Frequently Asked Questions

If your child is due to join the school, please use the check-list below to check you have received and completed (where applicable) the necessary forms. If you are missing any of the following, please contact the school office to obtain a copy.

• Dietary & medical needs
• Consent form
• Pupil registration form
• Free school meals application
• School academic year calendar

Please see the Torbay admissions page for this information.

Please apply via Torbay Admissions.

We are located only minutes away from the seafront in Torquay and serve a wide catchment including parts of Chelston, Torre and the Town Centre.

Please see Torbay Council's website for details on this.

‍Apply for a primary school place - Torbay Council

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We are an inclusive school. You can apply for a place in school using the Torbay admissions procedures.

Please see the policies page for our attendance policy.

Please see the policy on lateness and attendance on our policy page.

Please inform the office and leave a message on the answer phone if you know your child is unwell.

Please fill in the absence request form to request an absence for your child.

We are supportive and using our Trauma Informed Approach, we support any child and work through any causes for such issues. The class teacher will be available to discuss any support in the first instance, and then will be able to use the wider school team to support if needed.

We follow a Trauma Informed Schools approach. We aim to understand and support the whole child and respond to their needs to support them in their journey through school. The policy can be found in the policy section of the website.

If a child breaks our 3 rules of ‘ready respectful and safe,’ then they may quietly be spoken to by their teacher. They may be given a reminder about their class expectations and could have to spend some time in another classroom. The teacher and staff will have a conversation with the pupil about how they can put things right in the future.

Children are rewarded with dojos, stickers, phone calls home as well as a weekly star of the week award.

The curriculum is all the areas children are taught within school. More information about this can be found in our curriculum page.

Children are assessed in reading, writing and maths in various ways throughout their school career. Teachers constantly assess children throughout lessons and adapt teaching and learning as necessary. They are assessed on their phonics during the first few years in school, taking the national phonics sceening in Year 1. In EYFS, children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals throughout their time within the phase. As they move throughout the school, children may be given maths and reading assessments to see how much progress a child and their class has made. They are always used to inform future lessons. Year 2 and Year 6 take the national SATS expectations in May.

Other subjects are assessed in a number of ways – informal quizzes, revision tasks and other activities are set by teachers to asses their knowledge in the broader subjects of the curriculum.

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Here is a typical timetable below, with variations in break times and lunch times for different
year groups.

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We have a wonderful SEND team who are able to support children and families with SEND needs. We have a dedicated SENCO who will talk through any needs you may have.

Children are taught in year groups with their age. Our phonics programme, Read Write Inc, is taught in groups that are based on their phonics understanding.

We support children from all backgrounds and help them intergrate into school life. We use IT and the support of colleagues to support any EAL needs.

Pupils in Year 5 are invited to spend the day at local secondary schools, to prepare them for their secondary school choice. In Year 6, pupils are visited by teachers from their secondary schools. They also spend the day at the secondary school of their choice.

There are trips within our local community in every year group. In Years 3 and 5, children have the opportunity to go on a residential. Year 3 spend one night away and Year 5 spend two nights away from home.

Our first priority is making sure teachers plan carefully for all children in their class. Teachers plan in small steps, with lots of time to review and recap previous learning. We have a number of support staff who are directed by the class teachers who may work with small groups within the classrooms or may be used to help children access their learning outside of the classroom on some occasions.

Music is timetabled as one of our ‘drivers’ within our learning enquiries. Children also have music lessons every week. We have singing assemblies every week. We also have a performing arts club which children from year 3 can join. We have visiting music teachers that you can contact if you wish your child to take part in specialist music lessons.

We promote SMSC throughout the school day. All staff take time to ensure children’s emotional and social development are promoted. We use a programme called ‘Jigsaw’ to deliver our specific PSHE lessons. We promote British Values across the school.

The early years foundation stage ( EYFS ) sets standards for the learning, development and care of your child from birth to 5 years old. All schools and Ofsted-registered early years providers must follow the EYFS, including childminders, preschools, nurseries and school reception classes.

There are seven areas of learning and development that must shape educational programmes in early years settings.

All areas of learning and development are important and inter-connected.

Three areas are particularly important for building a foundation for igniting children’s curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, forming relationships and thriving. These are the prime areas:

• communication and language

• physical development

• personal, social and emotional development.

We must also support children in four specific areas, through which the three prime areas are strengthened and applied. The specific areas are:

• literacy

• mathematics

• understanding the world

• expressive arts and design

We start the day by sitting on the carpet and doing the register, which is where we check that everyone is at school. We then go through a visual timetable for the day, so we know what is happening.

During the day, at the beginning of each session we have a small teaching input. This is where we learn about new things. We have a phonics session every day and we also have an English and Maths input. During the week we also have fun finding out about the world and carrying out creative activities. At the end of each day, we sit for story times and singing too before we say goodbye and greet our adults.

