Communication policy
Chrisitan values
The specific Christian Values of Love, Respect and Courage underpin, and areintrinsic to the ethos and belief of Saint James Church of England Primary School.
Our vision
At Saint James we accept challenges, take risks and work to make to make positive change in ourselves and
our community. Focusing on building resilience and compassionate relationships allows everyone to flourish.
Using our Christian values to guide us, we develop skills to navigate rough seas and transform our world.
‘Be strong and courageous and do it’
1 Chronicles 28:20
Introduction and concept
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We believe it is important to create a safe, respectful and inclusive environment for pupils, staff and parents in our school. We encourage clear, open communication links with parents as we believe it has a positive impact on pupils’ learning. It provides parents with the information they need to support their child’s education and helps to build a partnership between home and school. Such communication can be entirely positive and practical for example to seek information, ask a question, clear up a misunderstanding or to draw attention to a matter. Sometimes there is a need to resolve an issue or misunderstanding.
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We use the term ‘parents’ in this policy to refer to:
- Anyone with parental responsibility for a pupil
- Anyone caring for a child (such as grandparents or child-minders)
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The term member of staff as referred to in this policy includes:
- Anyone employed by the school
- Anyone training in a professional capacity at the school
- Governors (when acting in this capacity)
- Volunteers at the school (when acting in this capacity)
- Anyone employed through an external agency, who are acting in a professional capacity on the school site
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This communication policy aims to set out the methods of communication available to parents for contacting the school and our expectations from parents when visiting our school or communicating with staff at our school.
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We acknowledge that sometimes there can be situations that can be emotional and challenging for parents and staff to work through. Nonetheless, we expect all our community to show mutual respect. We have clear expectations and guidelines on behaviour for all members of our community. This includes staff (through the staff code of conduct) and pupils (through our behaviour policy). We also expect parents to engage constructively with school staff and to work together with them in the best interests of our children.
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We will only communicate with parents in respect of their own child at the school. Requests to raise a concern on behalf of another parent will be declined, as will be requests for information on another child. Should any correspondence be received from legal advisers then this will be shared with the school’s legal advisers.
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If parents are considering making a formal complaint, they should refer to the complaints policy. However, stage 1 of our policy suggests that other forms of communication can often help in resolving issues and we encourage parents to use this route.
Communication with the school
In the case of communications with the school, that are not raising a formal complaint the following guidance will apply.
Meetings
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We encourage short conversations face-to-face at drop off or pick up time.
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When a member of staff is not able to speak to you immediately face-to-face due to school commitments, or a longer conversation is preferable and appropriate, then a request for an appointment can be made to discuss the matter either in person or by telephone, at a later date. The school will aim to arrange that meeting within 5 working days.
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All staff have additional duties which they perform either before school, during break/lunch or after school and so are not necessarily available outside of teaching hours.
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Should a meeting be requested, the decision of which staff member will attend will rest with the Headteacher.
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Parents are welcome to email the school, adminoffice@st-james-westend.hants.sch.uk about non-urgent issues in the first instance.
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Emails will be most helpful if they are concise, explaining concerns in a clear way. Lengthy and overly detailed accounts can make it more difficult to understand what is being explained and to respond in a timely or clear way.
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The school will aim to respond within 5 working days. If a response cannot be provided within this time frame, which can be to ensure a full and considered response, then a revised timeline will be provided and communicated. We ask that parents await a response from the school and that further emails requesting a response are not sent until the initial or revised deadline has passed.
Phone calls
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If a query or concern is time sensitive and urgent the parent should call the school office, who will liaise as necessary at the earliest opportunity. In most circumstances, teaching and leadership staff are unlikely to be available to receive calls due to teaching and other commitments.
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If the query or concern is not time sensitive and urgent then parents should email or call the school office and the relevant member of staff will aim to contact them within 5 working days. If this is not possible, someone will respond to schedule a phone call at a convenient time.
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For general enquiries, please call or email the school office.
Social media
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The school will not respond to concerns raised via social media.
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Where the social media site is run by the school, including SJSA, comments will be removed if they do not meet the criteria of the social media site.
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Should the school be made aware of any physical threats or abusive behaviour towards staff members on social media then the school will consider reporting this to the Police and seeking the removal of content from the site.
Communication during social hours/working days
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Staff will aim to respond to communication during core school hours 08.00am -16.00pm, or their working hours (if they work part-time).
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Parents should not expect staff to respond to their communication outside of core school hours 08.00am-16.00pm, or during weekends or school holidays.
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Staff may choose to work around other responsibilities and commitments and respond outside of these hours, but they are not expected to do so.
Types of unacceptable behaviour and communication
- There are some types of behaviour / communication that the school consider unacceptable. Including:
- Any physical aggression eg. slapping, hitting, punching and kicking;
- Physically intimidating a member of staff, or pupils e.g., standing very close to them;
- The use of aggressive hand gestures including finger pointing towards a member of staff or pupil;
- Spitting at a member of staff or pupil;
- Shaking or holding a fist towards a member of staff or pupil;
- Shouting at members of staff or pupils (either in person on school grounds, over the telephone or over video conferencing);
- Swearing, or using offensive language including derogatory language about a protected group or characteristic as defined by the Equality Act 2010;
- Threatening or offensive comments about a member of staff or pupil of the school; this can include verbally, via texts, emails, social media, etc.;
- Sending abusive messages to a member of staff, including via text, email or social media
- A large volume of emails in respect of the same matter over a short period of time.
- Continuing to raise the same issue despite it having been already addressed by the school.
- Posting defamatory, offensive or derogatory comments about the school, its staff, on social media platforms
- Disrupting, or threatening to disrupt, school operations (including events on the school grounds and sports team matches)
- Breaching or not conforming to the school’s security procedures
- Covertly recording phone calls or meetings with member of staff
- Any other behaviour that is disrespectful, threatening or offensive
This list is not an exhaustive list but seeks to provide illustrations of such behaviour which has no place in our school community.
The school will take appropriate actions in response to unacceptable behaviour and communication
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In the first instance, (if the unacceptable behaviour has occurred on site) the school will ask the parent to desist and/or leave the site. If the behaviour is of a serious nature, the police will be contacted.
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Thereafter the school (Headteacher/Member of School Leadership team) will gather information on allegations of unacceptable behaviour. This may include talking to the parties concerned or others as witnesses to the behaviour.
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If unacceptable behaviour is found to have occurred during the investigation, the headteacher will determine which of the following actions will be taken, based on the severity and nature of the behaviour.
- The parent will be told verbally that their behaviour is unacceptable and, if it is not modified, the school will take further action.
- The parent will be told in writing that their behaviour is unacceptable and, if it is not modified, the school will take further action.
- Arrangements will be put in place for supervision and minuting of future meetings between staff and the parent.
- Putting in place a contact plan to deal with any communication between the individual and school. For example, except in emergencies, communication to the school must be in writing only to a named individual and the school can set out timescales for school responses
- A warning letter or an immediate ban from the school site;
- Contacting the Police where behaviour is criminal in nature.
- Seek advice from the local authority’s legal team regarding further action.
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The school will always seek to respond to an incident in a proportionate way. The final decision for how to respond to the unacceptable behaviour and communication rests with the headteacher and, where necessary, the Governing Body.