Belonging at Filton Avenue

All children matter in our school. We want all pupils and families to know that they belong in our school and are valued.  We have considered the factors which are known through research evidence to impact on attendance and belonging, and explain how we approach these in our school here:

Belonging in Our School

At Filton Avenue we really care. Our work is guided by our school values of CARE – Collaboration, Aspiration, Respect and Endeavour – which shape everything we do. We collaborate with our pupils and families to ensure that every voice is heard. We aspire to create a community where everyone feels they truly belong. All cultures and beliefs are respected and celebrated, and we endeavour to nurture an environment where every child feels safe, valued, and connected.

You Are Welcome Here

The start of the day

Come rain or shine, every morning our senior staff are at the gate to greet families, learning support specialists are on the playground, while the teachers welcome pupils at the classroom door. This warm, personal start helps children settle quickly. For those who find mornings challenging, such as pupils experiencing anxiety, our Pastoral Team is ready with extra support, including a small breakfast group and calm spaces to ease the transition into school. While the office staff are always happy to help with any enquires. Strong relationships between staff and children are shown through personal knowledge and positive interactions, helping every child feel known and valued.

This daily welcome reflects Respect and Collaboration, ensuring that families feel part of our school community.

Families from diverse backgrounds

With over 40 languages spoken in our community, we believe diversity is one of our greatest strengths. When new families arrive, we make every effort to learn about their home language and culture, connect them with staff or families who share that background, and provide letters and communication in dual languages where needed.

We celebrate our many nationalities and cultures through events such as Black History Month, Iftar, Christmas and We Belong, alongside cultural assemblies, and themed enrichment weeks. These opportunities build Respect for difference and encourage Collaboration across cultures.

Pupils with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND)

It is fundamental for us that pupils with SEND, and their families, are made to feel welcome in the school. Pupils on the SEND register are given individualised support plans that are regularly reviewed by teachers, parents/carers and children, where appropriate. These plans help all staff working with children so they are aware of what adjustments might be needed. In addition, they highlight how children have been able to access interventions to ensure they progress relative to their starting points. We have high expectations for our SEND children, and our curriculum is designed to ensure everyone is able to achieve. Additional to this, teachers use a range of tailored strategies in the classroom to enable them to be successful.

Alongside this, we offer transition days, additional parent meetings, and SENDCo (Mrs Read) contact to ensure smooth starts and strong communication, while SEND coffee mornings give parents and carers opportunities to connect and share experiences.

Our new CARE Car will help improve attendance for SEND pupils through home visits and transport support, ensuring no child misses out. This demonstrates our Endeavour to remove barriers and our commitment to equity for all children.

Families from disadvantaged backgrounds

Every child deserves success, regardless of their starting point. Pupils who are experiencing disadvantage, and their families, are made to feel welcome at Filton Avenue because everything we do is designed to enable success for all children. In school, this means teachers have high expectations for all children, and where children may need some additional support, they may be included in intervention groups to close any gaps in their learning. We are committed to ensuring all children achieve their best.

Our enrichment programme includes clubs and activities in sports, arts, music, and creative technology, with a target of at least half of the participants being children experiencing disadvantage. These opportunities build confidence, cultural capital, and Aspiration, ensuring every child can aim high.

Pupils on part-time timetables and Alternative Learning Provision (ALP)

On the rare occasions when children are on part-time timetables or in ALP, we ensure they still feel part of the school community and we understand in these incidences it is really important to support these children to still feel they belong in the school. Staff maintain daily or weekly contact with families, pastoral staff provide mentoring, and children continue to be included in events such as assemblies and celebrations. Reintegration plans are created with families to gradually increase school attendance and the feeling of belonging. This work shows our Collaboration with families and our Endeavour to reintegrate pupils successfully.

