Ash Grange Nursery and Primary School Parent Portal

Message from Headteacher

Dear Parents and Carers,

What a wonderful September we have had at Ash Grange. The children have settled brilliantly and made the most of every learning opportunity available to them.

I am absolutely delighted to share that more than 180 children achieved 100% attendance throughout September. Thank you for your support in ensuring children attend school regularly and are able to benefit from every learning day. Attendance really does make a difference, and we are incredibly grateful for the commitment shown by our families.

Open Days and Our Wonderful Year 6 Ambassadors

This week we held our first Open Day of the year. I would like to extend a huge thank you and congratulations to our Year 6 children, who did a spectacular job showing prospective families around the school.

Visitors were incredibly impressed by their confidence, knowledge of the school and warm interactions with both adults and younger children. They were outstanding ambassadors for Ash Grange and are a credit to themselves, their families and our school community.

We have several more Open Days planned over the coming months and I know they will continue to represent us brilliantly.

Funzone Update

A few weeks ago, we shared a survey regarding our late Funzone sessions. As we explained at the time, some of these sessions were very rarely being used.

Since then, we have continued to monitor attendance and found that the Friday 4.30pm to 6.00pm session is consistently underused, typically serving only one or two children and only reaching three children on a single occasion this term.

As a result, we will be removing the Friday 4.30pm to 6.00pm Funzone session from our offer after today.

Our aim is always to provide services that meet the needs of families while making the best use of staffing and resources.

Exploring a New Wraparound Care Option

You will also have received a survey today asking whether families would value an additional wraparound care session from 3.15pm to 5.00pm.

This session would sit between the current 4.30pm collection and the full evening provision. It would not include a meal and, therefore, would be available at a lower cost than the 6.00pm finish option.

This idea has come directly from conversations with parents, and we are exploring whether it would provide a useful and affordable childcare solution for families who need just a little extra time at the end of the school day.

Breakfast Club Trial

Continuing with our efforts to support families while being mindful of the cost of living, we recently asked parents whether they would be interested in a Breakfast Club.

We were delighted that around 35 families expressed an interest, and we are therefore going to run a trial during the final week before half-term.

Starting on Monday 12th October, children will be able to attend a Breakfast Club between 8.20am and 8.45am in the school hall. They will be offered cereal, toast or a combination of both in a relaxed and social environment, supervised by school staff.

Bookings will be made in the same way as school meals and Fun Zone through the ScoPay platform by Wednesday 7th October.

We are excited to see how this develops and hope it may provide another valuable service for our families.

Trialling a New Year 5 and 6 Drop-and-Go System

As many of you know, parking and traffic around the school continue to create significant challenges for both families and our local community.

To help ease congestion, we are going to trial a new Drop-and-Go system for Year 5 and Year 6 pupils, beginning on Monday 12th October.

Under this arrangement, parents will continue to bring their children to school as normal. However, once children have entered the school grounds and made their way onto the front playground, parents may leave rather than waiting until the bell rings.

I would like to stress that this is not permission for children to travel to school unsupervised. Parents remain responsible for ensuring their child arrives safely on the school premises.

This trial is being considered because our Year 5 and Year 6 pupils consistently demonstrate maturity and appropriate behaviour on the playground. Staff will be present on site, but children will be expected to behave sensibly and safely during this period.

We hope that, alongside the Breakfast Club, this initiative may help reduce traffic and ease pressure on local roads during the busiest part of the morning.

Looking Ahead: Community Swimming

Next week I will be sharing a proposal regarding the possibility of opening our swimming pool after school and at weekends for family use.

For this to be successful, it would require support from parents and community volunteers, as staff are not available to cover all possible sessions. Nevertheless, I am keen to explore whether there is sufficient interest within our school community.

Please keep an eye out for further information.

Your Ideas Matter

One of the things I love most about Ash Grange is the willingness of parents to share ideas and suggestions.

In fact, the proposal for the new 5.00pm wraparound care session came directly from a parent. Fresh perspectives are invaluable and often help us identify solutions we may not otherwise have considered.

Whether you are new to the school or have been part of our community for many years, please continue to share your thoughts and ideas. Together, we can continue to improve the experience for all of our families.

Reception and Nursery Success

I would also like to take this opportunity to say how wonderfully our Reception and Nursery children have settled into school life.

It has been a real joy to see their confidence grow already and to watch them embracing new routines, friendships and learning opportunities. We are very proud of them.

Scooter and Bike Club

Finally, I am delighted by the success of our Wheels Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

To support this initiative and encourage even more active travel, we have purchased additional bike racks and scooter parking facilities. These will be installed shortly and will help us continue promoting healthy, environmentally friendly travel throughout the year.

Thank You

Thank you, as always, for your continued support, encouragement and partnership. Working together enables us to provide the very best opportunities for our children, and I am incredibly grateful for the positive and supportive community that we continue to build together.

Mrs Curtis

Attendance

As we welcome both new and returning families to the new academic year, we would like to remind parents and carers of the importance of regular school attendance and the procedures for reporting absences.

A Leave of Absence Form must be completed online for all medical and dental appointments. For any other circumstances, please complete the form at least two weeks before the requested date. Additionally, please provide evidence to support your request. Forms should be submitted in advance, not on the day of the appointment.

Where possible, we kindly ask that appointments be scheduled outside of school hours to minimise disruption to learning.

Please refer to our Attendance Guide for Parents on our website under 'Attendance 2026-27'. This is a termly reminder to ensure all parents/carers have the most up-to-date attendance information.

Attendance Information:

If you take your child out of school without the approval of the school, you will be liable to receive a penalty notice per parent/carer and the following will apply:

1. If you have not incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/these children since 19 August 2024, then the penalty notice will be charged at the rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. This will be reduced to £80.00 if paid within 21 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.

2. If you have incurred a penalty notice relating to this child/ these children since 19 August 2024, the rolling 3 year period will be activated from the date of the first penalty notice and the second penalty notice will be charged at the flat rate of £160.00, per parent/carer per child, if paid within 28 days. There will be no reduction for payment within 21 days. Failure to pay the Penalty Notice will result in Surrey County Council considering legal proceedings against you in the Magistrates Court.

3. If you have incurred 2 penalty notices relating to this child/ these children in the rolling 3 year period since the first penalty notice was issued, then you will NOT receive a third penalty notice – Surrey County Council will have no option but to consider a prosecution, per parent/carer per child, in the Magistrates Court under s 444 Education Act 1996.

All guidance explained here refers to the School’s Attendance Policy on our website, which was developed in response to UK Government Law and the statutory attendance guidance — Working together to improve school attendance—from August 2024.