School Handbook 2005-2006

Consulting with Pupils/ Transferring Educational Data About Pupils

Professionals Visiting The School / Information Sharing and Confidentiality /School Health Service

Transport /Health and Safety

Resolving Issues / Parents & School Working in Partnership

Useful Telephone Numbers

Consulting with Pupils/ Transferring Educational Data About Pupils

Consulting with Pupils

Our school encourages children to develop personal views. Many opportunities are given informally in class and more formally through our Pupil Council, questionnaires and suggestion boxes as well as consulting with individual pupils at appropriate times.

Transferring Educational Data About Pupils

Education Authorities and the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) have collected data about pupils on paper forms for many years. We are now working together to transfer data electronically through the ScotXed programme.

What pupil data will be collected and transferred?
Data on each pupil is collected by local authorities and SEED. The data collected and transferred covers areas such as date of birth, postcode, and registration for free-school meals, whether a pupil is looked after by his/her local authority, additional support needs, attendance, absence and exclusions from school. Pupil names and addresses are collected by their school and education authority but they are not passed to SEED. Your postcode is the only part of your address that is transferred. Data is held securely and no information on individual pupils can or would be published by SEED. It is used for statistical and research purposes only.

Providing national identity and ethnic background data is entirely voluntary. You can choose the ?not disclosed? option if you do not want to provide this data. However, we hope that the explanations contained in this message and on our website will help you understand the importance of providing the data. Why do we need your data? ? In order to make the best decisions about how to improve our education service, SEED and education authorities need accurate, up-to-date data about our pupils.
We are keen to help all our pupils do well in all aspects of school life and achieve better exam results. Accurate and up-to-date data allows SEED, education authorities and schools to:

· plan and deliver better policies for the benefit of all pupils,
· plan and deliver better policies for the benefit of specific groups of pupils,
· better understand some of the factors that influence pupil attainment and achievemen,
· target resources better.

Your data protection rights ? The collection, transfer, processing and sharing of ScotXed data is done in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998). We also comply with the National Statistics Code of Practice requirements and other legislation related to safeguarding the confidentiality of data. The Data Protection Act gives you the right to know how we will use your data. This message can give only a brief description of how we use data. Fuller details of the uses of pupil data can be found on the ScotXed website.
SEED will not publish or release any information that allows an individual pupil to be identified. Data will not be used by SEED to take any actions in respect of individual pupils. Data will only be shared with bona fide partners, such as HMIE and SQA. Any sharing will be done under conditions of strict control and with the prior agreement of the Data Controller.

Concerns ? If you have any concerns about the ScotXed data collections you can email the Data Controller, Peter Scrimgeour, at /EDData.Controller@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or write to The ScotXed Support Office, SEED, Area 1B, Victoria Quay, Leith EH6 6QQ. Alternative versions of this page are available, no request from the ScotXed Support Office, in other languages, audio tape, Braille and large print. Please allow up to 10 days for requests to be processed.

Want more information?

Further details about ScotXed data exchanges are available on the ScotXed website, www.scotxed.net. The website also contains answers to commonly asked questions about Scot.Xed.

Parents/Guardians should note that children can only be collected from school by the parent. If someone else is to collect the pupil the school should be informed in advance. Back to top

Professionals Visiting The School / Information Sharing and Confidentiality /School Health Service

Professionals Visiting School/Information Sharing and Confidentiality

Schools can call on professionals from a number of different agencies/services for help and advice. These include Educational Psychologists, Outreach Teachers, Officers within the Pupil Support Division, School Doctor, School Nurse, Careers Advisor and Social Worker. Formal referral to any of these agencies/services would only take place with the consent of parents/guardians. There will however be occasions when issues may be discussed in confidence without formal referral and therefore without such consent. If parents are concerned about this they should contact the school for further information.

School Health Service:

Throughout your child?s years at primary and secondary school, a team of specialist Health Service and Education Department staff will be seeing him or her from time to time to make sure that he or she benefits as much as possible from all that school has to offer, and to help prepare him or her for life after leaving school. The School Health Service is part of the Community Child Health Service and has direct links with those who carry out health checks on children before they start school.

Many different services are provided. The staff involved make every effort to work closely with parents and with others who are caring for your child, both at school and in other branches of the Health Service. Some of the services, e.g. testing for vision, hearing or speech, are provided to all children on a routine basis to discover which children may need further tests or treatment. Parents are not notified of these screening tests and any parent who does not want a child to be included should notify the school at the beginning of the session. Naturally, if treatment is thought to be required, the child?s parents will be informed and consent requested.
Some of the staff concerned and the parts they play are as follows:

The school nurse carries out regular inspections of groups of children, gives advice on health and hygiene, tests eyesight from time to time and works with the school doctor. The attention of the doctor is drawn to any possible problems. Parents and the family doctor are informed if any further action is considered necessary.

The school nurse may be helped by a health assistant. The school nurse also acts as an important link between home and school.

Some of the staff concerned and the parts they play are as follows:

The school nurse carries out regular inspections of groups of children, gives advice on health and hygiene, tests eyesight from time to time and works with the school doctor. The attention of the doctor is drawn to any possible problems. Parents and the family doctor are informed if any further action is considered necessary.

