- About Us
- Admissions
- Academic Life
- School Life
- Sixth Form
We have designed this page as a quick reference to help answer some of your questions. It is reviewed annually. If you have any additional questions and answers that you would like to see listed here, or have any other questions about our school, please contact our School Office on [email protected]. Many thanks.
How are Year 7 students put into teaching groups?
What subjects are taught in teaching groups?
Who do I contact if I have a query about my child?
How do I contact my child’s Form Tutor?
How do I report my child’s absence?
How do I notify the school if my child has to leave during the school day?
How do I request absence from school for an important occasion/exceptional circumstance?
Who do I notify to update my email address?
What if my child is ill at school?
What if I have a complaint?
How does the School contact me?
What happens in the event of a school closure?
How should my child search for Lost Property?
How do I find out information about bus and train travel to the School?
How do I find out about the catering system?
Where do I find details about the school uniform?
Is there a Second Hand Uniform Shop?
What access is there for wheelchairs when visiting the school
What time does school finish at the end of half terms and full terms?
What are CATs?
When can I expect to receive reports for my child?
What do students wear in the Sixth Form?
If my child is unable to collect exam results from school, can they be posted?
How do I communicate with my child’s peripatetic music teacher?
What do I do if I can’t contact my child’s peripatetic music teacher?
What if my child has to cancel a lesson?
How do I know how my child is progressing?
How does my child know when the lessons are scheduled?
How does my child know when concert rehearsals are scheduled?
Teaching groups are different to form groups and students have most of their lessons in teaching groups.
The overall aim with teaching groups is to create:
● mixed ability teaching groups,
● ensure a fair split of sex,
● a cross section of ethnicities and
● give consideration to placement of SEND and LAC/PLAC students.
We split the year in half for the second language. 3 teaching groups on one side and 4 on the other.
● Care is taken to make sure that students are placed into a teaching group with others in their form. No student will be in a teaching group on their own.
● At the time of grouping SATs data and CATs data is not available. Data is used from primary schools (working above, working at, working towards, working below). This data is used to distribute students across the year group to create mixed ability classes.
● Numbers of girls and boys in each teaching group should be similar.
● Parents provide transport and postcode information. This is used to make sure there is a spread of postcodes within a group whilst trying to have at least two students from each area that may be travelling together.
● Requests to be with particular students are not taken into account for teaching groups, only for form groups.
● We ensure that the students who need extra support in Maths and English based on SEN data and primary school information are placed in the half of the year with 3 classes (this would be approximately 6 students each year) – these students are split across the 3 teaching groups on that side.
● Discussion takes place with the SENCO regarding the needs of those with EHCP or other SEND needs to ensure effective use of resources, where necessary.
● Safeguarding and pastoral information from primary schools is reviewed and the needs of the child considered.and actioned if appropriate.
● We finally then check if there is a spread of abilities in the classes (based on the data mentioned above), an even distribution of sexes, forms, primary schools and ethnicities.
DATA NOT USED:
1. Admissions criteria details and route into school are not used or seen
2. SATs data and CATs data.
3. Friendship requests are not considered for teaching groups (but is considered for forms)
In Year 7, all lessons are taught in teaching groups except for PE and DT, Music, Food, Textiles and Art.
PE is taught in half year groups so the 3 groups on one side are split into 2 boys groups and 2 girls groups and the side of 4 teaching groups is split into 3 girls groups and 3 boys groups. These groups are based on their ability in PE judged by the baseline tests done in the first few weeks of PE lessons; the most able are grouped together and so on.
In DT, Music, Food, Textiles and Art the students are put into groups of 20 to allow more access to equipment; they are taught in the same group of 20 for all these subjects. The groups are decided on a similar basis to teaching groups.
Form tutors are normally your first point of reference if there is a query about your child.
Concerns of a pastoral nature, or learning generally, can go to the Form Tutor or to the pastoral team who are there to support your child throughout their time at Dame Alice Owen’s and may be more readily available to deal with an urgent concern.
If the query is about academic learning in one subject it should initially be directed to the subject teacher.
To contact the Form Tutor or subject teacher
To contact the Pastoral Team – call the school office (01707 643441) or email the school office, ([email protected]) asking for a message to be forwarded to the relevant Pastoral Team member for you child’s key stage:
Form tutors are normally your first point of reference if there is a query about your child.
Concerns of a pastoral nature, or learning generally, can go to the Form Tutor or to the pastoral team who are there to support your child throughout their time at Dame Alice Owen’s and may be more readily available to deal with an urgent concern.
If the query is about academic learning in one subject it should initially be directed to the subject teacher.
To contact the Form Tutor or subject teacher
To contact the Pastoral Team – call the school office (01707 643441) or email the school office, ([email protected]) asking for a message to be forwarded to the relevant Pastoral Team member for you child’s key stage:
Form tutors are your first point of reference if there is a query about your child. You can:
Form Tutors aim to respond to you within a day or so – if the query is of an urgent nature, please speak to the school office.
