Communication and Routines

Your first point of contact for pastoral or academic concerns affecting your child is their Form Tutor. Staff can be contacted by email or via the School Portal, and a phone call or online or in-person meeting can be arranged.

If you are not sure who to contact, please send an email to admin@albynschool.org and it will be re-directed to the appropriate member of staff.

Most correspondence is sent home electronically on the Portal. The School sends out an email bulletin for parents every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to update you with school news, and to let you know what documents and letters are on the Portal for you to read and/or respond to.

Our School Portal gives you access to information about your child/children attending Albyn School including:

• Correspondence from the School

• Your child’s record of attendance and punctuality

• Your child’s medical information

• The School’s calendar

• Their disciplinary record and achievements

• Billing information if you are the bill payer

• School reports

• The ability to contact your child’s teachers

• Your child’s timetable

• Co-curricular information

You can view the School Portal User Guide here and the Albyn School Portal can be accessed by clicking here. Upon joining the school, you will receive an activation email (at the email address you provided) from the address schoolportal@albynschool.org. Please note this is a no reply address: it is not associated to an inbox. By following the link in this email, you will be taken to a page to set a password.

If you ever forget your password, please go to the login page and click on “forgotten my password”. The portal homepage shown is individual to each child’s profile. Please refer to the documents section of the portal when looking for specific items such as book lists and uniform lists - these can also be accessed through our Parent Information website. Please note that the documents section defaults to the previous month, and you may need to amend the date filter to see older documents. If any of your child’s medical information needs to be amended or updated please contact our Administration team by email here or phone school to speak with the School Nurse.

If you require any support using the School Portal, please email admin@albynschool.org or call 01224 322408 to speak to a School Administrator.

Each year you will have opportunities to meet with your child's teacher or teachers at parent induction meetings and parent evenings.  You will also receive a number of Progress Checks or Reports providing a detailed account of your child’s progress.  A Progress Check is a short grade-focussed report, a standard Report gives more substantial written feedback. Given the success of virtual parent meetings, and positive feedback from parents and staff about the convenience of virtual meetings, some parents evenings will be online and others in person as appropriate.

Appointments are booked through Schoolcloud and a handy user guide can be found here.

The Albyn School website celebrates our School and gives insight into the life of the Albyn Community which is a very busy one! In addition to news articles, photographs and videos, you can view the School's Sports programme with details of all the year group fixtures (future and past), results and match reports. Please visit our website HERE and if you would like to visit the Sports pages, click on the Sports Results icon below the main menu on the left hand side. 

At Albyn School, we use our social media accounts to share updates on our pupils' learning, achievements, activities and trips. We celebrate all sections of the school: Nursery, Lower School, Upper School and Alumni.  We also provide updates on School Community events such as parent talks and Parent Association events. 

The official accounts can be accessed below:

Facebook - Albyn School Albyn School Alumni         

Instagram - Albyn School         

Linkedin - Albyn School       

Twitter - Albyn School       

Please make sure your child has everything they need for the day. We encourage pupils to be responsible for their belongings, appropriate to their age, and as they get older this includes being responsible for bringing the right equipment for their school day (PE kit, homework, books, etc.). Parents may, however, occasionally drop off forgotten items etc. at Reception.

If you would like to make an appointment to see a member of staff, you are very welcome to do so – and this meeting will take place online or on the phone, or in person if appropriate. You may be directed to the most suitable person to speak to. Please email the School to set up a mutually convenient time.  

Every parent or guardian of a child at Albyn School is a member of ASPA (Albyn School Parents Association). You do not have to be on the committee itself. ASPA is how you can get involved with helping to support the school and is a great way of meeting other Albyn parents and guardians.

ASPA arranges social events and fundraises for the school to provide additional resources for the school. Normal social events include a Lower School Disco, a Fireworks party at the playing fields (early November) and a Christmas Fair (craft and games stalls). In recent years ASPA has been able to donate significant funds to the school for a major Library upgrade, a minibus, music, sports and playground equipment together with a number of smart boards and other equipment for the classrooms.

If you would like to get involved with ASPA or just introduce yourself and meet other parents, you can contact the ASPA Chair or Secretary. You will also find your class representatives’ details on the portal in the Documents section after these have been selected by the committee for the academic year.

If your child is unwell or unable to attend School for another reason, please email pupilabsence@albynschool.org by 8.30am and by 9am at the latest to let us know why and for how long your child is expected to be absent. If the duration of the illness is unknown, we kindly ask that parents contact the school each morning to confirm that day’s absence.

Appointments to visit the dentist and doctor should be made out of school hours where possible. In the event of appointments only being available during school hours, please let us know the time and date of the appointment using the Pupil Absence email address above.  

In the case of an accident or illness in school, pupils should seek help from their Class Teacher or any other member of staff who will report them to the School Nurse. Pupils should not telephone their parents directly to ask to go home.

Albyn School publishes a list of term and holiday dates for each session well in advance. Family holidays should not be taken during term time. We do not give permission for absences of this nature and they will be recorded as unauthorised. Upper School Parents must write to Headteacher and Lower School Parents must write to the Head of Lower School to seek permission for any planned absence during school time.

All Lower and Upper School pupils enter the school through the main entrance on Queens Road, a routine we established in August 2020.  Please do not use the Forest Avenue gates for entry to the school – this is now only for the nursery.  Upper School pupils should arrive by 8.25am for an 8.30am start, and Lower School pupils should arrive by 8.40am for an 8.45am start.

Lower School pupils can be dropped off and picked up by car using the car park in front of the school. However, we encourage parents not to clog up the local area with cars if possible - a park and stride approach is preferable, as is using public transport. Parents who are only dropping off Upper School pupils should not enter the car park unless their child has a mobility issue, or an unmanageably large musical instrument or bag. As far as is practical, please observe the following guidelines:

• pupils should get out on the passenger side of your vehicle.

• parents should remain in the vehicle.

• pupils should have small bags in the main body of the car to reduce the need to access the boot.

• use your mirrors to be alert to vehicles behind you who have already dropped off and wish to come past in the right-hand lane. 

These arrangements are there to reduce congestion in the car park and to avoid any further near misses of which there were several in recent times. Please observe the road markings to assist with this too.

Please be aware that Forest Avenue gets very busy at the beginning and end of school days. We ask that you show consideration for our neighbours and fellow road users when parking at these times. Please do not park on double yellow lines or in front of residents’ driveways even for a short duration. 

Pupils should arrive promptly in time for morning registration at 8.30am (Upper School) or 8.45am (Lower School). Any pupils who arrive after this time must sign in at the main reception stating their time of arrival and a reason for the lateness.  If your child is frequently late to school, a concern will be raised and you will be contacted to discuss the circumstances surrounding this.

Our Framework for Home Learning from P1 to S6 can be read here. This framework outlines our approach, expectations, and provides guidance on how parents can support their child’s learning at home, from P1 to S6. 

If you have any child protection concerns regarding your own children or any other child whom you believe needs protection from child abuse or neglect, please do not hesitate to contact our Child Protection Co-ordinators:

Nichola Crawford Nathan Davies Zibby Brown
Deputy Head i/c Pastoral Head of Lower School & Nursery Deputy Head i/c Nursery and P1-2

N.Crawford@albynschool.org   N.Davies@albynschool.org Z.Brown@albynschool.org