Parent/Carer & Visitor Conduct
A guide to supporting you and your child successfully through school
At Lemington Riverside we are committed to a respectful, positive and mutually supportive relationship between parents/carers and staff.
As a partnership, our parents/carers will understand the importance of a good working relationship to make sure that all of our children thrive at school. For these reasons we continue to welcome and encourage parents/carers to participate fully in the life of our school.
This guide outlines what we expect of all parents and carers in our school. Our aim is to provide you with a guide that sets out how we expect parents/carers to conduct themselves and helps prevent misunderstandings and any situations blowing out of control so we can continue to support your child to reach their full potential.
The essentials:
- Make sure your child arrives to school on time and is picked up promptly or let us know if you are running late or if your child is going home with someone else.
- Complete all consent, contact and medical forms and inform us straight away if anything changes.
- Make sure your child has the right clothing for any activity they are involved in, including wearing the correct school uniform.
- Maintain a good relationship with your child’s class teacher and attend school events and parent updates wherever possible or re-arrange if necessary to share information about your child’s development.
- Talk to us if you have any concerns about any part of your child’s education and development – we want to hear from you and work with you.
- If you have a concern please ensure that you correctly follow the school’s policies and complaint procedures.
The school expects parents and carers to:
- Respect the caring ethos of the school
- Understand that parents and teachers need to work together for the benefit of our children
- Demonstrate in their own behaviour that all members of the school community should be treated with respect and therefore set a good example in their own speech and behaviour
- Understand that even if there is conflict due to a member of staff’s oversight, parents must remain calm and respectful and be mindful that we are all working together for the child’s best interests
- Approach school staff to inform them of any issue and allow them to help resolve issues
- Work with the school to build relationships with its staff
- Seek to clarify a child’s version of events with the school’s view in order to bring about a peaceful solution to any issue
- Correct their own child’s behaviour, especially where it could lead to conflict
In order to support a peaceful and safe school environment the school does not tolerate:
× Disruptive behaviour which interferes or threatens to interfere with the operation of a classroom, office or other area of school grounds
× Loud or offensive language of any kind, including raising of voices, shouting, swearing or displaying temper/aggression.
× Threatening to do actual bodily harm to a member of school staff, governor, visitor, parent/carer or pupil
× Damaging or destroying school property
× Sending abusive or threatening emails, text/voicemail/phone messages or other written communication
× Defamatory, offensive or derogatory comments regarding the school or any of the pupils/parents/staff at the school on Facebook or other social media sites
× The use of physical aggression towards another adult or child. This includes physically punishing your own child on school premises
× Chastising someone else’s child
× Smoking/vaping, or consuming alcohol or drugs whilst on school property
× Bringing dogs or other animals on to school premises
Inappropriate use of Social Network Sites
- Defamatory, offensive or derogatory comments regarding the school or any of the pupils/parent/staff at the school should not be aired on Facebook or other social sites.
- Any concerns you may have about the school must be made through the appropriate channels by speaking to the class teacher, the Head teacher or the Chair of Governors, so they can be dealt with fairly, appropriately and effectively for all concerned.
- In the event that any pupil or parent/carer of a child/ren being educated at Lemington Riverside school is found to be posting libellous or defamatory comments on Facebook or other social network sites, they will be reported to the appropriate 'report abuse' section of the network site and if necessary our safeguarding management consultants and/or the Police. All social network sites have clear rules about the content which can be posted on the site and they provide robust mechanisms to report contact or activity which breaches this. The school will also expect that any parent/carer or pupil removes such comments/ material immediately.
- In serious cases the school will also consider its legal options to deal with any such misuse of social networking and other sites. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly is the issue of cyber bullying and the use by one child or a parent to publicly humiliate another by inappropriate social network entry. We will take and deal with this as a serious incident of school bullying. Thankfully such incidents are extremely rare.
- We would expect that parents/carers would make all persons responsible for collecting children aware of this policy.
School Security
- Adults on site must sign in and wear a visible visitor’s badge/lanyard.
- We want you and your child to enjoy the best possible educational experience they can. Being aware of our school’s expectations will help you to do that.
- We expect all parents to follow the expected behaviour and requests set out in this document. If any parent behaves in a way which contradicts this code of conduct, we will address the problem at the earliest opportunity and aim to resolve the issue.
Persistent concerns or breaches or individual serious incidents may result in banning the offending adult from entering school grounds (under the school’s powers under Section 147 of the Education Act). This is something we never want to do but the welfare and safety of children and adults on our school site is paramount.
For further information please refer to the following policies that are available on our school website (if you require a paper copy of any policy, please request one from the school office):
- Acceptable Use Policy.
- Anti-Bullying Policy.
- Attendance Policy.
- Behaviour Policy.
- Positive Handling Policy.
- School Complaints Policy.
- Section 147 Guidance.