COMMUNICATION MATTERS
We believe that strong communication between home and school is essential to every child’s success. By working in partnership with parents and carers, we create a supportive, consistent environment where pupils can thrive both academically and personally.
​
Our Home–School Agreement reflects this shared commitment, outlining how staff, families, and pupils work together to promote high standards, positive behaviour, and wellbeing. We value open and honest communication and operate an open-door policy, encouraging parents and carers to share questions, concerns, or achievements at the earliest opportunity.
​
Building positive relationships is at the heart of our school community. Through regular communication, mutual respect, and collaboration, we aim to develop strong, trusting partnerships that support each child’s learning journey and help them reach their full potential.
Parent Communication
IRIS ParentMail – How We Communicate With Parents
Communicating clearly and effectively with parents is an important part of what we do. Making sure you receive accurate, timely information about school news, activities and things that really matter to your child is something we care about. That’s why we use IRIS ParentMail – our main communication system for sharing information with parents and carers.
What is IRIS ParentMail?
IRIS ParentMail is a secure app and web-based platform that connects parents directly with school. It allows you to receive messages and manage important school tasks all in one place, reducing the need to search through emails or keep track of paper letters.
​
With ParentMail, you can:
-
Receive school messages and updates
-
Pay for school meals and trips
-
Book parents’ evening appointments
-
Complete consent forms and surveys
-
Access information about clubs, trips, events and policies
Everything is stored securely and easy to access when you need it.
Getting Started – What Parents Need to Know
Registration
To set up your ParentMail account, you’ll need to register using the specific link sent by school via email or text message. During registration, you may be asked to verify your child’s date of birth to confirm your details.
If you haven’t received a registration link or need it re‑sent, please contact the school office.
Using the App
We strongly encourage all parents to download the IRIS ParentMail app.
The free app allows you to:
-
Receive push notifications for new messages
-
Pay for dinners, trips and activities instantly
-
Complete consent forms and surveys quickly
-
Access messages wherever you are – at home or on the go
Security and Data Protection
IRIS ParentMail is a secure platform. All data is encrypted and managed in line with GDPR regulations, ensuring your personal information and your child’s details are kept safe.
Help and Support
If you need help using ParentMail, guides and frequently asked questions are available through the IRIS ParentMail Help Centre, which provides step‑by‑step support for both the app and the website.
Download the App Today
The IRIS ParentMail app is free to download from:
-
Apple App Store
-
Google Play Store
If you need any support getting started, please don’t hesitate to contact the school office.
Links with teachers
Communication with all staff should be easy and it is our priority to make sure that communication is accurate and timely, as well as inviting parent feedback to link school and home. For quick and simple messages, you can email or call the office (for attendance please go through the office) and we will ensure that messages get to staff in a timely manner. Alternatively, you can catch the teacher on the door for a quick message. Anything that requires a little deeper conversation or confidentiality, please arrange an appointment through the office or send correspondence by email through the office (this will then be passed to the relevant staff).
​
Please see the more formal methods of parent review below –
​
Parent Evenings
These are held in October and May every year. Parents will be informed about the dates through Parentmail and will be able to book appointments through this system. These are 10 minute appointments to discuss learning behaviours, progress and attainment. Children will be given targets based on their individual progress. Please make a separate appointment to discuss anything else.
​
Annual Reports
Each year there will be an annual report at the end of the Summer term. This will display written comments around progress and attainment and suggested further support. Each core subject will display whether they have achieved the expected standard (ARE), above or below. Parents are given an opportunity to give feedback about this report.
​
SEND SAP Reviews
If your child is on the SEND (Special Educational Needs) register then your child will have an additional SAP (Support and Achievement Plan) which will contain small step targets to support their particular need. It will also show the reasonable adjustments in place to ensure that they are being included in all aspects of school life. You will receive an additional termly meeting to review this plan and set targets together with the teacher. This could be in the form of a longer parent evening appointment or may be at a separate time.
Opportunities for Parent Feedback
​
At Long Lane we are always seeking feedback from our stakeholders as we value your input as parents and the experts on your children. We understand that parent perspective helps us to communicate more effectively and plays a part in our children feeling safe and thriving at school. We always ask for formal feedback after our parent events and workshops, for school reports and parent evenings.​​
​​PALS (Parents as Liaisons with School)
However, at Long Lane we have a unique offer for parents to join our PALS (Parents as Liaisons with School) group. This is a group of volunteer parents who meet once per short term to discuss a variety of subjects and challenges that arise from both the parent's perspective and the school's. The intention of this group is to ensure effective communication to parents about issues that matter to them and also to problem solve operational challenges together to make school improvements.
Through this group we have achieved a lot of things and tackled a number of issues including; parking and safety outside the school, improving school meals, communication to parents and a revamp on school events. Any parent is welcome to join or to put your views forward to a PALS representative.
Parent Learning Tours
​
School tours aren't just for new parents. We are so proud of our school that we encourage parents to come and view the wonderful learning in our school many times during the year. It is important that, as a parent, you get to see the reality of our learning in and out of the classroom and have a good understanding of how your children spend their day.
​
Our staff welcome visitors and are used to visitors and other adults visiting them to see the great learning taking place. Children are excited to be visited by SLT and take pride in speaking about what they are doing.​
We believe that children need to be able to talk about their learning, the purpose, pre-learning, what tools help them, and where their learning is going. This is all part of taking accountability and being an 'active learner'. ​
Our learning ambassadors are key to this as we encourage all our children to answer questions about their learning on a regular basis. Any child can be a Learning Ambassador, they are different everytime and they are volunteers. For many, this shows courage and resilience.
Welcome Time & Open Classrooms
We love to invite parents to spend time with their children in class. Apart from the many events that we hold for parents such as Reading Breakfasts, Collaborative Learning, Coffee Mornings and Parent Appreciation Mornings, each class will have a number of Welcome Time events in the school year.
From Parent voice, we have organised our Welcome Time Sessions into three types of events;
​
-
Collaborative – this is where parents are invited into their child's class to share a collaborative experience or activity with them.
-
Showcase – this where pupils wish to share an exhibition or performance of something they have been working on (musical or dramatic performance, writing showcase or exhibition of art/D and T).
-
CPD – this is where the school will share some insight on an aspect of learning including some initial CPD in the hall followed by open classrooms to see this aspect of learning in action across the school.
​
The school usually holds two or three CPD Welcome Time events per year and each class will host one collaborative and one showcase per year. These will be communicated through the dates list sent to parents each term.