After our carpet inputs we get lots of time to explore the activities in the classroom and outside. We can choose where we want to go and have access to both the indoors and outdoors.

Sometimes, we get to choose which resources we want in the different areas, and we also get to explore the exciting activities that the adults have planned for us. Here are some examples of the activities on offer inside and then outside in our learning environment.

We play outside, whatever the weather!

So, please bring your wellies and waterproofs to school.

Every day we have snack (fruit, milk or water) and lunch at school. After lunch, we play on the big playground with our friends.

After a busy day we all work as a team to tidy up and then we collect our things and sit on our own special spot on the carpet. We reflect on the day and our learning and we sing songs and read stories.

At the end of the day, we say goodbye to our friends. Your teacher will call your name when they have seen your adult. It is then time to go home and rest after your busy day so that you are ready for the next day!

In our Reception years, children are able to explore their own interests through play both indoors and outdoors. They are encouraged to play alongside their pees, and alongside adults. Teachers and staff will plan small group sessions, using their areas of interest which spark enthusiasm and interest from the children.

The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is a framework that sets out how children’s developing needs are met through play, care and learning. EYFS covers children from their birth up to 5 years of age. The EYFS defines how these areas should be assessed in order for the child to grow as they should. An assessment may be formative or summative: Formative assessments provide us with insight into how current teaching strategies can help our learners improve, whereas summative assessments indicate whether a learner has achieved what it was set out to do at the beginning of the learning journey.

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EYFS Formative Assessments

Formative assessments are carried out to monitor how well a child progresses and how they respond to teaching strategies or interventions.

This type of assessment is carried out in various ways, such as asking how the child is feeling or what they want to learn.

Formative assessments can also be done by observing how well a learner concentrates and responds in different situations. This involves noting how often the learner engages with various materials or how long it takes to complete tasks/activities.

Another formative assessment technique would be assessing how active a child is during activities; an example is counting how many times they move from one place on their mat to another while playing.

Formative assessments are used throughout EYFS because we need insight into how children are developing to know when something needs changing or if interventions should stop altogether.

EYFS Summative Assessments

Summative assessment can be used to know if learners have achieved what was set out for them at the beginning of their education.

For example, how many times a child can read the alphabet in one minute or how well they know their number facts.

This type of assessment is usually done at pre-determined time points to see how much progress has been made and how different teaching strategies have helped learners along the way. It’s also used as evidence for parents that their children are on track with what they should be learning.”

Assessments should always include observation, discussion (including conversations with parents), checklists, records and portfolios. The purpose of these various tools is two-fold: firstly, they help ensure that children’s progress can be tracked appropriately, so teachers can make adjustments as needed based on observations; secondly, an accumulation of evidence helps support pupils’ claims about how they learn best by showing how diverse individual needs can be met.

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Reception Baseline Assessment

Do you have a child starting reception class?

If so, your child will be participating in the reception baseline assessment (RBA) within the first 6 weeks of starting reception. The purpose of the assessment is to provide the starting point for a new measure that will help parents understand how well schools support their pupils to progress between reception and year 6.

What is the RBA?

The RBA is a short, interactive and practical assessment of your child’s early literacy, communication, language and mathematics skills when they begin school, using materials that most children of your child’s age will be familiar with. It became statutory for all schools from September 2021. What does participating in the RBA mean for my child?

The RBA is not about judging or labelling your child or putting them under any pressure. Your child cannot ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ the assessment. Its main purpose is to create a starting point to measure the progress schools make with their pupils.

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We have an experienced team of dedicated staff who support all children throughout the school. The Early Years team work with our pastoral and SEN teams, as well as the Senior Leadership Team, to ensure we discuss and put in place measures that can help and support pupils who are struggling. We offer high care and warmth to enable all children to work through challenges they are facing.

The Early Years team visit children within their current settings before they come into Primary school. We offer transition days for children and parents so they can familiarise themselves with the school staff and routines.

Strong, warm and supportive relationships with adults enable children to learn understanding of their own feelings and those of others. Support children to manage their emotions, develop a positive sense of self, set themselves simple goals, have confidence in their abilities, and to persist and wait for what they want, directing attention as necessary. To best meet and support children’s emotions, we are sympathetic, warm, accepting and curious. We create connections and show empathy and listen fully to what a child is telling us, with their body language, actions, sounds and words.

We provide words and meanings to name and express emotions, so children can practice how to handle them as they arise. We encourage children to talk about their feelings, like anger or wanting something so badly they snatched it, while also being clear about limits.

Our staff have all the qualifications needed in order to teach a full and balanced curriculum. Some of our support staff are Forest School trained and offer advice about how to teach lessons outside.

