Dear parents and carers,

There has been a review of email communication at both school and trust level.  To bring us in line with other schools in the 3-18 Trust, the message below will be added to the school website from this week and will become our normal working policy with regard to email communication from today onwards.  I will also ensure this is posted in our upcoming school newsletter.

Please note this refers to non-urgent contact with school only, I have highlighted the protocol for urgent matters below.

Email contact with school should be through pri-info@pri.318education.co.uk.  Due to staff workload and availability we have a 72 hour return on emails.  If the communication is urgent please highlight this in the subject header or contact main reception by phone.’

I would also like to clarify an issue relating to the setting of detentions.  As a school we will always give you notice of an after-hours detention, however this is not a permissions notification.  The latest DfE update in July 2022 outlined that this is not a requirement please see the following link: https://www.gov.uk/school-discipline-exclusions.  Where there is a genuine, extenuating circumstance for non-attendance e.g. it falls on a special religious day, then we may be able to rearrange but 24 hours notice, would need to be given to ensure this message reached the relevant member of staff.  Failure to attend a detention will end up in this escalating to another departmental or pastoral detention, school detention or internal exclusion for repeat offences.

Mrs Pope

Headteacher