The school nurse may be helped by a health assistant. The school nurse also acts as an important link between home and school.

In secondary schools the school doctor may consider whether any special information should be provided for the Careers Advisory Service.

The school doctor will be pleased to see you and your child at any time if you are concerned about his or her health or general progress at school.

With your consent, the school doctor also carried out immunisations to protect against various diseases:

Age 4 ? 5: immunisations against diptheria, tetanus, polio and MMR
(Measles, Mumps, Rubella), if these have not before given
before starting school.
Age 12 ? 14: testing for resistance to tuberculosis and immunisations (BCG)
where required. Girls only ? testing for resistance to Rubella,
(German Measles), and immunisations if necessary.
Age 14 ? 15: booster immunisation against tetanus and polio.
If you prefer, you may ask your family doctor to immunise your child.

The audiometric team checks children?s hearing on a number of occasions before the age of 11/14 years. The school doctor will be told if your child seems to have a hearing problem. The doctor will examine the child and let your own doctor know the result.

The speech therapist can provide assessment and, if necessary, treatment if you, a teacher or the school doctor feels that your child may have a speech or language problem.

We hope that the School Health Service can, together with yourselves, contribute to your child?s overall well-being and development. Please do not hesitate to arrange through the Head Teacher to see the school doctor, school nurse or the health visitor if you want any information. Back to top

Transport /Health and Safety

Transport:

The Authority?s current policy is to pay travelling expenses of those pupils attending the district school who live more than two miles from that school.

Bus passes are issued where public transport exists, and contract transport is arranged where there is no suitable public transport. Where there are vacant seats on contract buses, these may be made available to pupils who are not normally entitled to free transport.

Travelling expenses are also met in the case of any pupil whom the Authority requires to attend a school other than the district school, if that pupil meets the distance qualification. Where appropriate, free travel is provided for pupils receiving special education. Consideration may also be given to request for assistance with travel in exceptional circumstances e.g. where the road between home and school is deemed dangerous by the Authority, and where there is no public transport available.
Parents who choose to send their children to a school other than the district school will not receive assistance in relation to travel to and from school. However, the Education Committee has agreed a number of exceptions to this rule and further details are available from the Department of Education and Community Services, John Muir House, Haddington, East Lothian EH41 1HA.

Health and Safety

?The Education & Children?s Services Department has prepared statements of safety policy for all areas of its responsibility in accordance with the Health and Safety Act 1974. School staff are fully instructed in their responsibilities in this respect, and safety regulations apply to aspects of school life, both on and off the premises. It is expected that pupils will behave responsibly and comply with all safety requirements. The support of parents in promoting good practice in health and safety matters is of great importance to the school?. Back to top

Resolving Issues / Parents & School Working in Partnership

Resolving Issues ? Parents and School Working in Partnership

As much as possible we work hard to resolve any issues regarding our pupils with the parents concerned. To explain the process there is a Scottish Executive leaflet available in the Entrance Area of our school entitled ?Resolving Issues ? Parents and School Working in Partnership.
Child Protection Guidelines

Edinburgh, the Lothians and Borders, including East Lothian Council have reviewed and re-issued the ?Inter-Agency Child Protection Guidelines?. The guidelines promote a high level of inter-agency co-operation when working with children who may be in need of protection. Our school works closely within these guidelines to help build good partnerships with all the outside agencies and our parents.

Extra-Curricular Activities

At our school we aim to offer extra-curricular activities when possible. This year we hope to be running country dance, storytelling and choir groups at lunchtimes and Basic Moves and Play sessions after school. We are always seeking to build on this. Back to top

Useful Telephone Numbers

USEFUL ADDRESSES
TELEPHONE NUMBERS

If you have cause for concern, the first person to approach will normally be the Head Teacher, Tel: 01875 810028.

The following list of ?useful addresses? include the names of other relevant contact persons.

Service Managers

Pupil Support Division Sheila Ainslie 01620 827565

Schools Support Division Derek Haywood 01620 827633
Manager, Schools Support Division

The address for both the above Officers is Department of Education and CommunityServices, John Muir House, Haddington, East Lothian EH41 3HA.

Useful Telephone Numbers ? based at the above address

Director of Education & Children?s Services Alan J Blackie 01620 827508
Head of Education Don Ledingham 01620 827596
Head of Children?s Services Alan Ross 01620 827881
Manager, School Support Division Derek Haywood 01620 827633
Manager, Pupil Support Division Sheila Ainslie 01620 827565
Principal Community Development Officer (Sports Development) ? based at Meadowmill Sports Centre Eamon John 01875 615303
Principal Support Officer 01620 827752
School Boards Richard Parker 01620 827494
School Lets Frances MacInnes 01620 827811
Principal Psychologist Jenny Wilson 01620 827587
Free chool clothing and Meals and Higher School Allowances and EMA?s Fiona Brown 01620 827587
Early Years Development Officer Helen McMillan 01620 827139
Education & Children?s Services Reception 01620 827631
Resource Team Manager (Children?s Services) Robert Swift 01620 827237
Service Manager (Practice Teams) (Children?s Services) Marion Wood 01620 827881
Integration Team, based at Alderston House, Haddington Raymy Boyle 0162 0829768

Scottish Office Education & Industry Department
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ
Tel : 0131 556 8400 Back to top