At Michael Faraday Primary School we are fortunate to have a supportive and friendly parents/carers community and we value our strong relationship between home and school.  A mutually supportive partnership between parents, class teachers and the school community helps us to achieve the very best for our children. 

We want the relationship between home and school to be based on the principles of respect, trust, integrity and cooperation. The maintenance of this relationship is important to ensure that a child or children are safe and to avoid undue distress and anxiety.

Lines of communication 

For any queries or concerns, please see below to find the appropriate contact for different matters.

Smartphone Free School

As part of our ongoing commitment to fostering a positive and healthy learning environment, we have become a ‘smartphone free’ school.

Currently, there is a national conversation about the appropriate age for children to receive their first smartphone. While technology offers numerous benefits and opportunities, recent research has highlighted a concerning link between the age at which a child gets their first smartphone and mental health issues in young adulthood. (see research https://sapienlabs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Sapien-Labs-Age-of-First-Smartphone-and-Mental-Wellbeing-Outcomes.pdf)

We understand that many parents choose to provide their children with phones once they start walking to school independently, primarily for safety reasons. However, over the past few years, we have observed a significant increase in problems related to phone use and social media participation amongst our children. Also, once a child has a smartphone (especially if it is linked to a contract), it can be challenging for parents to retract this decision. Some parents, despite initial reluctance, eventually give in to provide a phone to prevent their child from feeling isolated from their peers.

Recognising these challenges, and following the trend set by many secondary schools, we have decided to implement a smartphone-free policy. We encourage parents who feel the need for their child to have a phone for safety reasons to consider pay-as-you-go basic phones (typically called ‘brick’ phones) without internet access. These phones are both affordable and readily available. Please note, pupils will still be required to hand in their phones at the beginning of each school day.

For more detailed information and resources, please visit the Smartphone Free Childhood website.

Smartphone Free Childhood

Code of Conduct 

The purpose of this Code of Conduct is to provide a reminder to all parents, carers and visitors to our school about our expectations. This is so we can continue to drive the vision of creating a safe, happy and respectful learning environment where every child can flourish in their potential.

To ensure we foster a positive partnerships between home and school, parents, carers and visitors are reminded:

• To respect the caring ethos and values of the school.
• That both teachers and parents need to work together for the benefit of their children.
• Approaching school staff for help to resolve an issue is done in an appropriate manner.
• All members of the school community are treated with respect using appropriate language and behaviour.
• The school needs to work with a child in order to clarify their version of events in order to bring about an appropriate solution to an issue.
• To correct their child’s actions especially where it could lead to conflict, aggressive or unsafe behaviour – both on and off the school premises.
• To use other strategies rather than using ‘staff’ as threats to admonish their children’s behaviour.

In order to support a peaceful and safe school environment, the school has adopted Southwark's Zero Tolerance Policy:

We consider abuse to be:

• physical assault, including spitting, use of weapons and throwing objects
• abusive language, intimidation, harassment or threatening behaviour - verbally or in writing
• discriminatory behaviour based on race, gender, sexual orientation, disability or other protected characteristics
• malicious communications, either by email, through social media or the post

If you make the choice to abuse a member of our staff we will take action, which could include but is not limited to:

• banning you from the school
• withdrawing or changing the services you can access
• taking legal action, including tenancy enforcement
• reporting to the police and seeking prosecution

Our staff are expected to treat everyone with respect and they expect to receive that respect in return.

Inappropriate use of social network sites

Social media websites are being used increasingly to fuel campaigns or petitions and complaints against schools or to share inappropriate information, e.g. naming children involved in incidences, sharing confidential information regarding an aspect of school life, making allegations or accusations or sharing false news.   Michael Faraday Primary School considers the use of social media websites or apps in this way as unacceptable and not in the best interests of the children or the whole school community.

At times, parents create their own WhatsApp groups to facilitate communication amongst parents.  Whilst it can be a great platform to network, please remember that the WhatsApp group is intended to foster positive communication and community spirit and should not be a platform to discuss concerns. 

Any concerns you may have must be made through the appropriate channels by speaking to the Class Teacher, the Leadership Team or the Headteacher, so that they can be dealt with fairly, appropriately and effectively in line with the school’s policies and procedures for handling concerns.

In the event that any pupil or parent/carer of a child/ren being educated at Michael Faraday is found to be posting defamatory comments on Facebook or other social network sites or apps, they will be reported to the appropriate ‘report abuse’ section of the network site.  All social media network sites have clear rules about the content which can be posted on their sites and they provide robust mechanisms to report contact or activity which breaches this. The school will also expect that any parent/carer or pupil removes such comments immediately.

In serious cases, the school will also consider its legal options to deal with any such misuse of social networking and other sites. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, is the issue of cyber bullying and the use by one child or a parent to publicly humiliate another by inappropriate social network entry.  We will take and deal with any such case as a serious incident of school bullying. Thankfully, such incidents are extremely rare.

We would expect that parents make all persons responsible for dropping off and/or collecting children from the school are aware of this Code of Conduct.

Consequences of inappropriate behaviour

In cases where the Code of Conduct has been broken, the school will consider an appropriate action on a case by case basis. 

This may include, and in no particular order, the following:

• If a staff member feels that they are being disrespected, they will end the conversation or meeting and ask the parent to return once they are able to speak respectfully.  The decision to end a conversation or meeting lies with the staff member alone and is final.
• If a staff member asks a parent to end the conversation, yet they continue with the conversation, the parent will be asked to leave the premises and the police will be called if they fail to do as instructed.
• An informal telephone call/conversation warning the adult/s about their behaviour or a more formal letter to the adult/s to invite them to a meeting to discuss their behaviour and reminding them of this Code of Conduct. If the adult/s refuses to attend the formal meeting, then the school will write to the adult/s and ask them to stop the behaviour causing the concern and warn that, if they do not, they may be banned from the school premises.
• If banned from the premises, the headteacher will inform the parent in writing. The reason, the period of the ban and the expectation of what needs to happen before the ban is lifted will be outlined in the letter. The governors and the local authority will be informed of the ban.
• During the ban period, the parent will not be allowed on the premises or permitted to speak to any staff member. Arrangements will be clarified regarding delivering the child and collecting the child at the end of the school day. Any failure to adhere to the stipulation of the banning, will be reported to the police and may result in prosecution under section 547 of the Education Act 1996.