In-year enrolment

Our pupil handbook provides our pupils and parents/carers with key information about pastoral staff, timings of the school day, a map of the school, uniform and essential information requirements and behaviour rewards and sanctions, safeguarding, Young Carers and SEND support, and further information about pupil leadership opportunities and some of our pupil groups at CVC. We strongly encourage you and your child to look through this together to better understand the ethos and culture at CVC, and to help be aware of the support and opportunities on offer as members of our school community.

Please find details to the left of this page.

Year 6 in catchment children must apply to the county council for a pass – it will not be issued automatically.

Applications are now open and should be made as soon as possible.

This is the link: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/children-and-families/schools-learning/school-transport/pre-16-school-transport

The parents of all out-of-catchment students will be contacted separately about alternative paid-for bus options.

Parents of children using school transport are asked to discuss with them the importance of correct behaviour on the buses. The drivers must be allowed to drive safely without distraction. Any issues should be reported to form tutors who will then follow up with the member of the Senior Team who oversees the relevant service.

Most buses operate CCTV – complaints about poor behaviour on the buses are always followed up at school and the ‘ladder’ of bus sanctions is applied.  Please ensure that your child is familiar with the Code of Conduct and School Bus Code Of Conduct to the left of this page, as drawn up by the School Council.

We cannot be responsible for the safety of our students on site after school hours unless participating in an afterschool activity.

Our Library is used by Sixth Formers and other students for revision and personal study. It is open Monday-Friday until 4pm and computers may only be used for schoolwork.

All pupils at CVC can rent a locker for the five years that they spend with us. They provide a secure place for pupils to leave their possessions and are placed in, or near, the year group’s social area. The payment for a locker should not exceed £35 and is made in full and not on a year-by-year basis.

Information on how to apply and pay for a locker will be sent at the beginning of September. Lockers are paid for via ParentPay and are allocated within the first couple of weeks of term in September. If your child is receipt of school meals a hire fee will not be charged. All enquiries to [email protected]

We communicate with parents electronically through CombertonPost using the email addresses from the registration form (Priority Contacts 1 and 2). It is therefore essential that if you change your email address (and/or any other contact information) that you inform the school immediately.

The College uses systems called GO 4 Schools and MCAS to assign homework and track pupil progress. Pupils and parents have access to them either through a website or a mobile app. Pupils will create their account as part of their introductory computer science lessons. Parents’ accounts will be set up using the email addresses from the registration form (Priority Contacts 1 and 2). Further information about how parents can access their account can be found to the left of this page.

The system allows pupils and parents to:

• View their timetable
• View and keep track of their homework tasks
• Collect academic reports
• View up-to-date information following assessments
• View behaviour logs

The behaviour log information is directly linked to our Positive Behaviour policy and therefore stores information relating to both rewards and sanctions for your child.

The College operates a cashless catering system. Each pupil is issued with their own unique account card. When the card is placed on a card reader at the ’till’ a display shows the pupil’s name, tutor group and account balance. The selected food items are entered by the catering assistant and the amount spent and new balance is displayed. As a guide, a pupil having school lunches will spend an average £12.00 to £15.00 per week from their card.

Money can be credited to a cashless catering account by two methods:

(1) – Online Payment

This is the school’s preferred method of payment. Parents can now credit individual cashless catering cards online 24/7 using their credit/debit cards via a company called ParentPay. Payments are transferred straight into the school’s bank account. Full username/password access details are given to parents and there are information pages available on this website.  Select ‘For Parents’ and “Parent Login”  ParentPay – Leading Cashless Payment System for Schools.  When you make an online payment, it takes approximately 10 minutes before the credit becomes available on a cashless catering card for use in school.

(2) – Cash

We accept cash in the Finance Office during Break and Lunch every day.  Cash receipts update the Catering Balance immediately.

If a card is lost or damaged, no money is lost. The Finance Office should be notified, and a new card will be printed. The new card is ready for use immediately. Due to the high cost of the cards the first card is issued free, but a £2.00 charge will automatically be deducted from the cashless catering balance for a replacement.

Comberton Village College uses ParentPay, an online payment system for parents. ParentPay is used in many schools and parents can make their payments online 24/7.

Parents can make payments for school trips, school meals and various other items. This means that parents do not have to remember to write cheques or give their children cash to take in to school. Furthermore, ParentPay helps parents to view their accounts online where it is easy to track payments that have been made.

An email is sent to parents which will give a unique username and password which will enable access to your ParentPay account. Once this has been sent, parents are able to pay for lockers and Cashless Catering (see below for details).

Should you prefer not to pay by ParentPay, cheques can be posted into the cheque post box which is located outside the Finance Office. Please write your child’s name, tutor group and reason for the payment on the back of the cheque. Alternatively, cheques can be posted to the school address c/o Finance Department

Payments more than £20 should be paid either by ParentPay or cheque so that students are not carrying around large amounts of cash. All cheques should be made payable to The CAM Academy Trust.

For further information please click here 

For further information free school meals and pupil premium
www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/freeschoolmeals

If you live in catchment, you must apply through the County Council. These are not automatically issued. The link can be found here: https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/residents/children-and-families/schools-learning/school-transport/pre-16-school-transport

The parents of out-of-catchment schools will be contacted by us about alternative paid-for bus options.

We have a cashless catering system called ‘ParentPay’. You will receive a link to this service once your child is registered with us. This allows you to sign in and top-up your child’s money on their card to use at school. You can receive reminders when it is getting low and you can see how much your child spends at the till. If your child forgets their card or does not have enough money on their card to spend, they should go to the Finance office.

Please click here for further information

Lockers are issued at the start of the academic year to all new Year 7 pupils joining us. If you are interested, you will see an option on ParentPay (in Active Payment items) and can pay for the hire of a locker for the duration of your child being at CVC. The key is issued through the form tutor once this has been arranged.

Please click here for further information

Preferably one which will be comfortable to wear around the school site and will hold books, stationery, packed lunch (if required) and a water bottle.

When your child joins us in September, we will have processed all your information, and this will be accessible for our staff to use. Until that point, our main contact will be the primary details you have submitted on the registration documents. This means that information will need to be shared by the primary contact with any secondary contact until the September start.

This is at the discretion of the Head of Year and how they would like to manage their pastoral team.

At CVC we have social areas where pastoral year groups meet for break and lunch. These are outside and offer cover for the pupils. When the weather is brighter, we open the backfield for pupils to gather on and socialise. The social areas change along with the Head of Year and so these spaces change each year.

If it is to do with applications, passing on information and day-to-day queries about the school day, please contact [email protected].  If it is about concerns about your child’s transition, please contact [email protected]. Once pupils have joined our school, we would ask that you contact the pastoral team direct.