Communications

Home-School Partnerships

Opportunities for Contact 

Refer to Vyne Facebook page and Twitter feed via our School Website home page. 

Regular Parents' Consultation Evenings are held for all year groups to give you a chance to meet and talk with your child's subject teachers, tutor and other senior staff.

You will be kept fully informed of your child's progress by a detailed annual written report in every subject. There will be two opportunities in the year to come into school and discuss your childs progress with tutors.

Every student is given a Student Palnner in which to record homework set and to provide a simple means for teachers and parents to make brief written contact with each other, parents are expected to sign the panner on a weekly basis. 

The school has a full programme of events for parents and students such as Open Days and Evenings, drama and music productions, curriculum evenings and exhibitions.

The school publishes a range of brochures for students and parents including the Governing Body's Annual Report to Parents (from 2007 this will be called the School Profile and will be available online) and information on academic courses in the Upper School. 

Parental Concerns 

Any parent who has cause for concern about any aspect of their child's education at the school should, in the first instance, contact their child's Tutor, House Leader or Senior Guidance Leader. If the matter remains unresolved parents are welcome to make contact directly with the Head teacher, Deputy Head or any School Governor. The names for both the Head teacher and Governors are given on page 16. 

As parents of a child at the school, you are always welcome to visit us. We will be delighted to show you the school in action or talk to you about your child's progress. As well as personal visits, you can, of course, contact us by telephone. If you wish to see copies of specific policies please contact the school and ask for them. In the future we intend to make this kind of information available “online”. 

School Attendance 

Procedure for reporting Pupil Absence 

At The Vyne Community School, we have an Attendance Policy that involves telephoning parents if a pupil is absent from school without notification. This is a reassurance for you but also keeps our records up to date.

In order to prevent unnecessary phone calls, we therefore ask that if your child is absent from school, or will be late into school for any reason you telephone reception on 01256 473003 (answer phone out of school hours) before 10.00 am on the first day of absence. If your child misses registration (8.30 – 8.40) for any reason they must sign in at reception. A call is required if your child was sent home ill from school the previous day and for everyday of absence. Should the absence continue into the start of a new week, a follow up phone call is also helpful.

Reporting to Parents 

We believe that one of our most important duties to parents is to keep them accurately and regularly informed about their child's progress in school, both academically and socially. We do this by: 

Parents' Consultation Evenings 

We hold regular meetings for parents to hear at first hand how their child is progressing at the school. You will have a chance to meet your child's subject teachers, tutor and other senior staff in individual interviews. These evenings are run professionally with a proper appointment system to avoid unnecessary delays and full documentation sent to you before the meeting. We also regularly ask parents to evaluate the effectiveness of the meeting so that we can continually improve our systems and procedures. 

Reports 

All parents will receive an annual written report on their child's attainment in each of the National Curriculum subjects as well as a general statement of their overall progress. Subject reports will be written in precise language, free from educational jargon, and will include a clear grade and an indication of where each child has reached in relation to other students of a similar age. 

Rewards System

We believe it is very important to recognise the excellent work and behaviour of our pupils in a formal as well as informal way. We also hold an annual Awards Evening to which parents are invited, when significant academic and social achievements are recognised. 

At The Vyne good behaviour and discipline are expected and considered essential to foster an environment which allows students to learn and flourish. We aim to promote the values of courtesy, respect, honesty and trust, as well as encouraging students to be enterprising and develop their initiative.

In order to achieve this we wish to recognise, encourage and reward students for displaying positive attitudes and behaviour and for achieving well in all aspects of school life.

EPraise

The School’s rewards policy has been developed as a strategy to inspire enthuse and motivate students to fulfil their potential. The use of rewards should be used before punishment in order to develop a positive ethos throughout the School.

EPraise is to be used across the School by staff and students. Parents also have their own login to access epraise. Points are awarded online and on reaching identified target levels, students have the chance to select a prize or donate their points to charity.