Stanhope Barrington CE Primary School

Westcroft, Stanhope, Bishop Auckland DL13 2NU

Stanhope Barrington CE Primary School
Home / Parents / Parental Engagement

Parental Engagement

At Stanhope Barrington C of E Primary School we understand that parents:

  1. Like to be involved in their child’s school
  2. Want the school to know them personally as individuals and be kept well informed about the progress made by their children
  3. Require clear information about day-to-day matters that affect their children
  4. Feel more confident if they know the staff and have a basic understanding of the curriculum
  5. Are willing to support school events
  6. Like to have clear rules for their children that are applied consistently

1) Ways to be involved in school:

  • Contribute to all surveys and questionnaires which respond to your views
  • Attend performances such as Harvest, Christmas, relevant celebration assemblies, special events and Leavers’ Service.
  • Engage in homework and reading opportunities
  • Support events such as Sports Day or tournaments
  • Attend Parents evenings
  • Support the Friends of Stanhope Barrington C of E Primary School with fundraising events
  • Offer help with events and trips etc.

2) Getting to know you as individuals and being kept well informed about progress made by children:

  • Attend termly parent/ teacher meetings which can be arranged at a time convenient to parents
  • Ask for an individual parent/ teacher appointment more regularly just to catch up with the teacher
  • Respond to the Annual Report to parents
  • Attend open afternoons to look at children’s work along the child in their learning environment

3) Finding clear information about day to day matters that affect children:

  • The school website
  • School newsletters with ‘dates for the diary’ and regular letters with updates
  • School information boards
  • Text messages

4) Feeling confident that I know the staff and have a basic understanding of the curriculum:

  • The school website, e.g. Class pages
  • All staff are happy to make appointments to meet parents
  • Termly topic jigsaws provide overviews of curriculum learning that are sent home in letter form and are also published on the website

5) Supporting school events:

  • Attend open afternoons and parents evenings, performances, and Friends of Stanhope Barrington C of E Primary School events
  • Offer donations of appropriate items, e.g. for raffles etc.
  • Offer supportive comments to staff to reflect efforts and commitments
  • Encouraging children to participate in a range of our excellent extra-curricular activities

6) Clear rules for children that are applied consistently:

  • All new staff have a full induction on behaviour management
  • Our Behaviour Policy is available on the school website
  • School rules are visible in all classrooms and around the school as a visible reminder to all children
  • Positive behaviour and attitudes and are celebrated weekly in our ‘Celebration Assembly’

Parental & Community Engagement 2022-2023

Parent & Carer Information Fair

On Monday 12th September 2022, we held an Information Fair for parents in the school hall at 3.30pm. The event was well-attended and provided new and existing parents with information about a wide range of issues across the school including:

  • Meet the Academy Council and learn about their role
  • Meet our Team
  • The Learning Zone Superpowers
  • Our Website
  • An invite to visit our new Thrive Zone
  • Breakfast Club
  • After School Clubs
  • The Friends of Stanhope Barrington
  • Information about our EYFS provision
  • Our Preloved uniform was also available
  • And much more

The information displays will also be at the MacMillan Cancer Coffee Morning on Friday 30th September 2022.

Celebrating STEM Week 2023

This week (commencing 6th March 2023) is our annual STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) week in school.

In celebration of the work the children have completed in school and also to showcase our competition winners we held a Science Exhibition in the school hall.

The exhibition was really well attended with lots parents & carers coming along to join in the fun. Some of our science competition entrants were on hand to demonstrate how their experiments worked.

Our youngest children had created ‘Community Connections’ while Year 3 displayed their X-ray artwork. Year 5 had created a Cloud In A Jar which was very effective whilst the Ruby Learning Zone had created a way to transport a cream egg down a zipwire without breaking it! There was a huge range of different science experiments on show.

Our competition entries included a wide range of things such as: how to create perfume; spinning jelly using kinetic energy; using cups to increase the volume of music using vibration and much much more.

Thank you to everyone who took part in this fantastic event.

Parental & Community Engagement 2021-2022

PRIDE Colour Run

On Monday 27th June 2022, we held our Pride Colour Run. Wow! What a fantastic event. It was lovely to see so many children, parents, relatives and members of staff joining in this really inclusive and joyous event.

Art Exhibition 2022

It has been wonderful to welcome our parents and families into school to view the fantastic art that was created this term. We worked with a local artist to learn new techniques in observational drawing such as such as blind contour and modified blind contour. We then used a variety of mediums to produce a final piece. Our process and final work was put on display for the exhibition. The work from the Art Club in Autumn Term 2021 was also on display for everyone to enjoy. Our servers offered chocolate dipped strawberries and elderflower soda to enjoy during the amazing exhibition. Thank you to everyone who attended.

Opal Learning Zone – Stay and Play

It has been fantastic to welcome parents into The Opal Learning Zone as we held a Stay and Play. This opportunity allowed the parents and relatives to have an insight into their child’s eventful morning schedule and also see the development of the EYFS Unit over the past two years. The feedback from all of our visitors was amazing reiterating the positive impact the Opal staff have on all of the children.

After the event we received a number of emails and responses, here are a few:

  • “It was lovely to see how the nursery looks and to have a very small glimpse in to what they get up to.  I was really impressed to see that even when they are having fun they are learning too.  The staff are all super enthusiastic and full of energy – I don’t know how they do it. The children were really well behaved (apart from the snowball to the head but that was just a lucky shot) and you can tell that they all love being there.” Liz Johns
  • “It was brilliant to see what the children get up to. I was tired out after doing fine motor skills and then Phonics. But, it was great to see all of my Grandchildren enjoying the amazing activities.” Doherty Heppell