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Welcome to our Moving Up to The Buckingham School Transition eBulletin, which we hope you and your child find informative.
The content includes top tips from our current students, information on uniform, links to Getting Ready for Secondary School booklets, and so much more. There's an update on our recently completed refurbishment and building works (new classrooms, science labs, dining room and toilet/changing facilities) and finally, please have a look at the dedicated area on the school website under the Parents section/Joining us in Year 7. Click here to take you there!
We look forward to welcoming your child to The Buckingham School in September and we will be writing to you separately regarding House and Form Group allocation and first day arrangements for Friday 3 September.
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Moving Up to Secondary School Induction Material
As you are aware, due to Buckinghamshire Council's guidance preventing in person Induction Days throughout the County, we hope that your child managed to watch the welcome videos and carried out some of the activities set!
We have taken the opportunity to include the Induction material here. Simply click on the web links below.
Headteacher Video
Head of Year Video
Student First & Student Video
School Video
Click on the files shown below to view/download each activity:
Challenge 1: Complete the Jigsaw
Challenge 2: Can you find your way from Lesson to Lesson
Challenge 3: Transition Quiz
Challenge 4: Word Search
Challenge 5: School Virtues
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Just in case you haven't read the recent Transition letter sent to Year 6 families, click here.
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Top Tips for Year 6 children moving up to The Buckingham School
Starting secondary school is a significant milestone in your life. It is an exciting time, yet can be a little daunting at the same time. Our students understand it too, because they’ve been through it themselves. Here’s some student top tips and advice to help you practically, socially and emotionally.
Click here to find out what our students say.
Also, see the website for a booklet for parents and children to share and read together. Click here to explore more.
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All About Me Videos
We have received so many wonderful 'All about Me' videos! They have been amazing to watch, giving us an insight into your child's likes, interests, what they are looking forward to when they start with us in September, and, it's also been lovely to see so many of your pets joining in the limelight!
For those of you who have yet to record an All About Me video, it's not too late! Please send yours to transition2021@buckinghamschool.org
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Practical Challenge Grid
To help your child prepare for some of the more practical aspects of the Transition, we have put together a set of challenges which we would like your child to take part in.
The challenges are to be undertaken over the coming weeks. They may find some to be quick and easy, whereas others may be a little more demanding; all of them we hope they will find to be fun and interesting.
We would love to know how your child is getting on with the challenges set and to see what they have been doing. If you are happy to share pictures of them completing their tasks, or a picture of a completed task project, we would be delighted to see them.
To view the Practical Challenge Grid, click here.
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How your new school day works
When your child starts with us in September, they will soon become familiar with our two-week timetable.
The day is divided into ‘periods’. The word ‘period’ is the same as ‘lesson’. It means you change classrooms from one ‘period’ to another. Please refer to the map on the back of this guide to help you find your way around the school.
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New Building Development Completed
This is an exciting time for new Year 7 students to join The Buckingham School. The school benefits from a recently completed £2.8m property development programme, invested from the local authority to support the growing demand and pupil numbers.
The new development includes:
- Four new Science Labs; we now have nine in total
- More refurbished and reconfigured classrooms
- Brand new staff and student toilets and changing facilities
- New dining facilities
- Newly landscaped recreation areas
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Food Zone
The Buckingham School Foodzone is the school canteen and starts service at 8am with breakfast. Here you can buy a selection of Danish pastries, bacon or omelette rolls, and cereals; a selection of hot & cold drinks are also available. A freshly cooked bacon roll or a cup of hot chocolate are very popular!
Mid-morning break is served from 11am - 11.20am with lunch served from 1.20pm – 2.05pm. At both break and lunchtimes you can choose from filled sandwiches, wraps, baguettes, hot snacks and cakes, and there is hot food available at both times. Our main lunch menu is run on a three-week cycle over a period of the full term and all drinks available comply with The Food Standard Trust. We change our menus every full term and try to incorporate ideas which the students have given us.
We operate a cashless system in the Canteen, using a biometric or keypad system for payment and top-ups are added through our ParentMail system. £2.30 will buy you a hot lunch with a pudding.
The School is very proud that our Canteen has retained its 5* Food Hygiene Award for the last twelve years.
