We have four mixed age classes at Henley:

Class 1 – Reception and Year 1
Class 2 – Year 2 (and Year 1)
Class 3 – Year 3 and 4
Class 4 – Year 5 and 6

Please do also visit our staff page. 

Year 1 children spend most of their time in Class 1, but have some lessons in Class 2. Class 1 and 2 teachers work closely together to ensure Year 1 children get the best experience in Classes 1 and 2.

This is an example of a typical day at school. 

7:30am - 8:15am - ESCape! Breakfast Club

8:15am – Gates open – Children are welcome to arrive any time from 8:15am-8:30am. When they arrive they will be supervised on the playground.

8:30am – Morning lessons

10:30am – Assembly

10:45am – Morning break

11:00am – Morning lessons

12:00pm - Lunch 

12:45pm – Afternoon lessons

3:15pm – School finishes

3:15pm-4:15pm – Enrichment activities

3:15pm-6:00pm – ESCape! After School Club

Our term dates can be found here. 

We are proudly part of The Consortium Trust and The Greenfields Partnership. 

The Consortium Trust is a Multi-Academy Trust comprising many schools, many of them small primary schools. Visit the website to find out more about The Consortium Trust. 

We also form a partnership with one other local school, Helmingham Primary, about 5 miles away from Henley. Together we are The Greenfields Partnership.  

We use Arbor to take payments, obtain consent for trips and to make breakfast and afterschool club bookings. 

If you have not used Arbor before, you will shortly receive a welcome email with a link to log in for the first time.

Once you have logged in, you will see some "notices" on the left hand side for you to complete. This only needs to be completed once. 

If you have any questions, or any problems logging in, please contact office.henley@gfpschools.org 

Our school colours are red and navy. Please see our uniform page for more details and how to order. Please ensure all uniform is named. 

We run a uniform "swap shop" each half term, our families bring in any good quality second hand uniform and this is made available for anyone to take what they need. There will be the option of donating to The Friends of Henley School at the swap shop, if you wish. 

Our Locality Committee (which covers both Henley and Helmingham primary schools) is made up of people from different groups, including parents, ex-parents, and other interested people co-opted from the local community.

You can find out more about our Locality Committee here. 

We have a thriving PTA, The Friends of Henley Primary School who arrange fantastic fundraising events. All funds raised are put back into the school. 

Just in the past year the children have enjoyed a Christmas Disco, a village Halloween trail, after-school film nights, an Easter egg hunt, not to mention lots of dress down days! For the adults, they've organised a quiz night, unwanted gift swap and a very popular Ceilidh (barn dance). 

The Friends of Henley School are always looking for new members and new ideas. If you would like to be part of the Friends of Henley School, please contact them by email friendsofhenleyschool@gmail.com 

 

ESCape!, our Breakfast and Afterschool Club, runs 5 days a week. 

Breakfast Club: 

Breakfast Club is from 7:30am until the start of the school day. 

At ESCape! Breakfast Club your child will start the day with a healthy breakfast and then will have the opportunity to play indoors or outdoors before school starts. 

Afterschool Club: 

ESCape! Afterschool Club has varying session times (see below). 

3:15pm - 4:15pm - a small snack and free play, indoor and outdoor (weather permitting)

4:15pm - a snack, including a variety of local and exotic fruits and vegetables along with a selection of the following: pitta bread, hummus, crumpets, tortilla chips, popcorn, malt loaf and banana bread. 

4:45pm - homework time! Children in Classes 1 and 2 will read to an adult, older children will complete their homework or read independently. 

5:15pm - 6pm - Crafts, colouring, painting. 

Costs and session times: 

7:30am - 8:30am    £2.50 for the first child, additional siblings £1 each

3:15pm-4:15pm      £3.50 

3:15pm - 6pm         £10 

4:15pm - 6pm         £6.50 (for children attending an enrichment activity from 3:15pm - 4:15pm) 

We currently accept the following childcare vouchers: 

• Tax Free Childcare 
• Sodexo
• Edenred
• Computershare

How to register/book: 

Bookings for ESCape! are on Arbor. Bookings are on an ad-hoc basis, so you are free to only book the sessions you need. Payment is taken at time of booking. If you are using childcare vouchers, you will see your voucher balance on your Arbor account, and payment will be taken from this balance. 

Bookings close on Arbor 2 hours ahead of the session start time. 

Sessions can be cancelled, please email the office to do this - office.henley@gfpschools.org. Sessions cancelled more than 24 hours ahead will be refunded. 

We are committed providing an education of the highest quality for all of our pupils, this can only be achieved by supporting and promoting excellent school attendance. Only by attending school regularly, and punctually, will children be able to take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them. High attainment depends on good attendance. 

If your child is unwell, please call or email the office before 8:45am. Any child who has diarrhoea or vomits must wait 48 hours before the last instance of vomiting or diarrhoea before returning to school. We ask that non-emergency GP and dentist appointments are scheduled out of school hours as much as possible.

Lateness

Children who arrive at school after 8:45am are considered late and will be marked in the register as such. Children who arrive in school later than 9:00am will be marked as having an unauthorised absence. Persistent lateness can result in a penalty notice being issued. 

Holidays during term time

Parents considering a holiday during term time must complete an absence request form, available in reception. Holiday absences during term time can only be authorised in exceptional circumstances. Where a holiday is not authorised, consideration will be given to issuing a penalty notice. Penalty notices are issued in line with the Education Act 1996. Penalty notices are issued per liable parent, per child and each carry a fine of £60. Please note, "parent" under the Education Act is defined as anyone who has day to day care of a child. 

Our learning characteristics are areas of development that we believe are vital for pupils to gain the learning and life skills that they need to go on and lead active and fulfilled lives:

The learning characteristics are at the heart of everything we do. We intend for all children to develop the learning characteristics and to demonstrate these both in school and at home. You will receive a log in to our platform, Learning Pi, which we will use to support your child's progress. 

Each class has one hour long PE lesson per week. Each class also spends an additional 15 minutes completing The Golden Mile each day. The Golden Mile is a mile long walk or run around the school field. 

Children can wear a t-shirt in their house colour for PE. Yo will be told which house your child is in. For information about PE kit, please see our uniform page. 

Every child is entitled to Universal Free School Meals (UIFSM) from Reception until the end of Year 2. 

We serve two meal options each day, a meat option and a vegetarian or vegan option. We ask the children each morning which option they would like. We can cater for dietary needs and allergies. 

Alternatively, children can have a packed lunch. We are a nut free school - packed lunches and snacks must not contain any nuts. 

If you are on a low income, please do consider applying for Free School Meals. This allows the school to access additional government funding which we can use to support your child's education. You can check eligibility and apply for Free School Meals on Suffolk County Council's website.

We have four houses named after local rivers; Gipping, Deben, Stour and Orwell. All children are assigned a house group when they join the school, details will be on your welcome letter. 

The children compete in these 4 house teams for PE, sports day, behaviour points and house point challenges. Points are collected by house captains and recorded weekly. House points are recorded weekly and displayed in the classrooms. 

House groups also work with the school council and pupil parliament team to help make decisions about the future of the school.

House colour t-shirts can be worn as part of PE uniform.

We work with an outside company, Band Academy, to offer private music lessons within school hours. 

They offer 1-1 lessons in guitar, ukulele, piano and singing.

These lessons are chargeable. For more information, visit Band Academy's website.