Home School Communication

We believe our pupils are best supported to achieve when we have great relationships with our families. We are a school with a very wide catchment area, admitting pupils from across the city and county, which means we don’t get to speak to all families at the either the beginning or end of the school day when pupils are dropped off or collected. We also have over 31 languages spoken in the homes of our families, so we are flexible with the ways we communicate. We know that the best communication is frequent and two way, allowing us to share the positives and work on anything collaboratively, to support our young people to succeed.

Face to Face

We speak to 43 families every morning and evening as they drop off or collect pupils. They are met by one of our welfare team and one of the class team, so there’s always  the chance to share information and update each other. Our monthly coffee mornings give families the opportunity to meet with the welfare team and guest speakers from other agencies to support and give advice.  Dates for these can be found on our website.
We also offer two face to face parents’ evening every year, in November and June. Families can experience the classroom and learning environment, see evidence of learning and talk to other useful agencies and professionals who we work closely with. Our annual reviews are also face to face if parents prefer this, though we also offer the option of doing these on Teams.  Interpreters are available if required.

Via Teams

During the pandemic, online meetings became a necessity. For some families this is still the easiest way to communicate with us, so we are more than happy to set up a Teams meeting, if it is difficult to attend a meeting such as parents’ evening or annual reviews in person.

By Telephone

We know some of our families like to speak via telephone calls rather than receive emails or use other electronic methods of staying in touch. We have staff who speak a range of languages such as Hindi. Gujarati, Latvian, Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Bengali, Arabic and BSL. We encourage parents to contact the main school office by telephone if they wish to speak to the class team, however, staff cannot come out of class to take calls during the day but respond to parents before and after school.  You can call us on 0116 2552187 between 7.30am and 4pm.  If your child is going to be absent from school, you can phone us on the same number.

By Email or Text

We are happy to email or text you if it is more convenient. The school email address is office@westgate.leicester.sch.uk. Teachers can also set up email communication with families on request. The school Welfare Team are also able to text you if you prefer.

Using the Arbor App

We use Arbor, which allows us to communicate with you by sending messages and uploading copies of anything we would send out on paper, such as newsletters or your child’s end of year reports. So far, 92% of our families are using it. You can also use it to message us. We offer support to families to get started, with help from the Welfare team.  We also use this method to alert families to emergency school closure for bad weather etc. where the Arbor app sends a text message to families.

Home School Communication Books

For most of our learners on the Explorers, Horizons and Futures pathway, we share daily information though a home schoolbook. We can record information about personal care and eating and drinking so there is continuity between home and school. We also share key learning and progress on a regular basis.
We encourage parents to write back and let us know about anything they think we should know, so we can work collaboratively to support our pupils.

By Post

Some families prefer paper copies of documents, instead of having things sent via email or our Arbor app. We are more than happy to send out paper copies of newsletters, annual review paperwork or end of term reports. We can offer translations in some languages to support families.

The School Website

We launched our new website this year with a dedicated ‘Families’ section. This has information we know families often ask for and links to other useful organisations. The website has a Translate option, which you may find useful. We also regularly update our social media accounts such as Face book- the links for these can be found on the homepage.