Every day that your child is ill you should:-
When your child returns to school, they should bring in a letter, confirming reasons for their absence, to their Form Tutor.
If your child is absent for 3 consecutive days with no explanation, the pastoral team will contact you. Where the school is unsuccessful in contacting you, the Attendance Officer may be informed.
If your child has to attend an unavoidable dental or doctor’s appointment or needs to leave the school during the day for another reason, please provide written notice in advance in the following ways:-
You need to write to the Head, via the School Office Attendance Team ([email protected]), explaining the details, at least 2 weeks in advance of the absence. Please note that the Governors do not approve of any requests for absence in term time for the purpose of taking holidays.
You may read further information in the Attendance Policy, which is part of our Pastoral Care Policy. This can be found in the Policies section of the school website.
You need to notify the school office ([email protected]) so they can amend the school’s records for emergency contact details and to enable you to receive communications from the school via our email service.
One of our Clerical Assistants is also our First Aid Officer. It must be emphasised that the medical facilities at the school are for use as emergency measures only, and that our First Aid Officer is not responsible for treating on-going medical conditions. If you are in doubt about your child’s fitness to attend school in the morning, please ensure that he/she remains at home.
If your child is taken ill at school they MUST FIRST go to the School Medical Room to consult the First Aid Officer. If she thinks it advisable for them to return home, you will be contacted and asked to collect your child from the school. The school is reluctant to send children home unaccompanied or to an empty house. On no account should your child telephone you to arrange to go home because of illness without contacting the First Aid Officer first.
Minor Accidents: Where an X-Ray, stitching or other comparatively minor treatment at hospital is thought necessary, you will be asked to take your child to Accident and Emergency, using your own transport (parents’ consent is necessary for anaesthetics or other treatment). If transport is not available, you will have to make alternative arrangements.
Serious Accidents: Your child will be taken to hospital by ambulance and you will be contacted, either to accompany the child or to meet him/her at the Accident and Emergency Department.
We have a Complaints Procedures and Policy which is reviewed biennially – please refer to the document on Your Feedback page, thank you.
InTouch is a communications product that uses contact details and data already held in the School database (SIMS) to send email and text messages to parents (text messages not currently used). Parents who have supplied the School with an email address will be kept informed with everything relating to their child’s school life via InTouch.
A key benefit of InTouch is the ability to keep parents in the loop in an instant by sending email messages relating to a pupil’s behaviour, achievement, special education needs, unexpected school closures, parents’ evening reminders, unexplained absences – the list is endless.
For enquiries, please contact Mrs S Street direct:
By email: [email protected]
By telephone: 01707 643441 Ext 233
It is important to keep the School informed of any changes to your email address please advise via [email protected]. It is also advisable to add the SIMS InTouch email address ([email protected]) to your Safe Senders list on your email provider. Note! You cannot reply direct to this email.
InTouch letters to individual groups, forms or trip groups are available on the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) once you have logged in (see link above) under the relevant department – for example, all letters relating to a History Trip to the Somme will be found under the Educational Visits area of the History Department. Please Note: Parents need to ask their children for their individual VLE Login Username and Password details to access (this is shared between parent and child).
In the event of a possible school closure due to an emergency or snow we will notify you as soon as possible. This will be done via:
1. A message via the Herts County System – you would need to register to receive these messages. Please do so by clicking on the link/copying it into your browser and following the instructions: member.everbridge.net/index/892807736725489
Click on the “Sign Up” button and you will be led through the process. If you have a child at more than one school you can register for those schools as well as Dame Alice Owen’s.
You can have more than one sign up per family – your child minder/grandparents etc could choose to be alerted as well.
Once signed up you will be able to receive messages relating to the status of the school. You do not need to sign up to this system, but if you do you will automatically receive a message about the status of the school immediately.
In the event of bad weather these notifications will also appear on a noticeboard on www.hertfordshire.gov.uk. You do not need to sign up to access this and you can just visit the website in the usual way.
We will also seek to notify you by:
2. Notices on the school website
3. A message via InTouch
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Mr A Wileman, Premises Manager on 01707 622 861 or at [email protected]
If the school needs to be closed during the day due to bad weather, arrangements will be made for the buses to come early to enable students to get home.
Thank you for your patience in anticipation of any disruption due to an emergency or bad weather.
For general items, your child first needs to go to the School Office. Students know to hand items in here if anything is left lying around. Items collected here accumulate during the term. At the end of term, the school displays un-named lost property items in the main foyer for students to claim. An InTouch communication will be sent to parents when this is due to take place. For any named items, the Office team contact parents directly, or return to students via their form tutor.
For P.E. items, your child first needs to go to the P.E. Department. Students know to hand items in here if found in any of the P.E. areas. These items are amalgamated with the other un-named lost property at the end of term.
