Parents & Carers

School Lunch Menu

From September, school dinners are available at a cost of £3.40 a day per pupil. 

Wheldrake Menu Autumn 2024

School meals

 
We believe in providing our children with healthy, nourishing food because we think it’s important for their well-being. A good diet helps children be their best and perform well in everything they do. It’s especially important for their ability to focus, which affects how well they do in school.
 
We encourage all our children to have a school lunch because there are plenty of options to suit different tastes.
 
We’re happy to see our students bringing a variety of healthy packed lunches and snacks. We want to remind you that a good breakfast and a healthy snack during break time can really help your child’s learning in the morning. A balanced dinner also gives them energy for the afternoon until they go home or attend after-school activities.
 
We kindly request that you refrain from packing high-fat and high-sugar snacks in your child’s lunch. Additionally, we have students with nut allergies, so please be mindful of this when preparing snacks and meals for school. The EYFS and KS1 children receive fruit and vegetables every day, offered under the government initiative to provide all infants with free fruit and vegetables during the day.
 
As a precautionary measure, our school is a nut-free environment. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping all of our students safe.

 

Ordering a school lunch

 
Our school uses ParentPay’s Meal Manager for parents and carers to order their child’s school lunch. This system helps parents and carers see what their children are eating and manage any food allergies or special diets.
 
All parents, including those whose children bring packed lunches, need to log in to ParentPay. Then, they can choose to order a hot dinner or pack a lunch from home. 
 
ParentPay can be accessed here:
 
Dinners must be ordered on ParentPay by Thursday of the week before. After that, the option to order a meal will be turned off. Please contact the school office if you need to amend the order after booking has closed. You can order meals ahead for a whole term. Meals will need to be paid for at the time of booking. If your child is bringing a packed lunch from home, you should log in to book this.
 
If your child is in Reception, Year 1, or Year 2, they will get free school meals. But you still need to order the meals on the system. If your child qualifies for free school meals in other years, you also need to order the meals online, but you won’t need to pay.
 

For more information, on how to book your child’s meal, please visit: Payer guidance – How to make a meal or event booking – ParentPay Group

 
Free School Meals and Pupil Premium
Free school meals are also available to families who receive certain benefits; you can find out more and apply online via the City of York Council website. We would strongly encourage any families who feel they may meet the criteria and may be entitled to this support to apply – including if your child is entitled to a meal under the universal infant free school meal initiative – as your child’s school will benefit from additional funding known as the Pupil Premium. 
 
If you qualify for free school meals, your school can provide a meal for your child straight away. Schools can then include the number of children who qualify for free school meals in their Census Day information, which they do in October. If schools do this, they receive the right level of funding from the government to support children who qualify for free school meals. This funding is called the Pupil Premium. For each child in primary school, the Pupil Premium payment is £1,385. Pupil Premium funding can be used to support your child in lots of different ways.
 
For example:
  • investing in extra resources to support teaching and learning
  • employing skilled and trained professionals to work with individual children, like speech therapists or Learning Mentors
  • Pupil Premium money must be used to help and support children.
 
Your child does not have to have a school meal, although one will be available free of charge at any time until your circumstances change and you no longer qualify. But the value of the meal is worth around £400 per year to you, and you could put the money you would spend on a packed lunch towards other things. Also, children will often eat meals at school if they see their friends having them. They often try different foods at school rather than at home.
 
The City of York Council is rolling out a Free School Meal Auto Enrolment Project. More details can be found here:

Parents and Carers can pay online for school meals, as well as trips using ParentPay.

You can find ParentPay here.

Important Dates

School holidays and training days for 2024-2025: Term dates 24-25

York Council page with all term dates for the next few years: Click here 

 

The statutory school hours are 8.55am – 3.20pm

Doors open from 8.50am for a soft start. 

Total time in a week is 32.5 hours

 

School Uniform

Our School Uniform

Our school uniform is gender neutral. This is to ensure that all children are able to wear the uniform that they are most comfortable and confident in. A gender neutral uniform is equal in cost and is more sustainable as it gives more opportunities for uniform to be reused. If you have any second hand uniform items that you would like to donate, please contact us.

Uniform may be bought from SchoolShop, Elvington, where items with logos are available. Alternatively, uniform may be purchased elsewhere.

 

Daily Uniform

  • Purple sweatshirt or cardigan with or without a school logo.
  • Trousers, skirts, culottes, shorts or pinafore dresses in black/navy/grey, gingham dresses in purple.
  • Shirt, blouse or collared t-shirt in white or purple.
  • Plain socks, tights and leggings in black/navy/grey.
  • Smart shoes or boots in black/navy/grey, practical sandals with ankle straps. Pupils may wear open toed sandals at parent request.*

*Children’s shoes or sandals should be appropriate for school wear ie. suitable for them to run and play safely.

 

PE Kit

Pupils attend school in their PE kit instead of their uniform on their PE days.

  • Plain t-shirt in white.
  • Sports shorts, tracksuit bottoms or sports leggings in black/navy/grey with minimal branding.
  • Trainers or plimsolls suitable for indoor and outdoor PE.

