New Students Welcome Page Years 7-12
Welcome to St George’s school, we are really looking forward to you joining us and hope you are as excited as we are. This area of the website is full of information, answering any questions you or your parents might have about joining St George’s school.
1. Your First Day at St George's
When you arrive for your first day at St George’s (8:30am start), you should come in your uniform and arrive at the Sun Lane Entrance. A member of staff will be there to meet you and escort you to your tutor. You will also have a buddy assigned to you for the next three days to help you navigate around the school.
You will finish the day at 3:20pm. For more information about St George's House System click here.
What You Need on Your First Day
- Your pencil case and writing equipment
- Make sure you have money paid for your lunch on your ParentPay account
- A drink and a snack for break time or money on your ParentPay account to buy a drink and snack
- You will need a school bag to carry home any books and equipment you will receive on the day.
What You Need for Your First Subject Lessons
- You should bring your pencil case and writing equipment to your first lessons and any books for that subject
- For your first P.E. lesson you should bring your full kit. The P.E. staff will check that it is all labelled clearly with your name.
- Once you’ve had your first lesson in each subject, your subject teacher will tell you what to bring to future lessons. If you are not sure what to bring, just ask
2. Cecil Grant
The Founder’s Trust is a School charity, run by a group of volunteer trustees, which raises funds from the generous donations of St. George’s families. In 2021, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Trust. The trust raise and donate about £140,000 per year to the School, which pays for all sorts of essential items that enhance your child’s education. See attached a welcome and introduction to the Trust as well as a ‘postcard’ with some further information about our charity.
3. School Uniform and Equipment
In conjunction with our Teaching and Pastoral staff, we have compiled a list of the essential items required by your child at the start of their school life at St. George’s, covering their academic, artistic, physical and personal needs. As our Resource Shop is non-profit-making, the “Starter Pack” groups offer a substantial financial saving to you. Please order as soon as possible using our online ordering site.
shop@stgeorges.herts.sch.uk,
School shop Direct number 01582 716271
Available to take calls between 09.30am- 12.30pm
At St. George’s School, we have a simple rule that, during school hours, all belongings must be stored in lockers, on the wooden storage racks found around the school or kept with the student. After school hours, items may only be stored in school inside lockers. During holiday times, bags MUST be taken home.
Lost Property
Any lost items will be held in the Lost Property Locker, in the School Resource Shop, until the end of each half-term. After this, any uncollected items are either donated to charity or to the second-hand uniform sale, the proceeds of which are used by the Parent-Staff Association (PSA) to benefit the school.
To ensure that students will be reunited with their belongings, every single possession and item of clothing that they bring into St. George’s must be labelled clearly and permanently with their FULL NAME. Any non-uniform clothing or non-school item that students bring in must be similarly labelled.
We have an association with www.easy2name.com, where a wide range of good quality stick-on, sew-on, iron-on or tie-on labels are available. St. George’s School will receive 20% of the profits from each order placed, which will all go towards ongoing fundraising for the school.
Please use discount code FR-STGS-10 to receive free postage.
4. School Day and Term Dates
IT Applications Used At St George's School
Student Travel - Arriva Information
Key tasks for students
- Get to know your timetable
- Find out where the classroom is for each lesson
- Get to know your teachers
- Do your best to get to lessons and registration on time, especially after break and lunch
- You have a school map in your planner
Day pupils are not the responsibility of school staff before 8.20am, nor should they stay after 3.30pm (3pm on Friday), unless they are taking part in an organised school activity supervised by a member of staff, or signed in to visit a friend in the boarding house.
Home-School Communication takes place mainly through Edulink for which you will be given sign in details once your child has joined the school. The School's newsletter is emailed each week. Your first point of contact at School is your child's tutor.
Detentions If your child receives an after-school detention for more than 10 minutes, you will generally receive at least one day’s notice.
School uniform must be properly worn at all times. Blazers, skirts and jumpers can be obtained from the School’s outfitters, Stevensons.
There is a flourishing Parent/Staff Association which, amongst others, runs periodic sales of second-hand uniform items, including blazers. This can provide a very affordable way of acquiring items.
Homework is set each night. The number of subjects and the amount of work increases from Year 7 up through the School. A full homework timetable will be sent out early in the Autumn Term.
