Parent Information
Research has shown that strong partnerships between home and school can have a significant positive impact on wellbeing, attendance, academic progress and behaviour. At Bottisham Village College (BVC), we are committed to working alongside parents to achieve the best possible outcomes for our students.
We have recently established a Parent Forum to further enhance communication and strengthen links between the school and parents/carers. The group meet half-termly to discuss and give feedback on school systems and routines, as well as to suggest ways of developing communication between school and home, allowing us to evaluate and improve our provision.
| Learning at school | Learning at home | Parenting tools |
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Parenting courses with Cambridgeshire County Council Pinpoint - Support for parents who have children with additional needs & disabilities |
| Contact - Mr Ed Compton |
Contact - Mr Dom Fullman Contact - Mrs Camilla Saunders |
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| Mental & Emotional Health | Safeguarding | Attendance |
| Contact - Mrs Camilla Saunders | Contact - Mr Dom Fullman | Contact - Mrs Alison Logan |
| Upcoming Events | Uniform | Emergency School Closure |
| Contact - Mrs Jane Taylor | ||
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| Staff contact details | School Transport | Catering |
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| Contact- Mr Stuart Hodgson | Contact - Finance Office | |
Learning is most effective when there is a strong partnership between families and the college and when we work together with shared objectives to do the best for our young people.
At Bottisham Village College we work together with parents and carers in a variety of ways and communication is at the heart of positive working relationships.
All parents are invited to access information about their sons and daughters through the parental remote access facility. This resource provides personalised information including student timetables, contact information for all of your child’s teachers, work tracking, assessment information for each subject area, attendance information and up to date records of positive contributions and behaviour for learning issues.
We use twitter to communicate information on events and to give live trip updates.
Our Facebook page is also a useful source of information.
We share photos on our Instagram page
Links to all our social media sites can be found on the home page of our website.
In addition, annual consultation evenings provide an opportunity to discuss each child’s progress and development. Occasional information evenings are also held to inform parents and carers about what is taught and how it is taught, about national and local developments and to provide a forum for discussion of shared concerns. A termly newsletter celebrates students’ achievements and provides information about recent curriculum and enrichment developments and opportunities.
Schoolcomms is an electronic system of automatic first day absence alerts which also allows all college communications to be emailed directly to parents and carers. For Key Stage 4, a weekly digest of coursework and large homework tasks is sent directly to parents/carers via email, via the work management module.
We hope you will find us a “listening” school. At Bottisham Village College, we always welcome contact with parents and carers. We firmly believe that this fosters mutual understanding and support which has a positive effect on the performance and well-being of our students.
Unlike some businesses and other occupations, the professional duties of teachers can make it difficult for them to speak or meet with parents/carers during the college day. Teachers may be teaching for up to 90% of the school week and for the rest of their working week, they are working with or for children in a variety of activities. The important business of working with and responding to parents/carers has to be managed by teachers within this professional context.Our work with children means that we move around the college site and we are often not in reach of a telephone. This means that meetings with parents/carers must be by appointment only.
In order to achieve the most effective balance for children, parents/carers and teachers, we follow these principles:
welcoming contact from parents;
responding as quickly and fully as possible to parents/carers, using the most appropriate form of communication for each context;
involving parents in our work with children;
sharing information as often and as fully as possible with parents/carers .
It is important for parents/carers to know how they can expect their telephone calls, letters and emails to be dealt with.
A full version of our communications policy can be found here and a full list of all teachers’ email addresses on the Meet the Staff page.