Communication

BEDFORD PREP SCHOOL

Communication between parents, boys and staff, both formally and informally, is valued and is seen as integral to each boy’s success at the school.

We encourage you to develop a strong relationship with your son’s Tutor, and to get in touch with any concerns, queries and, importantly, successes both in and out of school. Your son’s Head of Year will also be available as the next point of contact.

Your Son’s Tutor

Your son’s Tutor is your first point of contact at the school. They will be in contact with you by phone or email at least once each half term to update you on your son’s progress, and are happy to discuss any queries or concerns you may have.

How we stay in touch

School Website The parents’ pages of the school website host a wealth of useful information including notices, school policies, term dates, the school calendar, staff lists, parent letters, news and events, as well as links to our dedicated sports website, the secure parents’ portal and Firefly (e-learning site).

The pupils’ pages of the school website include a similar selection of information tailored to their needs.

Secure Parent and Pupil Portals We offer parents and boys online access to a variety of information via our parent and pupil portals. These portals are real time and cover such areas as reports, rewards and conduct, timetable, activities, exam results and detentions. We will write to you shortly before the start of term with details on how to selfregister for the parent portal. Boys are automatically granted access to the pupil portal through their school network account. Firefly (school e-learning site) The school has an online teaching and learning resource called Firefly, which can be accessed via the parents’ section on the website. Boys and parents will find details of each subject and year group’s schemes of work and other topic resources, as well as revision material.

Details of extra-curricular activities can also be found on Firefly.

Boys’ homework is also set via Firefly. If you ask your son to login to Firefly using his username and password, you can take a look at the work he is being set.

The Firefly app can also be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Sports Website Our dedicated sports website holds details of all our fixtures and results as well as team sheets and useful directions for away fixtures:

www.bedfordprepsport.org.uk

To access the team sheets, please use the password: deparysav

A web app is also available for the sports website. Instructions on how to add the web app to a mobile phone can be found here.

Bulletins and Emails We send parents regular emails and newsletters, to ensure that you have all the information that you need for your son as well as news about the wider school community.

Each week during term time we send a newsletter called The Week, which provides a round-up of the week’s top stories and the Prep Bulletin, which contains all the key information for the week ahead.

BEDFORD PREP SCHOOL

Social Media Regular news stories and updates are posted on the school’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter pages, as well as the school website.

We advise that Prep parents follow BPSTravelInfo (@ TravelBPS) on Twitter for details of any delays in trips or fixtures returning to school.

Classlist Towards the end of the summer you will be invited by the Prep Parents’ Guild to join Classlist, which is a private social networking site specifically for parents and guardians of Bedford School to keep in touch with each other.

Once you have received the invitation from school, all you have to do is download the Classlist app on your phone or visit the website www.classlist.com and search for Bedford School. Then it is just a case of following the very straightforward joining instructions.

Once you have signed up, you can use Classlist to talk to other parents, find out about the Prep Guild and the activities they’ve got planned, join (or even set up) special interest groups, discuss arrangements for parties and lift-shares, and even find a home for an old bicycle. It’s simple to use and we hope will help to introduce you to even more of our fantastic parent community.

If you do have any queries about Classlist, please contact the Prep Parents Guild at prepguild@ bedfordschool.org.uk.

Reporting Illness, Leave of Absence and Early Departures

We ask that parents advise us of any required absence from school.

Reporting Illness If your son is unable to attend school due to illness or injury, we ask that you notify us by completing the ‘Absence - Notification of Illness’ form, which can be found in the forms section on the Parent Portal. You can also call Prep Reception on +44 (0)1234 362274 in emergencies. It is very helpful if you can let us know before 08:45 so that we can notify all necessary staff of your son’s absence.

Leave of Absence Any requests for leave of absence (with the exception of medical appointments – see below) should be made using the ‘Absence – Request for Exceptional Circumstances’ form, which can also be found in the forms section on the Parent Portal. Your form will be received by the Headmaster and your son’s Tutor.

Medical Leave of Absence If your son needs to come into school late or leave during school hours for a doctor, dentist or hospital appointment, we ask that you complete the ‘Absence – Medical Appointment’ form in the forms section on the Parent Portal. This form will automatically inform Prep Reception and your son’s Tutor of the appointment.