COMMUNICATIONS

Who to contact after your child has started at Ashfold

Your child’s Form Teacher or Tutor has overall responsibility for his/her welfare and development and is your first port-of-call for any queries. If you wish to contact other members of staff, you will find email addresses for all teaching staff and key support staff in the Staff Directory in the About Us section of our website. If you have any general queries or are unsure of the best person to contact, please contact Reception on 01844 238237 or reception@ashfoldschool.co.uk.

Parent Contact Details

It is essential that we are able to contact you during the school day. Please notify Reception on reception@ashfoldschool.co.uk as soon as possible if you change your address, home telephone or mobile numbers.

School Website

Under the Parents’ Area tab, on our school website, you will find the following details - Sports Fixtures, Key Dates, Weekly Mailing, FASTI and Staff Contact Details. This is a password protected area and Fiona Grainge will send the password to you before the start of term.

Weekly Mailing

Our Weekly Mailing contains letters to parents, bulletins and other important information. You will receive a link to the latest mailing via email every Friday during term.

The Hoot

Our weekly newsletter, ‘The Hoot’, is emailed to parents every Friday afternoon and is full of photos, videos and exciting news of everything going on in and out of the school. The Hoot is also found on the website under the News tab. Parents are encouraged to send in content to jaqui.bursnall@ashfoldschool.co.uk.

Social Media

We invite you to join our Ashfold Community on social media and follow our daily stories on Facebook (@AshfoldSchool), Twitter (@AshfoldSchool) and Instagram (@AshfoldSchool).

Parent Portal

The Parent Portal can be accessed via the link at the top of the home page of our website. The email address that you have provided will be used to generate your password for the Parent Portal. You will receive login details from our IT Department after your child starts at Ashfold and will then be able to check your contact details and access your child’s school reports.

Pupil Portal

The Pupil Portal contains learning resources for children in Form 1 upwards and can be accessed via the home page of our website. Your child will be responsible for using his/her own password. We regularly remind children not to share their passwords, except with their parents. Children in Forms 1 and 2 may need your support initially but we expect that by Form 3, children will be self-sufficient at accessing and using the online resources. The Portal also enables children in Form 1 upwards to access their school-managed email. For safeguarding, all messages in and out of their accounts are collected for review and email use is strictly limited to school matters. The accounts are restricted to accept pupil and teacher email and whitelisted services (e.g. resetting their own Vocab Express password) only. The pupil portal also enables pupils in Forms 3-6 to access their prep and revision materials on the school’s Microsoft Teams sites.

Ashfold Parents’ Committee (APC)

Our Parents’ Committee has a representative in each year group who helps new families settle into life at Ashfold. Your APC representative will be in touch with you shortly and will be happy to answer any questions you may have. The names of all the Form Representatives can be found in the Community section of our website. APC also organises social events throughout the year for Ashfold parents so please do keep an eye out for their events in our weekly mailing. APC use an online system called Classlist, which will enable parents to contact other parents in their child’s year group safely and securely and to keep up to date with events organised by Form Reps and APC. You will receive more information from the APC about Classlist over the summer.

Buddies

All children joining Forms 1– 6 will be allocated a Buddy (a child in their Form) who will be responsible for looking after them when they first arrive at the School.

Houses

Your child will join one of our three Houses: Dragons, Gryphons and Lions. We will write to you confirming their House. Please note that siblings usually join the same House. There are many inter-House competitions during the year covering all aspects of school life. Children can earn Merits for their Houses by participating in these and other events. At the end of each term, the House with the most Merits wins the prestigious House Challenge Cup. In Forms 1 – 6 there is a House Feast on the evening of the first Friday of the following term for the winning house. In the Pre-Prep, children celebrate with a House Treat during the first House Assembly of term.