School and Home Communication

We firmly believe that our success as a school depends upon us building up a positive and open relationship with our parents. We aim by a variety of ways to encourage this. Any serious concerns that parents at Kesgrave have are initially best dealt with through either Heads of Year or Heads of Faculty. Matters that are more generally worrying are dealt with by the Headteacher and his Deputies. Any documentation about matters relating to the school is always available from the Headteacher's secretary.

Over the year, your son/daughter will bring home a fortnightly newsletter called HIGHlights, (these are numbered, please make sure you receive every edition!) letters informing you of meetings, and many other items. All are aimed at keeping you in touch and sharing with you news of important events and achievements. During the course of a pupil's career in the school, formal evenings are set aside for you to meet with form tutors and/or subject teachers, as appropriate, to discuss educational issues. I must emphasise however that we are an open school and welcome visits from parents, enquiries over the telephone, or quick notes delivered with your son/daughter. Only with the best possible communication can we all do the best possible job.

Reports and Parents' Evenings

Parents may make an appointment to consult with staff at any time throughout the year. However, there is a well established system of Parents' Consultation Evenings, the dates of which are published at the beginning of each school year. The Parents' Evenings directly follow the distribution of school reports (except in Years 12 and 13 where the timing is different). With the introduction of the GCSE examination which involves a great deal of Coursework it is necessary to offer pupils a regular and positive guide to their progress. Therefore we have introduced assessment procedures which reflect this continuous process and which directly involve pupils. The assessments are based on individual performance; they are very positive and state what each child "can do" not what he or she can't do when compared with someone else.

• Year 7 - Informal Parents' Evening in October.
• Years 7 to 13 - Parental Consultation Evening with all subject teachers annually.
• Year 10 - Careers Information Evening for Parents in September.

In addition, academic progress checks are made for all years during the Autumn term.