Dear all

A gentle reminder that a significant strength of Saint George is the positive partnerships and relationships we have with our parents at home. Teachers want the best for their pupils and parents want the best for their children. We both share the common goal of helping your son/daughter grow into a successful, happy young man and woman, but working together towards that goal can occasionally prove difficult.  Sometimes, education staff and parents don't agree about behaviour or performance. When relationships become strained, everyone suffers. Therefore, we have published a communications code of conduct for parents and staff to follow with the aim of achieving the best for your son/daughter on those rare occasions when we have to navigate difficult conversations. If you have any questions, please get in touch.

Please do…

1. Contact us if you have a question, concern, query or complaint. We want to know if you feel 

unhappy about a situation or incident; we are keen to resolve these. 

2. Tell us what you understand has happened and how this has made you or your child feel. 

3. Help us to resolve the situation efficiently by addressing your concern to the person who 

is best placed to deal with it, which will be the person most heavily involved in the issue 

or incident. 

4. Recognise that there could be different perspectives or additional information that need 

to be understood before you have a complete picture of what has happened. In other 

words, approach incidents "seeking first to understand before seeking to be 

understood."

5. Address concerns to staff at college during the working week (and not at weekends), 

rather than through social media or out of college. 

6. Expect a reply within 2 working days. A same day response may well not be possible and 

should not be expected. Concerns around child safety and child protection will be 

prioritised. Some of our staff are part-time and so 2 working days may not equate to two 

actual days of a standard working week. 

7. Speak to members of staff politely and courteously. 

 

Please don't…

1. Arrive at reception without an appointment, expecting an immediate meeting. 

2. Use sarcasm or aggressive words and phrases to try to make staff feel guilty, ashamed or 

stupid e.g. appalling, pathetic, disgraceful, ridiculous, disgusting. 

3. Use legal terms without legal advice or use them outside their correct legal context in 

order to add weight to arguments e.g. harassment, negligence, discrimination. 

4. Threaten staff either through physical intimidation, aggressive hand gestures, swearing 

or with the threat to involve Ofsted, the press, the Department for Education, the police, 

governors, solicitors or the local authority. 

5. Make complaints personal by calling into question staff's motives, competency, 

professionalism, integrity or honesty. 

6. Post derogatory comments online about staff: the college takes legal and police advice if 

comments amount to defamation or cyber-bullying.

8. Demand to speak to the Headteacher: by not getting involved immediately, he can 

review your concern objectively if you feel college staff have not handled it 

appropriately. 

Please be aware that…

1. The college will return unanswered any correspondence that doesn't conform to these 

expectations with a request for it to be amended and re-sent in order for it to be 

answered.

2. Staff will similarly, end phone calls and meetings for the same reasons.

3. The college will restrict access to the campus site and/or to the staff for those who 

seriously or persistently breach the code of conduct