Through conversation, story-telling and role play, where children share their ideas with support and modelling from their teacher, and sensitive questioning that invites them to elaborate, children become comfortable using a rich range of vocabulary and language structures. We start our phonics programme, Read Write Inc. during the EYFS, where children develop their knowledge of the sounds that will help them with reading and writing.

We have an active PTA. Parents are welcome and encouraged to join this organisation. Details for joining can be found in our PTA section. We communicate regularly with our community and parents. A paretns can contact the school via their class teacher or through the office if they wish to be involved in events.

Children learn best when they are healthy, safe and secure, when their individual needs are met and when they have positive relationships with the adults caring for them.” Early Years Statutory Framework –September 2021.

Safeguarding children, ensuring that they keep safe and well, is of paramount importance and at the heart of everything that we do. Any safeguarding or welfare issues will be dealt with in line with the school’s safeguarding and welfare policy.

We hold parents’ evenings, open evenings and encourage all parents to get in touch with their class teacher through their class email account.

All classes have a class email account where they can contact the child’s class teacher. Teachers are also available to the beginning and end of the day for messages. If you would like to speak to your child’s class teacher for a longer period of time, please book an appointment with them using the email address.

Parents can either speak to their child’s teacher upon pick up or drop off, or email the class email address.

The Seesaw app is used to support children’s learning at home. There is a specific home learning section where children are assigned activities and support is available on the app. Support is available from the class teachers who are always more than happy to help.

We report on a child’s progress three times a year. 

We have two parents’ evenings and a final written report. Parents can always discuss their child’s progress with their class teacher whenever they like.

Story telling and reading is one of the most important ways to support your child at home. Try to encourage your child to read and tell stories to you. Every half term teachers will give the children a menu of home learning choices that will link to their current Learning Enquiry. This will be published on the seesaw app. Talk through these activities with your child and encourage them to complete these activities every week. Make learning fun for your child!

Parents are given the opportunity to voice opinions through the parent questionnaire held annually.

Parents are welcome to contact the school if they would like to be a part of the Local Governing Body.

We have parent volunteers in the school. Any parent who wishes to volunteer needs to contact their child’s class teacher or Mrs Taylor. A DBS check will need to take place before any volunteers can start.

We hold a 'meet the teacher' afternoon after school early in the Autumn term. This is so parents can get to know their child's class teacher and have an opportunity to look at the classroom and some of he work they have done so far. We hold parents' evenings twice a year, where parents can ask what they can do to support their child. We have an open door policy, parents are always welcome to speak to their child's class teacher and you can contact them via the class email.

The curriculum for your child is posted on the website, including their home learning, so parents can see how they can support their child. This is also posted on our on learning app Seesaw.

Learning is celebrated on facebook regularly, so parents can see what children in school have been learning about.

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We offer a variety of after school clubs run by a mixture of teachers, Learning Support Assistants and outside providers. We offer a range of activities such as football, athletics, craft, archery, performing arts. Some of the children who attend these clubs are given further opportunities to represent the school on other occasions.

Clubs are available after school every day.

There are a variety of clubs which change across the year. Some examples are: Football, archery, athletics, chess, crafts, art, cricket, street dance and gymnastics.

There is no cost for the after school clubs. 

Every term a letter is sent to parents via email which contains a choice of clubs available for your child’s year group. Parents use a google form to indicate which clubs their child is interested in attending. Their child’s name will be entered into a ballot if the demand for the club is higher than the number of spaces available. Parents are informed if their child has been successful in gaining a place and further details then follow.

We offer a wide range of clubs to all pupils equally. If there is any support needed to help a child access their chosen club, then that is put in place.

Teachers report to parents during two parents’ evenings during the Autumn and Spring Term. A written report is given to parents in the Summer Term.

Please call the school office and leave a message if your child is absent from school. Please inform the school on each day of the child's absence.

Parents can contact their child’s teacher by using the class email address which can be found on the class pages.

We follow the KiVa programme, where children are taught how to be respectful and kind to each other. They explore what bullying is, through taught lessons, how they can prevent it and what to do if they spot it. We also have an extra focus on bullying in Anti-Bullying week.

We regularly send out letters to parents. Our facebook page informs parents about news and events. There is a notice board by the Avenue Road entrance with upcoming dates and events.

See school uniform policy.

We encourage healthy eating through in school promotions and during our science and PSHE lessons. Breaktime snacks should consist of healthy options such as: fruit, cheese, vegetable sticks. Packed lunches should be balanced and promote healthy options. Our School Council helps promote healthy eating.

Parents will need to fill out a absence request form available from the school office.

Our Pastoral Team can signpost parents towards mental health and wellbeing.