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Learning Resource Centre
Need somewhere to go for quiet study or to just chill out and read a book? Visit The Learning Resource Centre (upper floor in the Humanities block); it is a great place to go for quiet study or to just chill out and read a book.
The Learning Resource Centre is open every day from 8am and closes at 4.30pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, 3.10pm Thursday and 4.00pm on Friday.
It is a light, airy and relaxed area to come and work in. There are fifteen networked computers and access to black/white and colour printing.
Everyone is welcome!
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Mobile Phone Policy
Our mobile phone policy is simple: we do not allow mobile phones to be either seen or heard at any point during the school day; this includes breaktime and lunchtime.
From the time students enter the gate in the morning until they have left the gate at the end of the day, their phones must either be turned off or switched to silent, and stored safely either in their school bag or blazer pocket.
If a student’s phone is either seen or heard during the school day it will be confiscated.
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School Uniform
As we want everyone associated with The Buckingham School to be proud of its achievements, we believe that a visual sense of belonging to a community is important and, to this end, we require that school uniform is worn by our students. Parental support is vital in this and we hope that the uniform is both practical and reasonable.
Here is the link to our Uniform section on the school website from which you can see the School's full uniform standards, PE uniform and also a current price list from T King Associates.
To view the uniform list and price list, click on the button below.
Our uniform supplier, T King Associates, is open for business.
They are happy for you to visit in person, however, due to COVID guidance, they are encouraging orders to be placed online wherever possible to avoid queues at the shop. They understand that new students will probably want to try blazers on and they are open for sizing as per normal. However, they would like customers to be aware that limited numbers of customers are allowed in the shop at any one time and therefore delays may occur during this time. If you would like to speak to a member of staff about your uniform purchase, T King Associates’ telephone number is 01280 824836.
www.tkingassociates.com
Telephone 01280 824836
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Stationery Equipment
All students should have a school bag with them every day containing a pencil case with the following items.
- School Notebook (provided by the school)
- Black/Blue/Red/Green Pens
- Pencils
- 30cm ruler
- Eraser & pencil sharpener
- Scientific calculator
- A reading book
- Maths set including compass & protractor
- Glue stick & Highlighters
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A pre-filled pencil case containing all the essential items can be purchased from our Reprographics Office for £4.00. You can also purchase Maths Sets at £2.00 each and Scientific Calculators for £8.50 each. Our Shop is open during break and lunchtimes only, every day.
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If you travel to and from school by a school bus…
Arriving at school
When you alight from the bus, please make your way quickly and safely to the school gates, clearing the way for the next bus to arrive. Please do not stand around outside the front of the school. If you have arranged to meet someone, meet them on the playground or, if it is raining, you will have access to a number of rooms within the main building.
Leaving school
All students travelling home by dedicated school bus must go to the MUGA where they will be supervised by our Senior Leadership Team. When their bus arrives and is ready in the lay-by at the front of the school, the students will be escorted to their bus by a member of SLT. If you catch a service bus on the London Road, teachers will be there to make sure that you cross the road safely using the traffic islands.
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Bus Transport - New Bus Route 904
You may be aware that Buckinghamshire Council will cease to operate route 905 from September and Marshalls Transport are taking over the route. The update on the route has been good (50 children registered, however, they need another 20 children registered to make the route viable.
The new route (904) is for children living in Newton Longville, Whaddon, Mursley, Swanbourne, Little Horwood, Great Horwood and Nash.
Parents need to register their interest with Marshalls at https://marshalls-coaches.co.uk/services/school-travel
Further information regarding Buckinghamshire Council's School Transport can be found here.
https://www.buckinghamschool.org/page/?title=Bucks+Council+School+Transport+service&pid=404
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School Houses
The Buckingham School’s House system gives a real sense of belonging and it allows students to develop important and personal relationships. Every student is assigned a House. The House system creates competition, promotes good work and behaviour, encourages teamwork, provides opportunities to take on responsibilities and brings everyone in the school together.
Each House has its own identity and its own House colour; this is symbolised by each House having their own House tie which clearly maintains the school colours and logo, but also highlights and shows which House each student represents. Each House also has a Head of House and their brief is to instil belonging and pride in the Houses, extending our House competitions far beyond the Inter-House sport that already takes place.