The School cannot be responsible for valuables brought onto the site by students. Please ensure that any valuables that are brought into school such as phones, bicycles and musical instruments, are fully insured under your household insurance policy. Your child will be told good places to store items, and all students will be allocated a locker soon into term.
The fire bell is a continuous sounding of the School siren. This must never be ignored and full emergency instructions are in the pupil handbook.
The School’s Privacy Policy is kept on the school website.
School Calendar and Extra Curricular Activities
5. School Lunches and ParentPay
Every day there is a selection of hot dishes with vegetables, including a vegetarian option, a salad bar, sandwiches and rolls, soup, and a selection of hot and cold desserts including fruit.
How to pay for food at school?
We use ParentPay to pay for school lunches, breakfast and break-time snacks. The cost of lunch is currently £3.35. The student's ParentPay account needs to have credit in it to be able to pay for food. Instructions on how to access St George's ParentPay account can be found here. Your personal log-in will be sent to you early September, before your child starts. Parents are reminded to top up their child's account if they are running low. If you have questions, please contact the school finance office for clarification.
All students are invited to bring a packed lunch if they would like. These should be stored in lockers, racks or school bags till needed.
Free School Meals Information about qualifying benefits is available on the Hertfordshire County Council website or phone: 0300 123 4084 between 8am and 8pm Monday to Friday, or between 9am and 4pm on Saturday.
6. Homework & Google Classroom
All of your homework will be set in Google Classroom. Most year 6 students are used to having homework. The amount tends to vary with the time of year, with homework being set most frequently running up to their SATS tests in May (when they happen). Students at St George’s will start to receive homework as soon as they arrive in September and they can expect up to three subjects a night, occasionally four. Each homework should take approximately 30 minutes. Students will receive a homework timetable at the beginning of September so that they know which subjects to expect on which nights and a homework diary or planner in which to record it.
Key tasks for students
- Fill in your homework timetable (what homework to expect on which days) in your diary/planner
- Get to know how your diary/planner works and fill it in correctly
- Write down your homework when it is set. If none is set, write ‘none set’
- Don’t forget to record when it is due to be handed in
- Ask if you are not sure about the task for any reason or if you aren’t clear about what books or equipment you might need to do it
- Make sure you bring home what you need to do the homework
- When you get home, use your diary/planner to remind you of what you have to do
- Work by yourself as much as possible and spend the right amount of time on it
- Ask for help if it is too difficult or if you don’t understand something. The sooner your teacher knows you have a problem, the sooner it can be sorted out; don’t wait until you’re supposed to be handing it in to tell them about your problem
- Put a line through or colour in your planner when you have finished a homework – so you don’t do it twice!
- Remember to give it in.
The St George’s School Planner
More than just somewhere to record homework, the St George’s school diary/planner contains dates, subject information, details of how to access the school’s ICT systems, a year planner, school and homework timetable, a map of the school, the structure of the school day, spaces for notes to subject teachers and tutors, spaces for targets and much more. All students receive one free and replacements can be bought from the school shop. Parents are requested to check and sign their child’s prep book every week.
7. Settling In
Moving to secondary school is a big change, which comes with lots of excitement but can also come with some worries. It is perfectly normal to be super excited and a little nervous all at the same time.
Adapting to a New Routine
We have a long morning at St George’s, with lunch at 1.20pm. However, year 7s will go in early for the first term and a half.
Breakfast: Before registration, between 8.10am-8.30am, students can purchase breakfast in the dining hall.
Break time: Students can purchase a range of snacks in the dining hall or from the House tuck shop.
We have chilled water machines for students to use in the dining hall and several drinking fountains around the school.
Respect
St George’s is a great school with amazing opportunities for everyone and when you come in September, you are joining a community that respects you and cares how you feel.
Our vision and aims can be found here.
Survey
We want our students to be happy in school. Every year, at the end of the Autumn term, we carry out a ‘Quality of Life Survey’ amongst year 7 students and the results are generally positive.
8. Financial Help
9. Contacting School
Throughout the year you will receive a variety of communications from school. This could be via EduLink, the weekly parents newsletter or emails directly from school.
It is essential we have accurate up-to-date contact details, which parents can update on EduLink. Initially, you will receive a letter with login details at the beginning of year 7.
