Bulletin 18.11.2022
18th November 2022
This week's bulletin is available here.
Dear Parents and Carers
There are a number of important messages for you today:
Dangerous Driving in Swansley Lane
A resident has reported that an increasing number of parents are using Swansley Lane in the mornings to drop off their children for school and are creating a congestion hazard. Some cars are also being driven dangerously fast around the bends nearest the school. Please only use the main carpark if you need to bring your children to school, or consider dropping them off in a safe place beyond Swansley Lane; this protects the Swansley Lane entrance for the majority of pupils. The best option, if children are able, is to encourage them to walk, scoot or cycle.
Postcards Home
We are aware that the system being used to send postcards of congratulation to pupils has not been working and a considerable backlog has built up. We are trying to resolve this issue with the provider and are now using a ‘workaround’ via the Home Notes section of Go4Schools until the problem is fixed. I’m sorry about this - we know that these postcards are very much valued by pupils when received.
Flu Vaccinations
Please note that only pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9 can be offered a flu vaccination on the advertised dates of Friday 16 December / Friday 13 January. Further details will be provided nearer the time.
Communicating with Named Pupil Contacts
Some parents have expressed frustration that we are unable to share information, for example about a child being unwell, with some named contacts whose details we hold on our systems.
Due to the safeguarding and GDPR legislation that schools must follow, we are only able to discuss students and to share information about them with those who have legal parental responsibility (PR).
Though we do request additional contacts for students, these are only used in case of emergency to help us to contact someone with parental responsibility. Our staff are unable to share information with these contacts and we can only communicate with additional contacts about a student if explicit permission from someone with PR is given in each individual instance. This permission cannot be stored for future use.
All contacts who have parental responsibility for a student have equal access to our school systems and to academic information for the student.
I appreciate this can be extremely difficult for a long-standing and trusted step-parent for
example, who does not hold PR and is thus denied this communication, but we would ask for your understanding that the school has to follow the legal frameworks around these matters.
Year 11 Parent Consultation
Thank you to all the parents who participated in a very well attended virtual consultation with teachers yesterday. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s tutor if you were not able to attend this event and would like a discussion around progress.
Today is Children in Need Day. Thank you for all the contributions made to this important charity via our non-uniform collection.
Wishing you all a very good weekend,
Claire Coates
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