School Organisation

Our school is organised into ‘Strands’ (Chalkhill, Grayling, Meadow and Skipper) which include classes from each of the three stages of education at Damers:

Foundation Stage

Key Stage 1 (Years 1 and 2)

Key Stage 2 (Years 3 and 4)

School Times

All children attend school for 32.5 hours in total each week.  We stagger the start and end of the school day for our strands to ensure that children have a calm and independent start and end to their day, with a reduced number of children entering and leaving the school site at the same time. We aim to keep families within the same strand so that siblings can start and end their school day at the same time. Our aim is to ensure that strands arrive steadily between 8.25 am and 8.50 am, and leave steadily between 3.00 pm and 3.20 pm, allowing every child and their parents / carers the opportunity to be greeted personally by classroom staff and other key staff including the Head of School, Deputy and Assistant Headteachers.  

Grayling strand begin their day at 8.30 am and leave at 3.00 pm

Meadow strand begin their day at 8.40 am and leave at 3.10 pm

Skipper / Chalkhill strands begin their day at 8.50 am and leave at 3.20 pm

Please note that classroom staff will greet children on the gates 5 minutes before the times indicated above to allow them to be in the classroom for the start of their day (registration time).

Breaks - All classes have their lunch break between 12.00 pm and 1.00 pm

All classes take a 15 minute break during the morning session and Foundation, Year 1 and Year 2 may take an additional 10 minute break during the afternoon session.

Assemblies

Assemblies are very much part of our school life. They provide a regular opportunity to enhance the community life of the school and are used to explore and embed the values and principles which underpin our values and everyday life at Damers.

Our week begins with a strand assembly for the children in Years 1-4 and our strand assemblies incorporate our current focus values alongside our Jigsaw themes and any learning and links with relevant current local, national and global events. Children are set a challenge for the week which will involve putting our learning or focus value into practice throughout their week.  Year groups then meet on a Wednesday for singing together and a look at global issues, observances in different religions, Black History Month and other important and notable times in our calendar.  We gather again on a Friday afternoon in key stages to celebrate individual achievements linked with our theme.