Communicating with School

A Guide to Communicating with Cheslyn Hay Academy:

Cheslyn Hay Academy is committed to continually improving how we communicate with parents/carers. It is important that we work together with parents and carers to ensure communication between home and school is accurate, timely and professional at all times. We acknowledge that it is often difficult to communicate with teachers because of timetable constraints and we also recognise that parents and carers also have very busy schedules.

This guidance aims to help ensure consistent and efficient communication between parents/carers and school and will help us to continue our strong home-school relationship and clarify expectations to ensure that we are mindful of staff workload and wellbeing.

How can you communicate with us?

Student Mail - You can give your son/daughter a note/letter to bring in for a member of staff (please make sure your child gives this to the correct staff member)
Email - Email your request to info@CheslynHay.windsoracademytrust.org.uk identifying the member of staff you would like your query to be forwarded to in the subject line. If you know the
Arbor - We are working with Arbor to improve the communication approaches and seeking a methodology to communicate through the parent portal.
Telephone - Reception is open between 8.00am and 4.30pm each day (Friday closes at 4.00pm). If you call outside these hours there is a voicemail facility available, which will be picked up the next business day. Reception staff will relay messages to staff as soon as possible. Lessons can never be interrupted for teachers to take calls.

We aim to acknowledge your query within 1 working day and resolve the query as soon as possible. Note that some staff work part time and may not be able to respond as rapidly as full time staff. If you have not had a response within 3 days, please contact info@CheslynHay.windsoracademytrust.org.uk

Communication by Email/Arbor

Email and Arbor are valuable communication methods that allow parents and staff to respond when they next become available.

For our staff, the first priority will always be to deliver high quality teaching and student support. Staff will seek to respond to electronic messaging when they become available outside of lessons or other school duties.

Out of hours - Many staff do schedule some of their work outside the hours of the school day, however this is not an expectation of staff and we encourage our staff to maintain a sensible work/life balance. Please do not expect a response to communications outside of working hours.
Emergencies - email or Arbor are not suitable methods of communications for you to contact the school if you have an emergency - please call the school.

Communication via Telephone

When there you require immediate assistance, please do contact us via phone.

However, please be aware that there are a limited number of phone lines available into the school. At peak times (at the beginning and end of the school day) you may find it challenging to get through - please persist as we will endeavour to answer calls as soon as possible.

Out of hours - The phone lines are not manned out of hours or throughout all holiday periods. When you are unable to get hold of us you may leave a voicemail (which are checked daily in term time) or alternatively you can communicate with us via email.
Mobile Phones - Please do not contact your child in the school day via their mobile phone. We will confiscate their phone if they are using it whilst at school even if they are contacting you. We are keen to ensure that lessons are not disrupted and that students are supported if there is important communication you need to share. Please call the school and we can arrange to pass on a message or for your child to phone you from the school office.

We will act respectfully and responsibly at all times when communicating with you and ask that you do the same so that together we can model effective home-school partnership to our students. Physical or verbal abuse of any kind will not be tolerated and staff will politely end the call if they are the recipient of verbal abuse.

In Person

You will always be received by our reception staff who are happy to help visitors with their enquiries.

Meetings with staff must always be pre-arranged. Parent/carers must not turn up unannounced as they will not be met
If you urgently need to see someone, for example if there is a serious family emergency or a Safeguarding / Child Protection issue please phone ahead and reception staff will do their best to find a senior member of staff to see you
We aim to arrange non-urgent meetings to take place at our earliest opportunity. Cheslyn Hay Academy will determine the level of urgency at its discretion to enable us to manage multiple demands on staff and school

Physical or verbal abuse of any kind will not be tolerated and staff will politely end any meeting and ask you to leave if they are the recipient of verbal abuse. We will always seek police involvement should physical abuse of any kind take place.

Who to Contact

In general, please contact staff who are responsible for your child in the following order.

Curriculum Issues - Subject teacher → Head of Subject → Head of Faculty → Deputy Headteacher (Curriculum) → Headteacher
Pastoral Issues - Form Tutor → Head of House → Deputy Headteacher (Student Services) → Headteacher
If you are already in communication with a named member of staff (e.g. the SENCO, Attendance Officer, Member of the Pastoral Team) please feel free to contact them directly.

We want to direct your communication in this way to ensure that you can receive a more rapid response to your request from someone who knows your child well. Working in this way is likely to lead to a more productive and valuable response.

Contacting You

Our preferred method of communication is via Arbor Email

Please access the Arbor parent portal - As well as a communication portal, this gives you valuable information about your child’s progress and activities in school
Telephone Calls - will be used if immediate contact is required i.e. injury which results in your child needing to go home. We will contact the first named emergency contact listed; if there is no answer, we will call the second named contact. If necessary, we will leave a voicemail message.
Text Message - In the event of an urgent communication to a large group of students (for example in the event of a school closure due to adverse weather) or a short, urgent individual communication, we may use a text message. This will often be followed up by an email or other electronic announcement with more information.
Website & Social Media - We make use of the school website to provide you with general information about the school and will update the home page with urgent information in the event of an emergency - for example a snow closure. We also make use of X (formally Twitter) and our own Facebook page to share achievements and celebrate events within the school community and encourage parents to follow these feeds.
We also use other methods of communication with Parents to keep you informed about school activities:
- Weekly bulletin
- Parents’ Evenings (at least one for each year group, scheduled through the academic year)
- Progress reports set out as per our Parental Calendar
- Year 11 Revision Information Evening
- Drama, Dance and Music Productions
- Year 9 Options Evening
- Careers Events
- A variety of other events, challenges and information evenings and opportunities

Parent Facebook Groups

Other than the school’s official facebook page, we do not communicate via facebook.

There are some externally managed Facebook groups intended for Parents of Cheslyn Hay Students or members of Cheslyn Hay community. These are managed by private individuals who are not associated with the school. These are not official sources of information and the school is not responsible for anything published on these pages. Furthermore, in some cases, the school cannot view what is published on these pages. Whilst these sites can be useful for parents to share information, the school will not respond to concerns or comments raised, or post information in response to any posts made on these external sites. We ask that parents refrain from naming students and staff on social media without permission from those individuals. We also urge parents who have a concern about the school to contact us directly and to check information received via these sites with the school for factual accuracy.

Where unfair, unreasonable or false statements are made about staff or students of the school on such sites we will request the administrators to remove such comments and may seek further legal advice where such comments are considered defamatory.