Effective Communication with William Brookes School: Guidelines for Parents/Carers
At William Brookes School, we are 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 Williams Brookes School
You can give your son/daughter a note/letter to bring in for a member of staff (student is responsible for giving this to the correct staff member)
Email your request to wbs-info@wbs.318education.co.uk identifying the member of staff you would like your query to be forwarded to. Whilst not having a direct line to key members of staff may be a shift for some families who are used to this approach, please assume that this is the best email address to use. This approach also ensures that all queries are filtered through to the person best placed to deal with your query. These emails are dealt with confidentially and are shared on a need to know basis.
Telephone contact can be made via the main switchboard number. Reception is open between 8.00am and 4.00pm each day (Friday closes at 3.30pm). 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 cannot be interrupted for teachers to take calls.
Staff will endeavour to acknowledge your query (in whatever form it takes, i.e. telephone, email) within 24 hours and resolve the query as soon as possible. Staff who work part-time may take longer to respond. If you have not had a response within three working days please email wbs-info@wbs.318education.co.uk
Contacting William Brookes School
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.
Please find below a (not exhaustive) overview of who best to contact if and when you experience any issues concerning your child’s wellbeing or behaviour in school.
Meetings
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, meanwhile managing multiple demands on staff and school.
Contacting you
Our preferred means of communication is Arbor; all parents have the opportunity to register for Arbor. This allows us to communicate with you quickly via the Arbor App Parents’ Evenings appointments are also booked through Arbor.
Telephone calls will be made 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.
William Brookes School website is another source of useful information and will be updated in emergency situations like snow closures or system failures.