 

Please note that pupils MUST remove their own jewellery for PE and sport. Therefore, if new piercings are being considered, please ensure they are done at the start of the Summer holidays to allow for the 6 week window for healing. Pupils will not be able to take part in PE lessons if they cannot remove their jewellery. This is in line with NYES Health and Safety Service guidance on playing sport. 

Download our school uniform list here.
 

You can order your school uniform here at SchoolShop in Elvington.

Our uniform policy can be found here.

Early Years Foundation Stage Information

At Wheldrake with Thorganby CE Primary School, the children are at the heart of all we do. We involve the children in their learning by planning with the children and following their interests. It is our vision to support children as they become independent thinkers and learners. Our child centred, play based curriculum supports this with continuous provision free play, adult let, child led and whole class teaching.

Please see our Early Years Foundation Stage Leaflet for information about our Reception Class this year EYFS leaflet 2024-25.

Our transition details for this year are here Transition to school plans for 2024. 

We are hosting an open evening in the Autumn Term for all prospective families for our September 2025 cohort.

If you would like to arrange a visit to school with September 2025 in mind, please contact school on 01904 553422 or via email wheldrake.school@york.gov.uk .

 

WwT Early Years Foundation Stage Information

SEND at our School

We aim for our children at Wheldrake with Thorganby CE Primary School to be resilient, kind, aspirational, happy and healthy. Our curriculum,  alongside our core Christian values of hope, faith and love, provide opportunities for all of the children to achieve this. We have high expectations of all pupils and we ensure that children with special educational needs are given the same opportunities to develop their own interests, develop a love of learning and to reach their full potential.

Our policy relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities can be found on our policies page. Our SEND report can be found here. 

Miss S Tams is our Senco (Special Education Needs Coordinator) can be contacted via our contact details.

We hope that we can all work together to see your child make good progress.  If however you have a complaint about the way we have supported and helped your child, the following steps should be taken:

  • Discuss the matter with the class teacher and/or the Senco.
  • If the problem is not resolved arrange a meeting with the Head Teacher.  It may be appropriate for others to be involved in the meeting (e.g. the class teacher, Senco or Educational Psychologist).  You can also speak with the SEN Governor.  We will make every effort to resolve the matter in school.
  • If the problem still remains unresolved you can meet with a representative of the Local Authority.  Contact a member of the SEN department on 01904 554320 or emailing SENdept@york.gov.uk to arrange this.
 

 

The City Of York Educational Psychology Service have produced a guidance leaflet on Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA) for Parents and Carers. 

Please find the leaflet here: EBSA leaflet for Parents & Carers March 2022

The leaflet explores: – signs commonly associated with EBSA; links between anxiety and missing school; support at school and home; gaining pupil’s views and planning for the future.

 
 

PTA

Every parent and carer at our school is automatically a member of the PTA when their children start school. We are very fortunate to have a wonderful committee of dedicated and passionate people that help organise and plan fantastic events for our school community. The PTA raise funds for us to spend in school and also plans fun activities and events for everyone whilst doing so.
 
 
To keep up to date with all the recent news and events for the PTA, you could join their Facebook page.
 
If you would like more information about the PTA or would like to join, please contact them via this email address: pta@wheldrakewiththorganbyschool.co.uk

E Safety

What can you do?

  • Talk to your child about what they’re up to online. Be a part of their online life; involve the whole family and show an interest. Find out what sites they visit and what they love about them, if they know you understand they are more likely to come to you if they have any problems.
  • Watch Thinkuknow films and cartoons with your child. The Thinkuknow site has films, games and advice for children from five all the way to 16.
  • Encourage your child to go online and explore! There is a wealth of age-appropriate sites online for your children. Encourage them to use sites which are fun, educational and that will help them to develop online skills.
  • Keep up-to-date with your child’s development online. Children grow up fast and they will be growing in confidence and learning new skills daily. It’s important that as your child learns more, so do you.
  • Set boundaries in the online world just as you would in the real world. Think about what they might see, what they share, who they talk to and how long they spend online. It is important to discuss boundaries at a young age to develop the tools and skills children need to enjoy their time online.
  • Keep all equipment that connects to the internet in a family space. For children of this age, it is important to keep internet use in family areas so you can see the sites your child is using and be there for them if they stumble across something they don’t want to see.
  • Know what connects to the internet and how. Nowadays even the TV connects to the internet. Make sure you’re aware of which devices that your child uses connect to the internet, such as their phone or games console. Also, find out how they are accessing the internet – is it your connection, or a neighbour’s wifi? This will affect whether the safety setting you set are being applied.

Use parental controls on all devices that link to the internet, such as the TV, laptops, computers, games consoles and mobile phones.

Parental controls are not just about locking and blocking, they are a tool to help you set appropriate boundaries as your child grows and develops. They are not the answer to your child’s online safety, but they are a good start and they are not as difficult to install as you might think. Service providers are working hard to make them simple, effective and user friendly. You can find out more about setting parental controls by following the link here.

How to set parental controls using your service provider.

Setting controls on xbox, xbox live and xbox one.

Setting controls on Playstation.

Setting controls on a Nintendo device. 

Tips for setting controls on smartphones, gaming devices and internet enabled devices.

Further useful resources for parents:

Think you know – CEOP

Further support to keep children safe online.

BBC Stay Safe