Parents
Welcome
Welcome to the Cottage Grove Primary School and Nursery Unit website. Our school caters for children from the age of 3-11. We hope that your child will be happy in their time with us at Cottage Grove and look forward to working in partnership with you. Our aim is to help your child develop and learn to the best of their ability.
We are proud of the relationships we have with our parents. We encourage you to come into school to talk to the staff or myself about any aspect of your child’s development. The partnership between home and school is vital if our children are to benefit fully from their primary years.
Yours sincerely,
Mr Lee Branscombe
Headteacher
If you are looking to transfer your child to Cottage Grove, please visit the Portsmouth Local Authority website to fill in an in-year transfer form. The direct link can be found here.
The links to the "Meet the Teacher" information slides are below
MHST Resources
Uniform Expectations
School Uniform
Plain black or grey tailored shorts, trousers, skirts or pinafore dress
Plain white school shirt (polo shirt is fine)
Green school sweatshirt or caridgan with school logo
Black school shoes (no heels) - velcro is adviseable for those who can't tie laces yet!
Plain white, black or grey socks/tights.
Optional green school summer dress which can be worn during the summer months
For health and safety reasons, children should wear sensible shoes at school. Open sandals are not appropriate. Plimsolls or trainers are not considered suitable for the classroom.
Our school uniform can be ordered from BRIGADE.
Orders will be delivered to school and often have a waiting time of 2 to 3 weeks.
P.E Kit
School PE Shirt in their team colour
Plain black shorts
Plain black/navy tracksuit bottoms for outdoor PE
Trainers for outdoor PE
Please click the link below for information from Brigade - our school uniform supplier
Home School Agreement
Admissions
Appeals
If a parent is unsuccessful with any of their preferences for admission, they will have the right of appeal to an independent appeal panel and will be provided with the relevant documentation and advice by the LA's Admissions Service.
A link to the LA website: Portsmouth: https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/schools-learning-and-childcare/schools/admissions/waiting-list-and-appeals-for-a-school-place/
Admissions Policy can be found here: https://home.cottagegrove.co.uk/policies-and-key-information
SCOPAY
One App is All You Need!
We use SCOPAY for lots of things. The online system allows Parents to:
Order and pay for school dinners
Provide consent and pay for trips or events.
Book Parent's Evening Appointments
You can access SCOPAY via the smartphone App (see below for download links) or by visit www.scopay.com.
IN ORDER TO REGISTER FOR SCOPAY, YOU WILL NEED A UNIQUE REGISTRATION CODE.
PLEASE CONTACT THE SCHOOL OFFICE FOR THIS TO BE SENT TO YOU VIA EMAIL.
Download the SCOPAY App
Useful Links and Documents
Miss School, Miss Out!
We are supporting Portsmouth City Council's campaign to maximise school attendance.
More information about how important school attendance is to your child can be found here: www.portsmouth.gov.uk/attendance
Additional Support
At Cottage Grove we are passionate about supporting pupils and addressing all barriers to their learning. In many cases, we recognise that supporting a child’s family is an important element of this and we look to do as much as we can to help. Miss Light is our inclusion manager and oversees all aspects of support for children and families. She is always very happy to assist, so please do not hesitate to contact her through the school office if you need to.
Pastoral Support Team (PST)
The PST is on hand to help pupils during school time and support families when needed. This team is lead by Miss Davies. The PST has a number of links with outside agencies and is able to signpost families to additional support. If this is something you require, please speak to one of the team.
Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Local Offer
Our SEN Team is led by our Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator Miss Graham (senco@cottagegrove.co.uk) who is assisted by Learning Support Assistants. This team works closely with class teachers, outside agency specialists and parents to support children with special educational needs.
Additional Support
As well as the above departments, we also have a number of Bilingual Learning Assistants that support our EAL children and have developed a Nurture provision to ensure that children are best placed to be successful with their learning.
Learning at home
The Student Intranet is a purpose built website for our pupils to access their learning online. It is accessible from school and at home and is where Teachers will set homework and spellings on a regular basis.
We use a number of digital learning tools as a school and you will find that your child will often be directed to applications called Seesaw or Google Classroom. Key Stage 1 pupils will use Seesaw and Key stage 2 pupils use Google Classroom. Both of these platforms provide our Teachers with an opportunity to set engaging home learning tasks and communicate with you as a parent regarding the work your child has been set. Both Seesaw and Google Classroom are available via a desktop computer or a mobile/tablet application which can be downloaded from your device App Store.