Home/School Communications
At Kelso High School, we recognise the importance of clear and effective communications to promote partnerships between the school, parents and carers, young people and the wider community.
We understand that working in partnership with parents and carers is vital to providing our young people with an excellent education. Parents and carers are given opportunities throughout the year to convey to us what they expect from and think of the school. We aim to involve as many parents and carers in their young person’s education as possible.
KHS is a very busy school and the following information is intended to give more detail on how to communicate with KHS and what you should expect from us.
Communicating with Parents and Carers
We will always endeavour to respond to parents and carers as soon as possible and, in a time critical emergency, the school will always respond immediately.
Telephone calls:
Effective telephone communication can often be difficult in school, staff may be teaching all day, supervising social times, helping young people etc. Parents and carers may be frustrated if they feel that a message elicits no immediate reply, when in fact there has been no available suitable opportunity for a member of staff to return a call.
In a non-emergency acknowledgement of the call will be made within 2 working days with any follow up action from the request / query / problem being dealt with within 5 working days.
If we cannot resolve a query within 5 days we will contact parent/carer to provide an update of why we cannot do so and an estimate of how long it may take.
Email:
Email is a quick, effective way of communicating necessary information and is the schools preferred method of communication. Emails received will be treated in the same way as letters: acknowledged within 2 working days and responded to within 5 working days.
Parents and carers may wish to contact the school via email for a general enquiry as an alternative to phone or letter. The school email address is KelsoHS@scotborders.gov.uk
Letters:
Staff will always reply to a letter from parents and carers as quickly as possible. A response to acknowledge receipt of a letter will be made by telephone, letter or email within 2 working days and responded to within 5 working days.
Groupcalls:
Groupcall messages sent to parents and carers (including in the event of an emergency closure of the school) are not used for general communication, these only need to be responded to as required. We encourage all parents and carers to download the Groupcall Expressions App (link on website).
Social Media:
Kelso High School has Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts – these provide updates and share news from the school. It is not essential to follow these and any key messages will be relayed through formal school communication channels. These accounts are not used for 2 way communication or discussion.
Meeting with Parents and Carers:
Parents and carers wishing to meet a member of staff must contact the school to make an appointment. The request should be responded to within 2 working days, it may not be possible to meet within these 2 days although a mutually agreeable time will be arranged within 2 days. Out with exceptional circumstances, meetings with staff take place during office hours.
Due to COVID restrictions there are no face to face meetings being held at present.
Dignity and respect in the workplace:
Please remember that the staff at Kelso High School will always respond to communications in a respectful way and we would ask that everyone, when contacting the school, also be respectful.
No one should be subject to harassment or abuse at any time, if a parent/carer becomes abusive to staff then the call will be terminated or the meeting halted.
Who should my query or concern be addressed to?
The majority of queries should be addressed to the young person’s Pastoral Teacher in the first instance via the school email address KelsoHS@scotborders.gov.uk please mark FAO:
Bowmont – Mr A Connell
Kale – Mr T Angus
Teviot – Miss E Roden