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Parent / Carer Forum Monday 18th May 2026 at 7pm |
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Attendees: Mr Hornsey (Deputy Headteacher) plus 6 parents from the following classes:
Nursery Butterflies, Reception Dragonflies, Y1 Owls, Y1 Hedgehogs, Y2 Otters, Y3 Wrens, Y5 Elms, Y5 Oaks
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Aims |
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Enquiry |
Discussion and feedback
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Photograph permissions |
Photograph permissions were discussed in relation to school’s recent approach to hosting year group performances. We’ve recently stopped photographs or videos being taken of performances including EYFS Christmas plays, Y2 Spring Performance, Y3 drumming and Y5 Curriculum Performance. This is to encourage parents to sit, relax and concentrate on watching their children who have worked hard for several weeks on their performance.
We realise it’s a shame if grandparents or any other family relatives who can’t attend, miss out on photographs or videos and that’s why we’ve rolled out the system of using password encrypted access more widely this year. This entails school sending out a link to parents with a password so that photos and videos can be viewed by parents for a limited period of time. The images should, as always, be for personal use only and this system seems to have been successful. The parents in the meeting all agreed that the system should continue.
The only event where this system won’t be used is Sports’ Day as it’s unmanageable to ‘police’ all attendees using their phones so please be aware of this.
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Covering class teacher absence |
After recent emails detailing concerns about supply teachers, Mr Hornsey explained how this very important part of school is managed.
Class teachers may be absent for a range of reasons including illness, dependent leave (children are ill), compassionate leave, leading or receiving training, PPA, SEND meetings, statutory ECT time, etc.
Greswold’s aim has always been to cover class teacher absence with a professional who the children are familiar with, e.g. Part-time teacher, Supply staff employed by school or an Advanced teaching Assistant. This approach enables consistency and continuity as the children move through school. Some Greswold supply teachers (Mrs Lee) work right across school from Nursery to year 6 and may be asked to teach several classes in any one day. This in turn means they maintain very high expectations, values and standards of teaching to ensure the children respond to them the same way as they would respond to their usual class teacher and that the work which is left for them is completed to a similarly high standard.
On occasion, we may need to contact one of two supply agencies if we can’t cover a class ‘internally’ but we usually stipulate which teachers we want especially if they’ve impressed us previously, e.g. Mr Andrews, Mrs Armanani, Mr Sidwell, Mrs Panesar, etc.
At such a large school with over 100 staff, the children are used to personnel changes but we don’t take this for granted and try to maintain continuity and quality at all times.
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Communication with class teachers, including transition between Y1 and Y2 |
Communication between parents and class teachers was discussed in general with Mr Hornsey detailing why school haven’t adopted an open communication system with teachers, similar to the app Class Dojo which some other schools use. School leaders always aim to balance the amount of time teachers liaise with parents and their main responsibility of planning, preparing, teaching and assessing. By allowing open access to teachers, similar to care diaries used in Nursery, Reception and Year 1, the concern is that teachers may not be able to carry out their main duties consistently, proficiently and efficiently.
However, a point was made by more than one parent about the transition from year 1 (Care Diary) to year 2 (same systems as KS2) so this is something SLT will discuss before the end of the year to see how the gap might bridged better.
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The point was raised about the timing of dates for Holiday club being released to parents. Some parents felt there should be more notice. This will be actioned to ensure dates are given earlier.
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Home Learning on the website |
There was a concern raised by one parent that Home Learning hadn’t been updated on the website. Although the year group was not mentioned, all staff have been reminded about website expectations.
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Parental awareness of Teaching Assistants |
Some parents rightly mentioned that they don’t have any contact whatsoever with Teaching Assistants as our support team only work in the mornings. Considering these professionals are such a vital part of Greswold and who work very closely with all the children, parents felt it was a shame that they didn’t know who they were. This has been discussed with SLT and we will actively look for more opportunities for parents to meet with Teaching Assistants and Class Teachers alike.
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Milk in Y1 |
A concern was raised about pupils, whose parents have purchased daily milk for them, not actually remembering to go and get it. We will remind the children in assemblies next week whilst also asking class teachers to ensure these children have their milk.
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Receipt of office emails |
Greswold is currently putting together some proposals for communicating receipt of office emails and response timescales. These will be communicated before the end of the academic year. Collection messages, appointments, return forms, general information that doesn’t require a response from SLT, parental concerns and queries which requires response from staff and formal complaints are all types of email which will have specific timescales. |