The Deanery CE Academy!

Policies

1. Are phones allowed at break? No, we have a no phone policy at our academy. Students should leave their phones in their lockers turned off. 
2. Will my child be put in a tutor group with their best friend? We ask for preferences from all parents/carers and seek feedback from all primary schools. We endeavour to ensure that students are with familiar faces, where possible, but also run activities to encourage our students to make new friends here at The Deanery.
3. Do we need to provide any additional information regarding faith? Please see the information regarding filling in a Supplementary Information Form on our website in the admissions section.

Uniform

1. Where can we find uniform prices? Our uniform supplier is Trutex and you can find all of the latest prices at www.trutex.com
2. Can girls wear trousers? Yes, girls and boys can wear either are tartan skirt or grey trousers, supplied by Trutex. 
3. Do you have strict hair policies? Our policy states that we do not allow ‘extreme’ haircuts. All of our students are expected to be smart and well presented. 

Travel

1. Do you have a school bus? Currently we run our school minibus, but we are working with local bus companies to enable us to run a bus service from September 2021.

General

1. Do you have separate boy’s and girl’s toilets? All of our toilets are open plan and are gender neutral. All toilets are single cubicles with full height doors and walls. 
2. How many children do you have in your current year 7? Were you oversubscribed? In 2020 we welcomed 210 students to our academy and were oversubscribed. 
3. How many places do you have in 2021? Our PAN (Published Admissions Number ) is 210 for all future cohorts. 
4. Do you have any ‘feeder’ schools? No
5. What is the ‘catchment’ area for the academy? Please see the map regarding this on our website in the admissions section.
6. Do you finish at 4:30? We have an extended day Monday to Thursday, where we finish at 4:30pm. On Friday we finish at 2:15pm.  

Curriculum

1. How do you support children who are ‘Greater Depth’? Our curriculum is designed to be ‘high pitch and high challenge’. We believe in ‘quality first teaching’ and invest significant time in our own teacher’s professional development to ensure that lessons are of a high standard. All of our students are then further enriched via trips, visits, competitions and through our enrichment programme. 
2. How many lessons per subject? We have 48 hours of lessons per fortnight, plus 6 hours of enrichment. Our current curriculum plan includes 7 hours of English and Maths; 6 hours of science; 4 hours of Religious Education, Geography, History, MFL (2 French and 2 Spanish) and Physical Education; 3 hours of Music and Values in Practice; 1 hour of Dance, Technology and Drama. As we grow, and begin to recruit more specialist teachers, there will be some minor adjustments to the number of teaching hours per subject.  
3. Do children do homework? In Key Stage 3 there is very little homework, perhaps occasional vocabulary learning.  We believe that homework often does not meet the purpose it is designed for, instead we have a longer academy day.
4. How do you support children ‘catch-up’? We have a growing inclusion team, who support our students in addition to various support packages and materials available to all students, including Hegarty Maths, Accelerated Reader and Timestables Rock Stars. 
5. What languages do you offer? In year 7, students will have two hours of French and two hours of Spanish per fortnight. 

Physical Education

1. Will you have a Basketball team? Yes. One of enrichment partners is a professional basketball coach and also runs external clubs outside of the academy day. 
2. Do you have a girl’s football team? We are in the process of setting a team up. 
3. Do you have a netball team? Yes. Our sports hall has an indoor Netball pitch too. 
4. Is there a football team? Yes. We compete against all local secondary schools and our academy playing field can accommodate two full size football pitches and one junior. 

Food and Allergies

1. How do you deal with children with food allergies? All allergies are recorded on our internal database and is available to all staff, including our Deanery Kitchen. 
2. How much is a school meal? £2.45
3. My child has an epipen, who do I talk to? Our SENDCO, Miss Luckman. 

SEND

1. What SEN support is available? We have a dedicated team of SEN support specialists, including a SENDCo, 1 Higher Level Teaching Assistant, 4 Teaching Assistants and a Student Support Worker
2. How do you support children who are dyslexic? Using our dedicated team of SEN support specialists, supplemented by our Dyslexia Champion, we believe the best support is to experience high quality in the classroom, with targeted support where appropriate
3. How do you support children who have dyspraxia? Using our dedicated team of SEN support specialists, we believe the best support is to experience high quality in the classroom, with targeted support where appropriate
4. How do you support children with ADHD? Using our dedicated team of SEN support specialists, we employ a range of techniques personalised to each individual child
5. How do you support children with ASD? Using our dedicated team of SEN support specialists, we employ a range of techniques personalised to each individual child

Nurse

1. Do you have a school nurse? Not currently, instead we have a team of trained First Aiders and employ the support of the Swindon nursing service when appropriate.

Open Day

1. Will you be running any tours? Due to COVID restrictions, we have to minimise the number of external visitors and therefore we are unable to run an open mornings. Please watch our website for our Virtual Coffee mornings that will be advertised shortly.