Communication
Listed below are all the different ways we communicate with our parents/carers with children at our school.
Emails: We respond to emails from parents/carers through the email system and accept email communication as a formal as well as informal means of communication.
Emails are responded to within 5 working days. This may be to just acknowledge that we have received the email if it is something we need some time to look into.
End of year reports: At the end of the school year each child’s Tapestry Profile is downloaded as part of the end of year report. This includes a personal statement about the child from the class teacher and a graph showing their attainment and progress in key areas.
Individual meetings: Parents/carers are able to make an appointment to speak to their child’s teacher or a member of the senior leadership team by getting in touch with the school office. Parents/carers of children with a special educational needs plan meet with the class teacher regularly.
Meet and Greet: At the start of every day members of the senior leadership team and teachers go out into the playground at 8.50am. The children are allowed into school from this time where they are supervised in class until the start of the day. The staff are then available for any parents/carers to chat to and/or share important information with.
Parents/Carers are able to make an appointment through the office to meet with the class teacher or a member of the senior leadership team at a mutually agreed time.
Newsletter: We have a weekly newsletter which is uploaded onto our website and Tapestry. Parents/carers can subscribe to the newsletter through the website.
The newsletter advertises whole school events and parents need to read it to ensure they know what is happening in school. A text reminder is sent out the day before a whole school event wherever possible.
Parents' Meeting: Twice a year you can make an appointment to speak online with your child's teacher. this is to discuss their behaviour and attitude in school and their progress in their learning.
Tapestry: Tapestry is used across the school. It is a secure web-based communication system.
It is used to gather evidence of the work the children have been undertaking in school and to share the children’s learning with parents/carers. Parents/carers are able to contact teachers through Tapestry and to comment on the work that has been uploaded.
Teachers are expected to upload evidence for individual children with comments at least twice each half term, and to reply to any comments from parents/carers on a weekly basis.
Telephone: Parents/carers can phone school within working hours to arrange to come in to meet with a member of staff, or to talk to a member of staff over the phone. Out of hours we have an answer phone system so that parents/carers can leave a message. These are checked every day and a member of the administrative team will contact you as soon as they are able.
We will contact parents/carers by phone if a matter needs dealing with quickly; such as a forgotten lunchbox or PE kit, or if a child is ill or needs medical attention. At times we may be unable to contact you by phone directly in which case a text message is sent. Obviously we hold emergency contact numbers in school for all children in case we cannot contact parents/carers urgently.
Text: We use the text message system to send out whole school reminders or messages that need to reach people quickly. Unfortunately we are very limited in the number of words we can send in each message which can make them feel very impersonal so we do not use them as our everyday method of communication.
Website: The website holds a lot of generic information about our school and events that are taking place. It is updated regularly and a copy of the Newsletter is always available to look at or download. You can download an app for our school website (School Jotter and choose our school name: East Ardsley Primary Academy).