Parents’ evenings are held twice a year – once in the autumn term and another in the spring. However, informal meetings can be more effective.  We encourage parents of all our pupils to keep in close contact with the school – it’s nearly always possible to speak with the class teacher for a moment or two before or after school, and a longer discussion can be arranged within a day or two. These meetings can be arranged if you have specific concerns or would like to know more about how to support your child. For example, following the Annual Report, which is sent home a few weeks before the summer holiday, you might like to arrange a meeting with your child’s class teacher to discuss some of the content of the report and how you can help your child over the long summer break.

As well as speaking to the class teacher, Miss Beatson (the Head of School) will provide you with an overview of your child’s learning as well as talk about ways to support you and your child. She treats all feedback sensitively and appropriately – your feedback is one of the ways we can keep getting better and better.

Every year in the Summer Term, we will send out a short survey for parents / carers. The survey will usually be in two sections. The first section will ask you to agree / disagree to a few statements – these relate to Ofsted inspection criteria and will be about teaching, learning, behaviour and safety, and leadership. There’ll always be space for you to express your views, too. The second section will be more open-ended and usually linked to our school development plan – we might ask for your thoughts on an issue so we know whether or not we should work on improving it (school dinners, for example). The surveys can be completed electronically, or paper copies can be returned to us unnamed, if you’d prefer.

Don’t wait until the annual survey, though! If you’ve got some feedback for us, we’d like to hear from you. You could send us an email (stjamesoffice@spherefederation.org) or a short note. Any feedback you have (including comments left anonymously) can be left at the school office.

Parent View gives you the chance to tell Ofsted what you think about St James’ CE Primary. It asks for your opinion on 12 aspects of school, from the quality of teaching to dealing with bullying and poor behaviour. Ofsted uses the information you provide when making decisions about which schools to inspect, and when. By sharing your views, you’ll be helping us to improve – we’ll aim to keep doing the things you praise and sort out the things you criticise. Please remember that if your feedback is specific to your own child, it might be better to contact someone at school so we can respond quickly and specifically to help your child.

At the Parent View website, you’ll also be able to see what other parents have said about St James’ (and, if you want to, view the results for any school in England).

Your questions, comments or concerns are often answered in our communications. Near the start of each half-term, parents / carers receive a newsletter. The newsletters typically include a page of class-specific information and a page where school leaders write about school-wide news and issues.  This is in addition to occasional letters which are sent home whenever there is important news.

We send home paper copies of essential communications. However, we increasingly use other ways to communicate. There are various ways for you to receive our news and updates electronically. You can subscribe to our news articles via RSS or by email. If you use Twitter, you can follow us there. We also use Schoolcomms to send emails and to text – contact the school office if you don’t yet benefit from communications using Schoolcomms.

Complaints are rare at St James’. We have an open culture. Staff are nearly always available – it’s easy to have a quick chat with teachers or the Head of School so most concerns or complaints are dealt with quickly. However, if parents feel that they need to make a formal complaint, it should be made in writing to the Head of School, who will investigate and give a response within ten days. If parents remain dissatisfied, they can appeal to the Chair of Governors. The case will then be reviewed by a Governors’ Panel and a final response given within twenty days. A copy of our complaints procedure and any other documentation to which parents may require access is available from the school office.