Uncollected items of school uniform are given to the Second Hand Uniform volunteers, who subsequently sell items when the main Uniform suppliers are in school – these dates can be found on the school calendar. Other uncollected items, such as non-uniform clothing, watches, mobile phones and glasses are recycled.
Please go to our School Travel page for details on bus and train routes to and from School.
There are a separate list of Parents’ FAQs on our Catering section of the website to cover any questions you may have, including making payment and who to contact in case of queries.
You can go to our School Uniform page on this site, under the About Us button.
The OSA provide an excellent recycling service to the school, by selling GOOD QUALITY second hand uniform from the school foyer, at the same time as the main suppliers visit the school. You are very welcome to donate items by handing them into the school office, in a a suitable bag, labelled for the attention of Mrs Julia Clews, “OSA Nearly New”, throughout the year.
Mrs Clews ensures items are carefully displayed and prices are very reasonable. Payment can be made by cash or cheque (payable to the OSA). As a member of the OSA, she is a volunteer parent and the school are very grateful to her for providing this service for parents and students.
In addition, at the end of each academic year, uncollected items of lost property stored in the school office are given to Mrs Clews , who includes items of school uniform in the “Owen’s Nearly New” displays. Other uncollected items, such as watches, mobile phones and glasses are recyled by the school office.
If you would like to contact Mrs Clews at any time for further information about the “OSA Nearly New”, or would like to volunteer to help, she can be emailed via the school office at [email protected].
If you are visiting the Edward Guinness Hall (EGH), visitors are advised to park in the Lower School car park and take the ramp down to the EGH. There is one disabled parking space directly adjacent to the EGH on the left hand side, which can be used for dropping off and collecting immediately outside the EGH if required. If you are visiting the Arnold Lynch Building, a lift is available – the key must be collected from the Site Superintendent. Disabled facilities are available in both the EGH and the Arnold Lynch Building.
At the end of a half term, school finishes at 2.45pm and at 12.35pm at the end of a full term (Periods 1-3 only). For the normal timetable you can go to About Us/School Day.
Buses are sometimes scheduled to run at the earlier times and we try to let the children know the day before. It depends on different bus companies schedules and the availability of their drivers as to whether or not they can come at the earlier times.
You can contact the school office ([email protected]) the day before the end of a half term/full term if you wish to confirm bus arrangements.
Your child will take CATs (Cognitive Ability Tests) in the Autumn term of Year 7. They are standardised tests used by many schools, including Dame Alice Owen’s and DO NOT REQUIRE ANY REVISION. There are three sections to the tests that assess verbal, non verbal and quantitative ability.
CATS are useful as they help to statistically predict a student’s learning potential across a range of curriculum subjects. CATs can also indicate a student’s strengths and weaknesses and their preferred learning style. CATs results will be available towards the end of the Autumn Term.
At Dame Alice Owen’s we report to you three times a year on your child’s progress. The current reporting timetable is shown below:
|
|
Autumn Term |
Spring Term |
Summer Term |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 7 |
Parents’ Evening |
Written Report |
Written Report |
| Year 8 |
Written Report |
Parents’ Evening |
Written Report |
| Year 9 |
Written Report |
Parents’ Evening |
Written Report |
| Year 10 |
Parents’ Evening |
Written Report |
Written Report |
| Year 11 |
Parents’ Evening |
Written Report |
|
| Year 12 |
Written Report |
Written Report |
Parents’ Evening Written Report |
| Year 13 |
Written Report |
Parents’ Evening |
Please refer to Sixth Form for dress code details.
If you provide a first-class stamped, self addressed envelope, clearly marked with your child’s name as the addressee, results will be sent out at the end of the day they are available for collection from the school. They are not given out over the phone, emailed or faxed. A nominated person can collect them on your child’s behalf if they provide a note of authorisation.
You are provided with a written contract when your child commences instrumental lessons. This contains details about your child’s teacher, which includes their email address. You may contact the teacher directly with any queries.
You can contact the school music department on 01707 643441 Ext 236 and ask for a message to be passed on to the music teacher.
You need to give your child’s teacher at least 24 hours notice and suggest an alternative time; otherwise you will be charged for the lesson.
The peripatetic music teacher provides a written report annually, which is sent home with your child’s academic report. For Years 7-9 this is in the Summer term and for Years 10-13 this is in the Spring term. If you require more regular updates, please contact your child’s teacher directly.
Students may refer to the timetables that are available on the noticeboards in the Music Department. Students’ lesson times are available on the noticeboard at least a week in advance of the lesson taking place. Individual students’ music lessons rotate times each week to avoid students repeatedly missing the same academic class.
Rehearsal timetables are displayed on the Music Department noticeboard. Rehearsals on concert days are communicated to students in the weeks prior to the concert.
Dame Alice Owen’s School
Dugdale Hill Lane
Potters Bar
Hertfordshire
EN6 2DU
01707 643441
[email protected]
Mon – Fri 8:00A.M. – 5:00P.M.