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Our Vision underlies everything at The Buckingham School. We want children to achieve the highest possible standards, be challenged and enjoy their school experience. This underpins all that we do, whether in the classroom, on the sports field, in concert, on stage, or in the extensive range of other opportunities we offer our students at all stages of their education.
As a school, we aim to develop our students to be successful in all that life in the 21st Century offers. Our curriculum is designed to achieve this by being broad and balanced, as well as offering students deep and rich learning and enrichment experiences that are all underpinned by our School Virtues.
We developed seven Virtues that we particularly cherish and seek to embed in our students:-
AMBITION, CONFIDENCE, RESPECT, EMPATHY, RESILIENCE, INTEGRITY AND CURIOSITY.
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Student First Team
The Student First Team provide an all embracing service for our students, working together to develop and maintain their social, emotional, mental health and wellbeing.
The team, all of whom have a wealth of experience in their own areas of expertise aim to always put students first and offer them support and guidance, as well as providing necessary support for parents and carers. We also refer to, and work with, organisations who provide additional support for young people and their families when necessary.
To read the Student First Team leaflet, please click here:
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Communicating with parents is an important part of what we do, making sure you get the correct information about school news, activities and things that really matter, is something we care about.
Our chosen communication platform is ParentMail and is used not only to communicate with you, but is also the portal for purchasing items from school and paying for school trips.
Registering with ParentMail is very easy! You will shortly receive either an email and/or text message from ParentMail; when you receive this please just follow the instructions in the message.
Please be assured that ParentMail is registered with the Information Commissioner and guarantees that all information you provide will be kept private and will not be passed on to any other organisation.
Once registered, if you have an Android or Apple smartphone, we would highly recommend you download the ParentMail App for the best user experience. To do this, simply search for “ParentMail” in your App store.
If you need any additional information or assistance, please visit the help site: www.parentmail.co.uk/help/parenthelp/
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Who to Contact
If you have a pastoral concern regarding your child, your first port of call should be to contact their Form Tutor; by email is best as it is hard to contact teaching staff via the telephone during the working day. Arrangements can then be made for a face-to-face meeting or telephone call if necessary.
If your query cannot be sufficiently resolved through your child’s Form Tutor, please contact their Head of Year. Again, email is the most effective method of initially making contact.
If your query relates to a particular subject, please email the subject teacher. All of our staff email contact details can be found on our website www.buckinghamschool.org under Contact Us section.
If you are unsure of whom you should be contacting, please contact our Main Reception on 01280 812206, who will be happy to assist you, but please find following the responsibilities and contact details of our Senior Team:
Attendance
If you need to report your child’s absence, please contact the school by 9.30am either by phoning the Student Absence Line on 01280 818923, or email mwhitbread@buckinghamschool.org.
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The school website has a wealth of important and useful information, so please take the opportunity to look around.
Additionally, we have created a dedicated section 'Joining us in Year 7', which includes information and resources to hopefully help with your child's transition from primary to secondary school.
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Follow us on Social Media
#WeAreBuckinghamSchool
#ProudToBeBuckingham
#Buckingham
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LATEST NEWS: from www.buckinghamschool.org
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09 Jul 2021
To coincide with the English football team reaching the finals of a major tournament for the first time in fifty-five years, as well as the end of our own fantastic House charity events, we would like Monday 12th July to be a celebration of our identities.
Students can attend school in their own...
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09 Jul 2021
As we come to the end of the school year, we would really appreciate it if you could have a look to see if you have any uniform in good, clean condition that you would be willing to donate to help us replenish our stocks in our Nearly New Uniform shop.
Please can I a...
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07 Jul 2021
Charity Champions House Event – Swan House
As you are aware, The Buckingham School is running a week of House events to raise money for local charities. Swan House are raising money for the Oli Hilsdon Foundation.
The Oli Hilsdon Foundation funds brain tumour research, in loving me...
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What's happening on social media
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WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU ALL VERY SOON!
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facebook: www.facebook.com/thebuckinghamschool
Instagram: @thebuckinghamschool
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TBS_Information
Success for All through Achievement, Challenge & Enjoyment
The Buckingham School, London Road, Buckingham MK18 1AT
Tel. 01280 812206 Email office@buckinghamschool.org
www.buckinghamschool.org
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