Communication
At Manorfield we follow the DfE guidelines on communication with parents:
Everyone who is a parent, as recognised under education law, can participate in their child’s education.
All parents can receive information about the child, even though, for day-to-day purposes, the school’s main contact is likely to be a parent with whom the child lives on school days.
Where schools need parental consent for outings and activities, head teachers should seek the consent from the resident parent unless the decision is likely to have a long-term and significant impact on the child.
Schools should avoid becoming involved in any disagreement between parents, but might want to suggest that where parents cannot agree, they seek independent legal advice about obtaining a court order setting out exactly what decisions each parent can make in respect of the child.
As daily communication is with the resident parent, we also ensure that the non-resident parents receive the mid-year and annual reports and are offered the chance to attend parents evening appointments or arrange a phone call. They will also automatically receive concert tickets, invites to star of the week and class assemblies. On the admission form there are also options to request additional copies of: regular newsletters; letters (e.g. clubs and trips); consent letters (e.g. those in addition to trips, visits and clubs e.g. NHS). To ensure all parents have access to Newsletters these are also saved on the school website. Please ensure the information is correct on the admissions form if duplicate information is required.
At Manorfield we continue to try to reduce our use of paper in communication with parents. We use the communication app ‘Class Dojo’ as our main platform, sharing individual information with parents, classes and the whole school.
These include:
Paper letters – These will be sent for the attention of Parent/Carers via the Class Teacher.
Email – These will be sent with communication from the office. Including updates from the Department for Education and official communication.
Phone calls – These are used to update parents on specific incidents in school or to inform parents if their child is unwell.
Class Dojo – this is an app based communication system that provides information on behaviour for your child (green, yellow, red and privilege cards) as well as sharing class specific information through the class story e.g. details regarding class assembly. There is also a Whole School story option where whole school events can be shared e.g. cake sale. There are settings on the app and on mobile phones to set push notifications for the app so that parents are aware when something has been added.
- If you need a new login for Parent Pay, please contact the main office.
- If you need a login for Class Dojo please contact your child’s class teacher.
It is essential that parents update school on any change in contact details so that communication is still received. Sometimes emails from Parent Pay can go into junk if the emails have previously regularly been deleted.
Consent
As a school we will seek consent from staff, volunteers, young people, parents and carers to collect and process their data. We will be clear about our reasons for requesting the data and how we will use it. There are contractual, statutory and regulatory occasions when consent is not required. However, in most cases data will only be processed if explicit consent has been obtained.
Consent is defined by the GDPR as “any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her”.
We may seek consent from young people also, and this will be dependent on the child and the reason for processing.
For Pupils and Parents/Carers
On arrival at school you will be asked to complete an Admission form giving next of kin details, emergency contact and other essential information. We will also ask you to give consent to use the information for other in school purposes, as set out on the data collection/consent form.
We review the contact and consent form on an annual basis. It is important to inform school if details or your decision about consent changes. A form is available from the main office.
Consent and Renewal
On the school website we have ‘Privacy Notices’ that explain how data is collected and used. It is important to read those notices as it explains how data is used in detail.
Obtaining clear consent and ensuring that the consent remains in place is important for school. We also want to ensure the accuracy of that information.
