We value dearly the role of parents as the first and most important educators of their children. At all times, we strive to maintain close and strong relationships with all parents and carers. There are several forms of communication that we use to keep parents/carers up to date with their daughter’s progress and the wider life of the school.
Pastoral Care Teachers
In almost all matters, your daughter’s Pastoral Care teacher will respond to any initial correspondence. Pastoral Care staff hold a special role in the life of the school and are promoted staff with a very specific remit for supporting both yourself and your daughter.
Pastoral Care staff will always pass an enquiry to the relevant member of the Senior Leadership Team when necessary.
Open Evening
Our annual Open Evening is held in the September of each academic year. We use Twitter and our Website to share specific dates nearer the time.
Telephone – Reporting Absence
Glasgow city council operate an absence reporting line and we would ask that parents/carers call 0141 287 0039 when reporting pupil absence in the morning.
Telephone – General Enquiries
0141 582 0190
Our outstanding office staff will be able to offer advice on where your call should be directed. In most cases parents/carers would firstly contact their daughter’s pastoral care teacher. Pastoral care staff fulfil a promoted responsibility to take care of each pupil in their caseload. In some cases, it may be necessary to contact members of the Senior Leadership Team. Pastoral Care staff can provide advice and guidance on the best way forward with any concerns that parents/carers may have.
At times, we will contact parents/carers on behalf of pupils or with specific information via telephone.
Turnaround times
All staff, including Senior Leaders and Pastoral Care staff, have a teaching commitment. For this reason, it is not always possible to pass enquiries to the correct member of staff at the time of your call. We ask for your support and patience in relation to turnaround times. All staff are committed to working with parents/carers for the benefit of the girls in our school. Please be assured of the fact that staff will contact you as soon as possible. However, where staff have classes to teach or commitments out with their control it may not be possible to get back to parents/carers immediately.
The quickest and easiest way to contact us is via the ‘Contact Us‘ page of this website. You will be asked to submit your email address and the message will be sent to our inbox automatically.
office@notredamehigh.glasgow.sch.uk
If you wish to contact staff via email, then please use the address shown above. Your query will then be forwarded to the relevant member of staff. Please specify the nature of your enquiry. If you are a parent/carer it would be helpful if you could let us know your daughter’s name and year group.
We will reply to all emails as soon as possible. However, in cases where the identity of a member of the public is either difficult to determine via an email or is not disclosed in full, we will request a telephone number so that one of our Depute Head Teachers or Pastoral Care staff can speak to you directly. Email is an important form of communication but we only accept enquiries via email on the understanding that follow up may be by telephone. This is to safeguard against unsolicited requests for information that we may not be at liberty to disclose via email.
SMS
Text messages are sent out automatically if a pupil is absent from school at a pre-defined time during the school day. This system is automated and at times messages are sent in error. We endeavour to follow up any concerns raised in relation to these automated messages.
The system is designed as a safeguard against situations where a pupil is not in school despite the school having had no notification of the fact that the pupil is absent or out of school with the permission of parents/carers.
We try to update our twitter feed as often as possible. The Twitter feed updates automatically our website and is an important form of communication for our school. We generally use twitter as a one-way form of communication and will not reply to direct messages sent on Twitter. If you would like a response to a direct message, you will need to use the contact us page of our school website.
School Website
The school website is updated by teaching staff. Please be assured that we do intend to update all sections as and when possible.
Newsletter
The school Newsletter is published at various times in the academic year and is available via links on both our homepage and twitter feed. It provides an excellent summary of recent news, attainment and achievement. If you would like a paper copy, please contact our school office.
Local Press
From time to time, the local press may include articles that relate to our school. When your daughter joins our school, you have the chance to opt out of press release or social media posts that may name your daughter or use a picture of your daughter. Please contact us if you would like to opt out and we will amend our records accordingly.
Letters – Given to Girls
Throughout the school year we may issue letters during the school day. These letters are usually issued by the Head Teacher or members of the Senior Leadership Team. Letters sent out on behalf of the council or in relation to school trips may also be passed on to the girls to take home.
We will endeavour to send out a tweet and occasionally an SMS to notify parents/carers of the fact that their daughter should return home from school with a letter.
Letters – Posted
Postal days in school are a Tuesday and a Thursday. Any letters posted out will be sent to the address of the parent/carer stated as the main contact on our system. If you have moved house please contact the school office to provide us with your current home address.
Parent Council
The minutes of parent council meetings will be uploaded to our website in due course. These minutes should provide the wider parent forum with access to matters raised and discussed throughout the course of the school year.
Parents’ Evenings and Reports
Reports are usually issued in school and are not sent out via post. Your daughter should return home with her report at around the time of the date shown on the school calendar. We will always send a tweet or SMS out to inform parents/carers of the fact that a report has been issued.
Around two weeks prior to parents’ evening, your daughter will receive an appointment sheet that she should complete in school. Staff will also keep a record of arranged appointments. If you cannot attend, please call the school and ask for your daughter’s Pastoral Care teacher.
Information Evenings
Information evenings are held at various points of transition. We have an annual information evening for parents/carers of S1 pupils. This event allows us to share some of our approaches to learning and teaching and will also provide you with a chance to ask any questions in relation to how your daughter has settled into life at Notre Dame. At times, partner agencies such as the NHS, careers service or college and university representatives are present during information evenings.
There are also information evenings for pupils selecting subjects at the end of S2, S3, S4 and S5.
Local Parish Communities
As well as participating in Liturgical services, we may also advertise school events via the local parish bulletins. Similarly, any events the parishes wish us to advertise may appear via our twitter feed, website or newsletter.
Associated Primary Schools
We support events throughout the year on a reciprocal basis. If you are a parent/carer of a pupil at either of our two associated primary schools and you see a member of our staff at an event, then please say hello!
Other External Support
From time to time we may pass on information about events from a range of sources, such as:
- Archdiocese
- SCES
- NHS
- Glasgow Parent Forum
- National Parent Forum
- SQA
- Education Scotland
- Scottish Government
- Organisations offering support to parents/carers
This kind of information is usually shared via our website or twitter feed.
Procurement
All communication related to procurement or advertising should be directed to the school office so that it can be passed on to the relevant member of staff. We kindly request that any advertising or procurement matters are not directed to Pastoral Care staff, Depute Head Teachers or the Head Teacher unless initiated by a member of our staff.
