum of 10 days) during term time be authorised (“exceptional circumstances” do not include for financial reasons).  Requests for leave of absence should be made on the application forms available on the carousel in the main entrance.  If you exceed 10 days’ unauthorised absence the Local Authority may issue a penalty notice, resulting in a fine.

Parking

Fitzmaurice, like many schools, was built in an era when cars were only just being developed, consequently its access and parking were not designed for many vehicles.  In addition, being a “healthy” school, we want to discourage children coming to school by car.  Our car park, which is shared with Tiddlywinks Nursery and Bradford on Avon’s Children’s Centre, only has parking spaces for our staff and a very limited number of visitors.  It cannot therefore be available to parents.  We do, however, permit dropping off and picking up for 10 minutes at either end of the school day, provided that you literally drive in, drop off or pick up your child and drive out again without obstructing any other vehicles.  If you need to park, we have an arrangement with the owners of the car park at the end of Bailey’s Barn (a three minute walk away) whereby you may park there for 15  minutes either side of the start and end of the school day free of charge.  If everyone adheres to this things run reasonably smoothly.  The alternative is that we have to close the gates to everyone except staff and visitors.

The car park has been designed to improve the safety of your children, so please walk round on the building side of the fence, not through the car park