Communication Plan for Parents

Effective communication between you as parents/carers and the school is an essential part of supporting your child in their progress. To support you in being able to do this effectively, we ask that you follow the simple guidance below.

Sickness, Absence and Appointments
If you need to let us know your child is sick and not attending school or will be arriving at school late, parents/carers should telephone the school each day of their child's absence, or send a message via the Arbor App, if you are not able to do this, you can send an email to rhhs@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk or call us on 01452 382249.

If your child needs to leave early on a school day for an appointment (or any other reason) please notify us, letting us know the reason and time they will need to leave by  email: rhhs@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk

Please note that, where possible, we require 14 days' notice in writing of taking a student out of school for holidays and competitions. An Absence Request Form should be completed and emailed to school.  

How to get in touch with Staff at Ribston Hall 
There are a number of ways that you can make contact with a member of staff, however our preferred method of initial communication is through email. If your query relates to an academic issue, we ask that you contact your child’s subject teacher in the first instance. 

Please send emails for the attention of the teaching staff to rhhs@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk indicating the name of the staff member you would like to contact and the nature of your query. You will receive a holding email from our Administrator to acknowledge your email.
This communication will then be passed on to the teacher with a request to action.

Email communications with the Headteacher
Please send emails for the attention of the Headteacher, head@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk

Email communication with Pastoral Staff
If your query relates to a non-academic issue, we ask that you contact your child’s Head of Year, who is the first point of contact regarding any pastoral issues. There are a very small number of students for whom the first point of contact should be our Wellbeing team. If this is the case, this will have been previously agreed between the parent/carer and the respective member of staff.

Please send emails for the attention of Heads of Year for pastoral queries to the following email addresses:

Head of Year 7 – Mrs K Pitman	head7@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Head of Year 8 – Ms L Erro	head8@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Head of Year 9 – Mrs A Cresswell	head9@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Head of Year 10 – Miss K Mowatt	head10@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Head of Year 11 – Mr D James	head11@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Sixth Form Pastoral enquiries	sixthform@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk

Emailing Safeguarding concerns
If you have any safeguarding concerns during weekends, school holidays, or other times when the school is closed, please email head@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk.

During term time safeguarding concerns can be sent to our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL), Mrs Debbs Hay dh@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk. Where appropriate, please copy this to head@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk

Email communication with Teaching Staff
Your child’s subject teacher will be able to liaise with the Curriculum Lead for that subject if this is necessary. On rare occasions, it may be appropriate to contact the Curriculum Lead rather than the teacher directly; however, this will not normally be the case.

English - Mrs L Brook	lbr@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Humanities - Mrs L Derbyshire	lde@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Performance - Mrs D Barnett	db@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Design - Mrs N Finch	nf@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Social Sciences - Mrs H Williams	hwi@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Science/Computer Science - Mr J Cole	jrc@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Maths - Karl Bushnell	kbu@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk
Modern Foreign Languages - Mr E Lawless	elaw@ribstonhall.gloucs.sch.uk

All emails received will be responded to within 2 working days. If you have a query that will take longer than this to respond to the staff member will acknowledge the delay and will advise you of a new date that they anticipate a full reply will be sent. This response time may be slightly longer in the case of part-time staff.

Staff emails are not monitored outside of school hours and whilst some members of staff may choose to respond to emails outside of school hours, this is actively discouraged in order to promote a healthy work/life balance for our staff. We would ask that any emails addressed to staff should be written in a polite and respectful manner.

Telephone
There may be some instances when you may prefer to speak to someone directly. Our School Reception telephone number is 01452 382249 and is active between 8:00am and 4:00pm.
Please be aware that if your query is not a ‘general’ query and the member of staff at our School Reception is unable to respond fully, the Receptionist will take a message and email the staff member. As above, these messages will be responded to within 2 working days.

Letter
If you wish to write to a member of staff by letter, please address your letter to that member of staff directly and post/hand to reception. Letters will be responded to within five working days of receipt of the letter.

In person
There are times when you may value the opportunity to have a conversation in person with a member of staff. If this is the case, please use one of the above forms of communication to request a meeting. If you arrive in Reception without an appointment, it is unlikely that you will be able to see the specific member of staff. 

Emergencies
In the case of an urgent message, needing to be relayed to your child or a member of the school’s Senior Leadership Team, please telephone the School Reception on 01452 382249.