Quick Guide
Checklists
St Teilo's serves thousands of families from across the capital city as both a learning community and a place of worship and formation. Our school is a large and complex organisation, with lots of processes and procedures designed to keep people safe and help them make progress.
The checklists that follow provide a brief overview of school life and support parents and carers in their efforts to ensure that children are ready to learn.
Parents and carers should prioritise school attendance, ensuring that children attend on time and every day. Studies show that a child's success at school is very likely to be negatively affected if their attendance is poor. Every child should have attendance above 95% in order to maintain progress. Of course, people are ill from time to time; on these occasions, parents and carers should report the absence online for each day of the absence. Holidays will not be authorised in the months between September and May (but will be considered in June and July).
Checklist:
Ensure attendance to school every day.
Ensure arrival no later than 8.30am.
On the rare occasions a child is absent, report online here straight away.
Do not take holidays in term time between September and May.
Always seek the school's permission for planned absences.
As a Church in Wales school, we believe that restorative approaches to discipline work because children learn best through healing relationships that make them feel safe, secure, and nurtured. Maintaining a safe and loving environment requires every member of our community (including adults) to meet our expectations of 'Respect People, Respect Learning and Respect Property'. In addition, the school will take a necessarily firm stance on our non-negotiables of hate speech, violence and mobile telephones.
Checklist:
Familiarise yourself with the school's expectations and non-negotiables here.
Uphold the school's approach to behaviour and support the school's decision making.
Model positive, polite and civilised relationships, treating all members of the school community with respect.
Demonstrate respect for difference and for the diverse needs of the school community.
Ensure boundaries and consequences at home reinforce good behaviour at school.
Progression in learning is how a child develops and improves their skills and knowledge over time. This means increasing their breadth and depth of knowledge, deepening their understanding, and refining their skills, all while becoming more independent and applying their learning to new situations. Learning is complicated and messy - yet we can all play a part in supporting learning on a day-to-day basis. Teachers will guide children and families about how best to secure improvement.
Checklist:
Make sure your child attends school equipped and ready to learn with a bag and pencil case.
Encourage the completion of weekly or fortnightly online homework tasks.
Attend online parent meetings and other parent information events.
Ensure you have received a copy of progress reports each term.
Encourage your child to take part in clubs and extra-curricular activities.
Uniform provides cohesion within the school and supports good discipline and engagement. It enables pupils of all backgrounds to share in a common identity and helps reduce inequalities between pupils and prevent bullying. Unlike many schools, our uniform is not prescriptive. Rather, we offer a range of clothes from within a 'brand' meaning that pupils can wear what they'd like, when they'd like, for comfort and confidence.
Checklist:
Ensure your child is wearing shoes which are entirely black. These can be leather school shoes, canvas shoes or trainers.
Socks should be plain black.
On the bottom half, children can wear any St Teilo's branded item or traditional, classic, tailored school trousers or skirt in black.
On the top half, children can wear any combination of St Teilo's branded items.
Check to see if you are eligible for the School Essentials Grant here.
Children will succeed when they feel capable, cared for and listened to. When they experience barriers to learning, it is essential that the adults in their life (at home and at school) seek to support them. Often, parents and carers are best placed to help their children because they know them better than anyone. The school will also go ‘above and beyond’ to help children overcome barriers to learning and progress or to seek the support of other organisations who can help.
Checklist:
Update the school with changes to circumstances which may affect a child's learning or wellbeing.
View yourself and the school as partners, working together to support children.
Monitor your child's social media activity closely and protect their sleep by removing technology at night.
Be proactive and communicate with the school in writing if you think your child requires learning support.
Tell us if you have reason to believe your child has Additional Learning Needs and trust the school as we navigate the assessment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here you will find answers to the most commonly asked questions by parents and carers,
Pupils should be on site no later than 8.30am, ready for registration at 8.40am. Parents and carers must make every effort to ensure children are in school and ready to learn before the start of the school day.
You may drop your child off in the morning on the school site by pulling up to our safe drop-off zone. Please do not exceed the 5mph speed limit and please do not attempt to overtake another vehicle. Your patience will keep children safe.
You will not be allowed onto the school site for collection in the afternoon. Instead, you should park sensibly and legally on the roads surrounding the site.
Please do not attempt to drive onto the school site between 2.30-3.30pm.
Mobile phones are strictly not permitted inside the school. This is one of our ‘non-negotiables’. If a child is seen to be using their telephone inside the building, it will calmly be removed from them and returned at the end of the school day. Pupils are able to use their telephones in the designated outdoor ‘phone zone’ for their year group. Parental support on this issue is critical.
We expect all students to comply with uniform arrangements. The approach at St Teilo's is unique and offers a great deal of choice and flexibility. You can read all about the requirements for uniform above and here. Uniform can be purchased at any time from the school uniform shop, located at main reception. Please note, in particular, that shoes must be entirely black and plain.
The checklists above set out some of the ways parents and carers can ensure that children attend school ready to learn. These expectations are set out more formally in the Home-School Agreement found here.
Good school attendance is a high priority at St Teilo's. On the rare occasion that a child must be absent form school, you must let us know straight away on the first day of absence. All absence must be reported online here. Please do not telephone us to report absence.
We provide a range of progress data for parents and carers, including checkpoints, written reports and standardised scores. Note that National Curriculum Levels are no longer used in Wales. You can read about the assessment arrangements across each year group here.
Progress meetings take place online, with booking instructions sent a few weeks prior. If you have a question or concern, please do not wait. You are able to contact your child’s Achievement Leader by email at any time. Dates are given here.
Our fantastic caterers offer a range of wholesome, tasty food every day. You can find out more about what we do here. Importantly, parents and carers must ensure that they have charged their ParentPay account in good time, and at least 24 hours before funds are required. It can take up to one day for monies to transfer to the school and be available for children to use in the dining hall. We do not have the facility to 'lend' monies for meals but will provide a free alternative for those pupils who do not have enough on their account.
Pupils at St Teilo’s are entitled to free school meals if their family receives:
- Income Support
- Income Related Employment Support Allowance
- Income Based JobsSeeker’s Allowance
- Guarantee Element of State Pension Credit, or
- Child Tax Credit with an income less than £16,190
- Universal Credit if the net household earnings is less than £7400.
Note: Families who get Working Tax Credit do not qualify.
To apply for Free School Meals, please contact Cardiff Council here.
School transport is managed by Cardiff Council on behalf of children across the city. You can read more about school transport arrangements and make contact with the council's school transport team here. The school does not directly have oversight of school transport arrangements.
Contact us
If you have any remaining questions, comments or concerns please do reach out.