Finham Park School would like to take this opportunity to inform new parents/carers, and remind existing ones, of the various means we have to communicate with you and the method the school will use for different types of communication/information.
This is used in the main for whole school/year specific/subject specific letters informing parents of various events and general matters relating to the
school or school day. This is one of the most important methods of communication that we use.
This is the ‘front door’ of our school, often the first point of reference for new parents, visitors, etc. Here you will find information about all aspects of our school
including from subjects; exams; certain school policies; student well-being, etc and also a contact form if you need to send a communication and are not sure who to address it to https://finhampark.com/
In which we can share proposals, answer questions and gather ideas. We hold termly Parents’ Forums using MS Teams. Up to 100 people are able to attend at any
time and therefore, if interest is high, we will rotate attendance. However, the meetings will be recorded and shared on the website for others to view at a later date. Times, dates and agendas for Parent Forum meetings are advertised in the Headteacher’s monthly letter.
The school Facebook page is for parents to receive general notices, reminders and school news; often if we have an important message to transmit during the school day we will put a notice on there as well as sending an email. Parents should be aware that it is not always checked daily and so messaging through FB is not the best way to contact the school. They should rather use the contact form on the website or go via their child’s mentor.
Twitter is another public face of the school so is used for celebrating the events and achievements of the school and our students. There are also sometimes important reminders posted but only once they have been emailed.
| Reason for contacting the school: | Person referred to: |
| Attendance | Mentor |
| Classroom/lessons/home learning | Subject teacher |
| Teacher related | Head of Department |
| Whole school related/clarifications | Mentor |
| Bullying issues – initial contact | Mentor |
| On–going issues – subject | Head of Department |
| On–going issues – pastoral | College Leader |
| Safeguarding/Child Protection | Designated Safeguarding Lead Ms S Megeney: s.megeney@finhampark.co.uk and Mrs C Linstead: c.linstead@finhampark.co.uk |
In addition to the information above, I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of our expectations regarding home learning. Our policy on home learning states that teachers will only set tasks which directly impact progress and support the learning happening in the classroom. Home learning will not be set for the sake of it and will typically include reading or watching something to prepare for a lesson, revision and consolidation activities or practising core skills. We found through our experiences with remote learning that Google Classroom was by far the most effective and popular way of sharing resources and setting work therefore most home learning tasks are now set on https://classroom.google.com/; every class has an individual classroom which your child should have joined. Mentors have a complete list of all codes for each student so should be able to help if there are any you don’t have. Due to the security settings we have in place, only those with Finham Park logins can access our Google classrooms so students must use their school accounts in order to access their work. This does unfortunately mean that parents cannot be added separately; you should use your child’s login should you wish to view the home learning tasks that have been set for them. A calendar of work due will appear on the top left of the main Google classroom screen.
If students are self–isolating, classwork will be set on Google classrooms as has been the case for the past year or so and it is our legal duty to provide work in those circumstances. As far as is possible, work should appear on the classrooms by the start of the timetabled lesson. For this reason, it is important that parents keep us informed when students have been asked to isolate if this has not come through the school. For students who are too ill to attend school, as per usual practice, classwork will not be set; we would expect those students to focus on their recovery and, when they are well enough to return to school, teachers will support them to catch up with what has been missed. I do hope that you find this information useful and that it helps to clarify the various methods we use to communicate with you and what you can expect.