For new parents, the first contact you will formally have with school will be the New Intake Parents’ Evening in July. In the Autumn term, the PSA organises an informal quiz evening for new parents. It is a very informal evening and the first of many social events hosted by the PSA.
The school calendar with the term’s dates and events is available on our website. In the second half of that first term, we hold the year 7 parents’ evening. This is an opportunity to meet with your child’s tutor and subject staff.
Throughout the course of the year, parents will receive regular feedback about how the students are working and progressing in all their subjects. There are 4 points of feedback in the year:
- October: Effort and Attitude grades and tutor comment – Pastoral focus: How are they settling in?
- December: Parents’ Evening – meeting the teachers and further feedback
- February: Progress Review, data and comments from all teachers and Head of House – more academic focus / target setting.
- May: Progress Review, data and comments from all teachers, Tutor – reflective/summative
10. Reporting Absence
Absence
Please do not arrange holidays or trips in term time.
If your child has an unplanned absence e.g. they wake up poorly, please use Edulink to report all absences, either through the Edulink One app or website. Click on the 'Absence Reporting' icon, select the date range of your child's absence using the calendars. Choose the 'date from' which is the beginning of the absence and the 'date to' which is the expected return date. Use the arrows to switch between children. Select the ‘Reason for Absence’(please give clear details) and click Send.
Absence reporting cannot be done retroactively. Parents and carers must report an absence for the current date.
Any parent or carer who has not submitted an absence report through Edulink, will receive a notification either by email or phone call, to be reminded to do this. All on-the-day absence reports should be completed by 8am.
If your child is presenting with anxiety or any other form of mental health concerns and cannot attend school, please speak to your child's tutor or Students Services so we can support your young person in returning to school.
For known-in-advance absences requiring Head of House permission
These requests will be forwarded to the Head of House who will reply via email within 48 hours with authorisation. Absences needing authorisation:
- Medical appointments
- Orthodontist appointments
- Dental appointments
- Music lessons
- Music exams
- Driving tests – theory and practical
- Uni/sixth form interviews/open days
- Holidays
- Funerals/weddings
- Sibling/parent graduation
- Religious events/ celebrations
- Individual sporting event
- Individual educational event
- Work experience
- New school interview/open day
- Other exceptional circumstance
If you are having any issues with Edulink, please contact our ICT department.
For safeguarding reasons, all students from year 7 to year 11 should sign in and out at Goddard Reception if they leave/ arrive during the school day.
Attendance
It is a parent’s legal responsibility that their child attends school on a regular basis.
We take regular attendance at school seriously and are concerned about any student who demonstrates 90% attendance or less. Should absence or lateness become a regular occurrence, leading to broken weeks, you will be contacted by the school.
If you feel your child is ‘unable’ to come to school frequently, or if you have concerns about their attendance, talk to your child’s tutor or to Student Services.
NHS Live-well - Is my child too ill for school
Every Mind Matters - supporting others/children's mental health
Childrens Commissioner gov.uk - Guide for parents on school attendance
11. Medical
12. Boarding
Boarding
St George’s is different from the other schools in Harpenden; indeed different from most other secondary schools, because we are also a state boarding school. This means that, as well as the day students, in every year group, we have a percentage of students who board at school. This adds to the unique quality of life at St George’s as we enjoy the contributions of students from a wide range of cultures, communities and countries.
Our boarders have exactly the same experience of day school as everyone else, but at the end of the day they return to our two boarding houses, Keswick (for girls) and Crosthwaite (for boys). Just as day pupils enjoy a range of family activities in their homes, our boarders also have a wide range of "family” support and activities in the boarding houses after school and at the weekends. Our day and boarder students share a great deal and many lasting friendships are struck during their time at school.
If you are a day student, make a point of looking out for the boarders in your year and if you are a boarder, get to know our day students. After all, wherever you come from, you actually have a great deal in common: it’s your first term at St George’s and by mixing with everyone in your House and year, whether you are a day student or a boarder, you will get the best out of school.
In addition, Boarders have the following information:
- Boarding Kit Lists - Boy's kit list and Girl's kit list
- Boarding House Handbooks - Crosthwaite House (Boys) and Keswick House (Girls)
- Please read the information above on Lost Property as this is particularly important to boarders
13. Mobile Phones