We hold parents’ evenings, open evenings and encourage all parents to get in touch with their class teacher through their class email account.

We ask parents' for their opinions on areas across the school through a parent questionnaire, held once a year.

KS1 – English, Maths, Science, Computing, History, Geography, Music, Art, Design Technology, Personal Social Health Education, Religious Education, Physical Education

KS2 – all of the above plus French

From Reception through to Year 6, we foster a love of reading and writing. From Reception, we use Read Write Inc. to teach children how to segment and blend words for reading and writing. We use Devon Babcock schemes to support with our writing units. The units progress through the process of imitating, innovating and then finally inventing their own writing based on the text type they have been immersed in.

For maths, we use the maths no problem scheme to support the teaching and learning of a mastery maths curriculum.

In reading, we use high quality texts to engage the children. We explore various text types and use book talk to give children space to explore their comprehension of the texts.

Homework is encouraged and celebrated within the class. Every half term, a homework menu is shared on seesaw. The children are encouraged to pick an activity from the menu to demonstrate their learning. There are activities for children to complete every week such as reading, maths and spellings.

Our adults are our greatest resource. The classrooms contain working walls to support children throughout their units of work. These contain vocabulary, sentence stems and prompts to support children.  We use manipulatives such as counters, dienes, etc to support with maths.

The Seesaw app loaded onto iPads are a great support. Teachers can upload support materials to this app and children can access these when appropriate. 

Our adults are our greatest resource. The classrooms contain working walls to support children throughout their units of work. These contain vocabulary, sentence stems and prompts to support children.  We use manipulatives such as counters, dienes, etc to support with maths.

If pupils need support with reading, we have our phonics scheme which include sound charts, which can support children with their reading, and also their writing.

The Seesaw app loaded onto ipads are a great support. Teachers can upload support materials to this app and children can access these when appropriate  

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A well planned curriculum ensures all children receive a broad and balanced curriculum. All subjects are given equal time within a two year block. Subjects are grouped together and drive a Learning Enquiry from its hook to its outcome. Please see the curriculum pages for more information.

We teach a broad and balanced curriculum. We are very proud of our curriculum, which is enquiry based, promoting an enquiring mind.

Within the curriculum, creativity and the arts is planned for and encouraged. We have a number of clubs that promote creativity and the arts.

Our school values are Respect, Independence, Aspirational, Collaborative, Creative, Persevering.

For more information about these, please visit our values page.

Cockington Primary School is a place where we empower every child to believe, achieve and succeed.

Approximately 450 pupils attended Cockington Primary School.

Class sizes are a maximum of 30 pupils.

There is always at least one teacher for every class, alongside Learning Support Assistants.

Our school hours are 8:45-3:15.

For more information on our school days, click here.

We have a fabulous pastoral team who offer timetabelled sessions for individual and groups of pupils that need more support for whatever the reason. The team works across the school, and within classes to ensure every child is given high warmth care throughout their day. We offer lunch clubs and small spaces for children who find the lunch time a particularly challenging time.

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Safeguarding is extremely serious and the school ensures that everyone has up to date training every year.

We have efficient procedures and policies which keep all children at Cockington Primary School safe. We have designated safeguarding officers who are trained annually. All staff know the procedures to follow and keeping children safe is at the heart of everything we do.

We partner up with Trauma Informed Schools Approach to create a better understanding of the whole child.

More information on their website here.

Children need to be at school ready to start learning at 8:45.

The school gates close at 8:50 to allow those parents on site time to say goodbye to their child and exit the school gates.

Any child arriving at school after 8:50 will be marked as late. The school's attendance officer will contact parents who are often late to see if we can work together to help families arrive at school on time.

We are an inclusive school. We welcome children from all backgrounds.

We offer a graduated response to ensure all the children's needs are met within school.

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Children are assessed in reading, writing and maths in various ways throughout their school career. Teachers constantly assess children throughout lessons and adapt teaching and learning as necessary. They are assessed on their phonics during the first few years in school, taking the statutory Phonics Screening Check in Year 1. In EYFS, children are assessed against the Early Learning Goals throughout their time within the phase. As they move throughout the school, children may be given maths and reading assessments to see how much progress a child and their class has made. They are always used to inform future lessons. Year 4 take the statutory Multiplication Tables Check. Year 6 take the national SATS in May.

Other subjects are assessed in a number of ways – informal quizzes, revision tasks and other activities are set by teachers to asses their knowledge in the broader subjects of the curriculum.  

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In KS1, Read Write Inc. phonics scheme is used to teach children phonics and how to segment and blend words to read.

In KS2, whole class comprehension sessions for reading. Whole class writing sessions.

Maths is taught in whole class sessions using Maths No problem, which promotes maths mastery through journaling and exploring problem solving.