Your feedback

As a parent myself, I really value the opinions and concerns of Danegrove parents. I hope that together we will take the school forward and make Danegrove the best it can be. Deborah Metcalf - Headteacher

There are various ways that you can give feedback to the school.

You can speak directly to the class teacher about any concerns relating to your child. Teachers are in the playground at the end of the school day.
Office staff are always on duty in the foyer at the start and end of the school day to answer questions.
Mrs Stevens our learning mentor is available if you need to speak to her informally
The Senior Management team are in the playground at the start of each school day if you want to speak to one of us informally; we also stand at the Windsor Drive gates at 3.30pm to be available to parents and carers.
Governors hold termly parent coffee mornings for parents to listen to feedback, ideas and questions.
You can contact governors by e-mail on office@danegrove.barnetmail.net
Parent governors tend to be in the playground for informal chats at the start and end of the school day.
We run tours of the school for existing parents in the Spring term to come and look around the school and give us feedback
We do an annual parent questionnaire to find out parent views

You can contact the school office on - office@danegrove.barnetmail.net
You can contact the Headteacher on - head@danegrove.barnetmail.net

Please put the school dinner menu on the school website

The school lunch menu is on our website. There is a three week menu that you can see. We also aim to put up the lunch menu in the foyer so that parents can see it there when you are in school. Occasionally the menu does have changes to it because of stock delivery or special days such as Chinese New Year. Please do look regularly at the website as we update it almost daily and put up most letters that go home to parents. If you lose a letter you can download it from the website.

More detail about class content, activities and daily routine

We hold a ‘Meet the Teacher ‘session at the start of the school year and at this meeting we explain routines and activities. Every term a letter goes home to parents letting you know about what will be covered in the curriculum that term. Also, every term you can go on to the website and look under the year group heading and download a curriculum web that tells you what the children will be learning in each subject that term. You can also see photographs of class events and activities. The Danegrove Newsletter also informs you of special events that have happened. At the start of each term we now have a calender attached so that you can be very well informed of activities such as class assemblies, parent evening etc. We offer tours of the school and meetings so that parents can ask informal questions about anything they would like clarification.

Hold parent consultation evenings more often than once a term

Many primary schools hold only two parents’ evenings a year. At Danegrove we hold three – one each term. We have added to our meetings by giving parents any test materials that their children have done to help parents be more aware of what their children are doing and to support their children at home more if they want to. We also inform parents termly about what levels their children have attained so that they can see the progress being made. In addition to parent meetings, we have also added opportunities to come in at a separate time each term to sit in the classroom and look at the children’s work. These dates are well advertised in advance. We will send termly 'Snapshot Reports' this year.

Give more notice of things that need to be brought into school, trips, events etc

At the start of each term we now send home a date list so that you can be very well informed of activities such as class assemblies, parent evening etc. The calendar also has a list of dates for each half term in advance and the newsletter dates for the coming week. We always try to follow up letters with reminder text messages. Please make sure the school office has your mobile number and email address in order to make sure you receive all the messages corresponding to your child.

Please give more homework

Homework is always a point of discussion amongst parents and children. Just last week at a School Council meeting two children had opposite views about homework, one saying they wanted more, another saying they had too much. As a new Head, I have made many small but hopefully effective changes and I am not going to make a change to homework this academic year. However it is under review. If parents follow our homework policy, then there is quite a lot of homework to do. I would like to remind parents that as well as the weekly homework project, (which allows all abilities to access it at their own level, suits different kinds of learning styles, gives children opportunities to use our Learning Skills and features different subject areas each week) there is weekly spelling or mental maths sheets that can be done. In addition, children should be reading for half an hour every evening and also practising times tables. It is very important that the reading and times tables are done.

Swimming for more year groups

Swimming is part of the Curriculum along with other sports activities and it is up to each school how they manage it. As a school we do not ask parents to pay for this activity but pay for it out of the school budget. Each child at Danegrove is offered one year of free swimming lessons. Due to time, supervision and cost we are not able to offer swimming to more year groups.

Offer more class trips

Parental opinion is varied. Cost of trips is sometimes a problem. We have decided to arrange one trip which may incur costs due to coaches and entry fees and at least one, preferably 2, trips to local places of interest e.g. the park, village, places of worship and the like.

Address poor punctuality and attendance

Overall attendance figures for the school so far have been good. The highest attendance figures have been seen in KS2. We continue using Punctuality awards in assemblies and these are awarded to the classes with the best punctuality and attendance for the week. We award individual children who have had 100% attendance. I shall be writing to families around February Half Term (half way through the academic year) if we are concerned about their child’s absence. We use the Barnet Educational Welfare Officer service for families who have persistent problems. This service will actually take families to court over attendance problems if necessary. We constantly try to think of ways to improve attendance and punctuality.

More space at concerts and shows

We cannot create more space in our school hall but this year we have reorganised our Year 4 shows so that not so many children are participating in one show at once therefore meaning more parents can come. Unfortunately we still have to restrict the number parents t ensure that we comply with health and safety regulations.

We need more laptops / tablets
As a school we do not need more laptops at the moment. We have an adequate supply of laptops to meet our needs. We have a set of laptops for all the years to use. The teachers are very happy with this provision. We are very excited to tell you that we have purchased our first set of 50 ipads. These are 'booked' out by our classes at least once a week.

I hope that you have found the answers to these comments interesting and informative. As a Head I value your comments, concerns and suggestions as they are very useful to me as I reflect on how we can continue to improve as a school. We are not complacent as a school and continually try to think of how we can change things for the better.