We are very much looking forward to your child starting school with us in September. We appreciate that choosing a school for your child is an important and exciting decision and we are delighted you have chosen Verwood First School and Nursery. 

Uniform and Used Uniform

Please click here to take you through to our uniform section.

Our school milk scheme

Our school provides a milk scheme that is available to all of our pupils. School milk is free for under-5s, and for over-5s it is available at a subsidised* price. We have already registered your child for their free school milk by providing Cool Milk with your child's name and date of birth. Please advise school if your child doesn’t like or cannot have milk.

Free milk will continue until the Friday before your child’s fifth birthday. Prior to your child’s fifth birthday, if you wish for your child to continue receiving milk, simply register with Cool Milk directly via their website www.coolmilk.com. Once registered, you will receive a payment request around four weeks before their birthday - if you wish your child to continue to receive school milk, simply make a payment. You can register anytime before your child turns 5, but at the latest, you will need to register by Tuesday of the previous week you wish the milk to start.

Each child will receive a 189ml portion of semi-skimmed milk every day, delivered fresh and chilled to the classroom. Their school milk will not only provide them with essential nutrients, but as it is rehydrating and energy boosting it also bridges the gap between breakfast and lunch to help children stay focused. For more information on how milk can benefit children visit www.coolmilk.com/why-milk-is-great.

If you have any questions regarding school milk please visit www.coolmilk.com or contact Cool Milk directly on 0800 321 3248. More information on milk is also available from the school.

* The UK government continues to support school milk. Milk for under-5s is fully funded by DHSC via the Nursery Milk Scheme. Milk for over-5s is subsidised by Defra via the School Milk Scheme.

Snacks and Lunch

Fresh fruit is provided to children at their mid-morning snack time, please do not supply additional options from home, this is provided for by school. At this time children will also have their milk, unless we have been advised your child is not to have this.

Children have the option of having a packed lunch, which you supply from home, or a hot school meal. All children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are entitled to free hot school meals.  All our hot school meals are provided by Caterlink a contracted caterer who has a healthy food policy as part of their tender.  Please click here for further information.

We please ask that all children bring in a named water bottle in each day filled with water. This needs to be separate from their lunchbox (if they have one) as it is kept in the classroom and accessed throughout the day.

IMPORTANT as we have children attending who have nut allergies, no nut products must be brought into school. We also encourage healthy eating and therefore sweets/chocolate bars are not permitted in lunch boxes.

School Communications with ParentMail

As a school we use a communication tool called ParentMail, which is used by over 4000 schools across the UK to communicate with parents by email and text message. ParentMail will be beneficial to you because:

· Messages will get to you reliably

· We can send messages directly to mums and dads at the same time

· You will quickly know about important or urgent messages

· We can tell you more about what’s going on at the school

· You can give online consent for school trips

· You can make payments to the school online

The latest version of ParentMail helps make life for parents much easier. One of the biggest benefits is that you can easily pick up school messages on your smartphone by downloading the free ParentMail App on Android or iOS.

To use ParentMail we need to collect parent/carer email addresses, which we ask parents/carers to complete on the online Admission Form. Shortly after your child joins us you will receive either an email or text message from ParentMail, when you receive this, please click on the link from the email and follow the verification process. You will be asked to enter some details, answer a security question to verify who you are and to set a password for your account. 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.

If you have any issues or queries with the process please contact the school office at office@verwoodfirstschool.org

SCOOSC

One of the questions that is asked regularly, is if we offer wrap around care to cover before and after school.  SCOOSC is an independent out-of-school club that is run from our school hall.  It offers breakfast club from 7.45am, after school care until 6.00pm and also holiday care.  Although SCOOSC is independent of us, some of our school staff work for SCOSSC and we as a school work very closely with them to enable a smooth transition for the children.  There is a cost attached to SCOOSC and for more information and contact details please click here.