Conduct

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…

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 this.
Tell us what you understand has happened and how this has made you or your child feel.
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.
Recognise that there could be different perspectives or additional information that needs to be understood before you have a complete picture of what has happened. In other words, approach incidents by "seeking first to understand before seeking to be understood."
Address concerns to staff at college during the working week (and not at weekends), rather than through social media or out of college.
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.
Speak to members of staff politely and courteously.

Please don't…

Arrive at reception without an appointment, expecting an immediate meeting.
Use sarcasm or aggressive words and phrases to try to make staff feel guilty, ashamed or stupid, e.g. appalling, pathetic, disgraceful, ridiculous, disgusting.
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.
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.
Make complaints personal by calling into question staff's motives, competency, professionalism, integrity or honesty.
Post derogatory comments online about staff: the college takes legal and police advice if comments amount to defamation or cyber-bullying.
Demand to speak to the Headteacher: by not getting involved immediately, he can review your concerns objectively if you feel college staff have not handled it appropriately.

Please be aware that…

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