Pupils who have been suspended

When children return from suspension, we run a thorough reintegration process that includes pastoral support, restorative conversations, and a clear plan for success. We know that a period of suspension can be a difficult time for the child and family, and therefore we can offer check-ins at home during this time. On return to school, the child and parents/carers will have a “return to school” meeting with a member of the senior leadership team and the pastoral team, if necessary. The primary focus of this meeting is to facilitate a restorative conversation to reassure the child they are welcome, and then to go through the reintegration plan so everyone is clear of the steps to support the child, and to stop further incidents that could lead to suspension from happening again. This may include a bespoke timetable, which can include small-step reintegration into class with support breaks, and anchoring time with the pastoral team. They may also be given a Pastoral Support Plan to support a successful return to school.

Naturally, we want every child to feel they are welcomed back and given a fresh start, supported by Respect and Aspiration.

Pupils and Families who are New to School

When children and families join our school, we want to ensure the transition processes helps them quickly develop a sense of belonging. To enable this, families are offered tours so they can get a sense of who we are, and the child(ren) can start to get to know the site and some familiar faces. We will also ask a range questions to enable teachers to ensure their classroom is ready for them with tray and peg labels, books and stationery. Our Belonging Champions also support new starters, helping them make friends and settle into routines. These practices highlight Collaboration and our value of Respect for every child’s unique journey.

Keep Learning

Missed learning

We support absent pupils to catch up on missed learning in the following ways:

• All lessons include recap and retrieval opportunities.
• Pre-prepared resources help pupils close learning gaps.
• Working walls are used to support those who missed earlier lessons.
• Younger pupils benefit from Class Dojo uploads such as “sound of the day.”
• Peer mentoring and pastoral support are available for targeted children.

We also explore technology such as Oak Learning and Lyfta to support children returning to school after absence. This reflects our value of Aspiration, helping children catch up and achieve their best.

Changes in School

We manage in-school transitions (e.g. change of teacher) for specific pupils carefully by ensuring we communicate clearly with the pupils ahead of time about the change and using familiar adults within the school for cover where possible. The Pastoral Team is also on hand to support where a pupil may struggle with a change of adult or routine.

Family Engagement

We want parents/carers to have opportunities to understand what lessons look like for your children. To support with this, throughout the year, we offer parents/carers the chance to attend year group Exhibitions of Learning, as well as holding information meetings about Year 6 SATs, the Year 4 Multiplication Table Check and the Year 1 Phonics Screening test. All dates are communicated on Class Dojo and via Arbor.

Making Friends

New friends

Friendships are central to belonging. We use deliberate strategies such as pairing Belonging Champions with new starters and have structured PSHE circle times to build kindness and respect. Our O-Pals are always on hand to support children at playtimes too.

Conflict resolution strategies, including oracy techniques and “zones of regulation” sentence stems, are being introduced to help pupils resolve disagreements constructively. These approaches reflect Respect and Collaboration, ensuring pupils feel safe and supported in their friendships.

Our values

Our values underpin relationships across the school. Children are rewarded daily with Dojo points and Golden Tickets, and on a weekly basis through our Celebration Assemblies. Termly, children receive postcards home and attend Golden Ticket Tea with Mr Rodeck.

Anti-bullying

Our Behaviour Policy can be found here: https://filtonavenue.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/FAPS-Behaviour-Policy-2025.pdf

Our Anti-Bullying Policy can be found here: https://filtonavenue.com/safeguarding/anti-bullying/

If a child is being bullied, we firstly want to ensure the child’s voice is captured and investigated fully. Communication with the child and families is key, and a meeting with be arranged between school and the family to discuss the findings of the investigation and the next steps to support the child to feel safe and happy at school moving forward. This might include check-ins with the class teacher, member of the senior leadership team or the pastoral team and potentially a restorative conversation with the other child(ren) involved, if appropriate.

Friendship support

To enable more positive friendships, we may deliberately change groups/classes, and this is normally carried out with pupils and parents/carers’ input. In addition, where appropriate, we can offer small group intervention to support children’s friendships, where a child is able to choose a friend and pastoral support with relationships with in the class.

