Link to Ofsted Parent/Carer survey HERE

Parents/Carers

We are committed to working in partnership with parents and carers. We believe that effective communication between home and school is key.  Communication is a two way process and this document outlines how we do this at Trinity Academy.  It is intended to provide guidance to parents/carers as to how best to communicate with us and how best to receive information from us. 

We recognise that it can be difficult communicating with teachers and all school staff because they have a very full timetable, are running clubs or working with students during lunchtime or after school and we recognise that parents and carers have very busy lives. 

Contacting the School 

The day-to-day care, welfare and safety of your child is our priority and is managed by the person who is placed closest to them.

In the first instance, please approach the following members of staff who are responsible for your child in the following order: 

• Form Tutor (if the query is a pastoral question) 
• Classroom Teacher (if query is relevant to a specific subject) 
• Pastoral Support Leader
• Head of Year or Head of Subject (if query is relevant to a specific subject) 
• Assistant Headteacher 
• Deputy Headteacher 
• Headteacher

Meetings should always be pre-arranged with members of staff. 

We ask that all parent/carers adopt the following methods of communication with Trinity staff: 

Email 

This is the preferred method for contacting a member of staff.  All email addresses are the staff initial and surname followed by @trinityacademybristol.org (Eg: ATeacher@trinityacademybristol.org) These are also all listed in the 'Meet the Trinity Team' section of the website.

• Teachers are unable to check emails consistently throughout the day.
• Work emails are not expected to be checked out of regular school working hours (8.00am to 4.30pm).
• Please avoid including multiple staff email addresses for a single message.
• We aim to respond within two working days.  Part-time staff may take longer to reply. 

Telephone 

Please call our main reception, the Comms office (0117 4509379) to leave a message for a member of staff to contact you. 

• Our Comms office staff will relay messages to staff who will aim to respond within two working days.
• The Comms office is extremely busy, particularly at the beginning of the day and during break and lunch.  As such our team may not always be able to answer your call immediately.  Please make use of the voicemail facility and leave a clear message.  Messages will be picked up regularly and someone will come back to you as soon as possible.  
• Please note lessons or meetings will not be interrupted for members of staff to take a phone call.
• If a call is an emergency, please inform the member of staff on the call who will attempt to find a senior member of staff to speak to you. 

If you urgently need to see someone, for instance if there is a serious family emergency or a child protection issue, please phone ahead and our Comms Office staff will find a senior member of staff to meet with you at the earliest opportunity. 

We also run SLT surgeries at 8.30 - 9am every morning. There is no need to book ahead but it is a chance to raise any immediate concerns you may have with a member of the leadership team. 

For non-urgent meetings, we will aim to meet with you within five working days. The school will determine the level of urgency at its discretion, to enable it to manage multiple demands.

School to Home Communication / Contacting Home 

Our preferred method of communicating with you is via our Weekly Headteacher’s Newsletter, email or text. Where a discussion is required, a telephone call will be made. 

Social Media 

We use our Facebook, Instagram and X  to promote student and school achievements, school events and generic educational information. 

No Response 

If you have not received a response from the school within two working days please email enquiries@trinityacademybristol.org with NO RESPONSE in the subject line and a brief outline of the inquiry. We will chase up your inquiry as a matter of urgency. 

Parent/Carer communication with staff 

Fortunately it is rare at Trinity Academy, but there are odd occasions when genuine concern spills over into communications that are unreasonable in tone. We understand there are times when you are worried about your child or a particular situation and we are always here to listen and help. However, we have a duty of care to our staff and will act to protect them from any communication that is inappropriate and could cause deep upset to individuals who dedicate themselves tirelessly to serve our young people.  Where this is the case, staff have been asked to pass this communication to a member of the senior team who will communicate with parents/carers.