FAQs from Meet the Headteacher Sessions
Thank you to everyone who attended our Meet the Headteacher evenings in September. After conducting six sessions over three weeks, we distilled the main issues concerning parents into these FAQs. If you have further questions, concerns or comments about student life or school policy, please get in touch. To view Mr Lynch’s presentation, click on the following link. Meet the Headteacher Presentation September 2023.
Q: I am concerned about bullying. I have reported ongoing issues, but feel that the school is not acting on my concerns and is being too lenient.
A: We are continuously working on improving our response to bullying at our school. We are working with external agencies to develop best practice and train staff on how to deal with bullying and name calling. Work has already begun with Representation Matters to audit our school and train our staff. We will also train Anti-Bullying Ambassadors who can receive reports of bullying from students. Our Leadership Team will update the Anti-Bullying Policy in conjunction with parents and victim’s support. In addition, we have introduced a behaviour graduated response so that staff, students, and parents are clear on the consequences and actions the school will take in response to bullying. We feel that these measures will help make students and parents feel that Sheldon takes bullying seriously and is a safe school to attend.
If your child is experiencing bullying, please contact their tutor right away. To learn more about our behaviour policy, click here. To read more about how Representation Matters is working with Sheldon, please see the letter home on Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging.
Q: My child is hesitant to use the toilets during school time because it is often full of students. What can the school do to address this?
A: During break and lunchtime, the toilets are supervised by staff in order to prevent students loitering inside. We evaluated our lunchtime provisions and will be introducing more options for students so that they have additional places to go and activities to do. The long-term plan is to move to open-planned toilets and to increase our toilet provision in the school. Additionally, all students are able to use the toilets during lessons. They just need to ask their teacher who will log it in their planners to avoid misuse.
If your child is experiencing difficulty using the toilets at school, please discuss it with your child’s tutor.
Q: I feel that there is poor communication from the school. What are your plans for improving how you communicate to parents?
A: We are currently looking at the systems in place to communicate with parents and will evaluate their effectiveness. We will use this information to evaluate whether we should move to a single communications platform and to re-write our communication policy so that parents and staff are clear on expectations. We will increase the number of ways to contact the school and will develop a communication flow chart so that parents are aware of who to contact when they have a concern about their child.
Communication is very important to us at Sheldon. If you are unsure of who to contact at Sheldon or have a general concern, please feel free to email us at admin@sheldonschool.co.uk. Our reception team will make sure that your questions are answered by the appropriate member of staff.
Q: What is the school’s homework policy? I feel that there is a lack of homework and that it is inconsistently set. I find Microsoft Teams difficult to use to see what homework is set and when it is due. This means I cannot support my child. When homework is set it is not marked or little feedback is given. My child doesn’t receive any rewards for completing homework.
A: We are working to address inconsistencies and technical difficulties faced by parents who are monitoring their child’s homework. We will create a clear timetable of when homework is set to ensure consistency across classes and year groups. In Term 2, we will move homework to epraise so that parents can see what is set. We will also reward completion on epraise and will award scores so that parents can keep track of their child’s progress. . We will also look at utilising automated homework, online systems and Microsoft Forms that provide instant feedback to students.
You can find out more about Sheldon’s curriculum here. If you are concerned about a specific piece of homework, please either get in touch with your child’s teacher or the Head of Faculty. If you have a general concern about homework, please speak to you child’s tutor.
Q: What can the school do to improve safeguarding of children who leave the site without permission? Sometimes they arrive home before I have been contacted by the school to report their absence.
A: We will look at how we can make our site more secure to prevent students from leaving without permission. We will also improve communication methods to report absences.
If you have a specific concern about safeguarding, please contact your child’s tutor.
Q: I’m concerned that my SEN child is not receiving the appropriate support in class and that teachers are not following plans and good practice. How can communication with teachers be improved so that information about SEN support is shared with all my child’s teachers?
A: During Term 2, we will introduce new software, Edukey, to record and share SEN plans with staff. This will help put in place the appropriate scaffolding to support all of our students. Additionally we will ensure that a dyslexia friendly approach is used in all teaching through font size, colour and dual coding.
To learn more about our SEN policy, click here. For a specific concern about your child please contact your child’s tutor or our SENCo.
Q: How can you improve consistency in approach to teaching throughout different departments?
A: This year we introduced StepLab, an observational piece of software that is used to record and develop teaching practices across the school. We will adopt the Rosenshine Principles of Instructions and Teach Like a Champion toolkit to improve consistency across lessons.
If you have questions about teaching and learning, please contact your child’s tutor.
Q: I am concerned about poor behaviour of students during free time and in class? How can you improve behaviour and stop disruptions that keep my child from learning?
A: We have changed the behaviour policy to reduce low level disruption in the classroom so that teachers can teach and students can learn. We will also introduce new break and lunchtime arrangements in Term 2 to provide students with engaging activities during their free time. We will also increase supervision and space for each year group during breaks.
For more information about our approach to behaviour, click here.