Having Fun

Wrap around care

To support families, we run a daily Breakfast Club starting at 8am which costs £3.50 per session. We also have an After-School Club, which runs until 5.45pm and costs £11.50; if your child is picked up before 5pm it costs £10. Both are very popular and are bookable through Arbor. Both clubs offer healthy food and/or snacks, and a range of crafts, games and activities are provided.

Competitions, clubs and trips

We offer a very wide range of after-school clubs, including sports, arts, music, and creative activities like Lego and Minecraft. Participation is high, with over half the children in the school attending, and we continue to expand opportunities so that all children can find something engaging.

Trips and visitors, and competitions and themed enrichment days add excitement, and we deliberately place some activities on Mondays and Fridays to encourage good attendance at the start and end of the week. Celebrations such as In to Win prizes and Golden Time recognise children’s commitment to learning and belonging. These enrichment opportunities promote Aspiration and Endeavour while building confidence and joy in learning.

Support for Families

Uniform

Although we have high expectations for uniform, we don’t want uniform or PE kit to be a barrier to attendance, so we provide spare items when needed. We understand that occasionally, it is not always possible for children to attend school in uniform, so please let us know if that is the case. A gentle reminder that hoodies are not part of our school uniform or PE kits.

Getting to school

For families with transport difficulties, we will support you to plan safe routes to and from school and, in emergencies, can use our school car.

Mental health support

We recognise that some children and families struggle with poor mental health. The positive relationships we strive to build with every child is our starting point for support. In addition, have a range of ways we can support a child in school who has mental health worries. These include worry boxes in every classroom, emotional wellbeing boxes in each phase, interventions with the pastoral team such as ELSA and Drawing and Talking and sessions with our recently appointed Mental Health Lead, Miss Bras, who is able to provide support and guidance to children and families.

We can also support with referrals to the PMHS (Primary Mental Health Specialist). the MHST (Mental Health Support Team), School Nursing Team, Social Prescribing, Young Carers and Young Victim Support. If an adult in the family is struggling, we can signpost health support services such as families in focus and children centre support.

Additional support

We also support families with wider needs, such as housing, food, domestic violence, alcohol and substance abuse or social care. Our pastoral and safeguarding teams work closely with external agencies, while staff can provide guidance on applications and referrals, and secondary school admissions and benefits claims.

These supports demonstrate our Collaboration with families and our Endeavour to remove barriers.

Listening to Children and Families

We listen to pupils and parents/carers and survey families and pupils regularly to find out whether they feel as if they belong in our school. We also collect feedback at school events, such as Exhibitions of Learning and We Belong, and the newly relaunched School Community Partnership, and the three sub-groups, will further add to the strong relationships that exist between school and families. Pupils know they belong to our school because we ensure we give them a voice, which builds their confidence and gives them agency. Leadership roles are an important part of this, and children have the opportunity to be an active member of our 9 pupil leadership groups: School Council, Eco-team, Belonging Champions, Digital Leaders, Pupil Advocates, Librarians, Mental Health Champions, O-Pals and Oracy Champions. These opportunities help pupils feel their voice matters, while also building confidence, resilience, and Aspiration.

More widely, if a child has a worry or a concern, we make sure they know their voice matters and who their trusted adults are who they can speak with. However, we are always considering what more we can do to help pupils know that they matter and make sure we provide lots of opportunity for children to tell us about their thoughts. After all, this is their school!

Next Steps

Looking ahead, we are planning to:

• Fully implement the Studybugs app for daily attendance alerts. Please sign up if you haven’t already – https://studybugs.com/
• Launch the CARE Awards to celebrate belonging at Filton Avenue.
• Map all personal development opportunities across year groups and publish them.
• Strengthen EBSA support through targeted interventions and staff training.
• Launch the School Community Partnership to improve inclusivity and family engagement.
• Explore the role of a school therapy dog to support wellbeing.

Through Collaboration, Aspiration, Respect, and Endeavour, we will continue to build a school where every child feels they belong, every family feels supported, and every pupil has the opportunity to thrive. If there is anything in this document you would like more information on, or to discuss further, please contact Mr Rodeck on the gate, or contact the school office