SSC Communication Group

A Work in Progress

Brief from SSC

• To become better communicatorsOutcome from initial discussion:

• People in school should feel more at ease and more involved with school communications.

• Communication should be more effective, streamlined and focused at an individual level.

Starting Points

Thoughts:• How complex is the communication system within Tallis?• Who listens to who?• Its not just about listening!• Non-teaching staff voice?

We set out to canvas the opinions of a large range of staff (from as many different areas) and students as we could.We fed back these comments to the group and the summary follows.

Summary of staff and student points raised:• Personalise communication where possible.• Manage information to avoid information overload.• Be clear about what needs to happen by when and by who?• Meet deadlines where ever possible.

• At what point do people have a voice?• More open meeting/debates• Work together on one big issue• Get people doing what they need to do• Think about the who should? what? how ? scenarios• Too much paperwork !!!• Get people to listen first, then do what needs doing!

• Use new technologies to make work easier.• MIS Make best use of the system.• Provide up-to-date documentation centrally.• Decide what needs to be communicated by what method then stick to it• Provide clear pathways of communication both ways to avoid misinformation.

Discussion led to:

• The use of email, this led us to develop the email policy which has been integrated into the schools AUP and E-Safety policy.

What Next? We tried talking to staff to see what their views were

• How do we heighten people’s awareness as to how we should communicate with each other in a professional manner?

• How should we use email? (Part of email policy)• When should we use email? (Part of email policy)• When shouldn’t we use email? (Part of email policy)• Sometimes we should just go and talk to people.• Develop a more positive and friendly demeanour towards all staff no

matter who or what their function is within the establishment. • Consistency.• Let’s be honest with each other, mistakes happen and we are all fallible.

1 Meeting agendas for full staff meeting communicated in advance so that staff have time to think. Requested

2 Communicate school funding situation to SSC and all staff in a meaningful way.3 Possibility of a morning briefing session but this should not be a reading from the

daily bulletin. In Place

GovernorsDifficult to communicate with and there is only

one direct conduit. When they are not in school the system is unusable.

Suggestion:All Thomas Tallis Governors are included as staff group within the school email system.

Awaiting a reply still!

Support Staff Inclusion

• They would like to know how SMT works within the school in relation to them.

• They would like to see their roles acknowledged.• They would like better access to email if they are

expected to use it to communicate with.

This needs to be addressed.

In addition, Email training for support/staff in:

• Basic use of email• Use of central single calendar• How to add events to own calendar?• How to add own groups?• How to add invitations to meetings?• Additional functionality i.e. reminders. • How to use remote access, what’s different?

Communication from outside and from within

• We took time to look at the school website from a number of different perspectives and came to the following conclusions:

• Curriculum areas – varied. Some were excellent, others were very out-of-date and less well used. A-level blog set up in one area, shows little sign of use by students.

• Communication with parents via the site was also sporadic with the bulk of communication made between staff.

• Accessing data was straight forward.• Accessing the governors was impossible.• Once past the photo gallery the front page could be confusing with the

number of links available. Language was quite complex given the suggested reading age of site content.

• A number of links to staff appear not to be working which for a parent could be very frustrating.

• Policies were present but some were out-of-date still referring to SSC etc.

What NextThe group will take its research from this year and start to apply

their findings to improve communication within Thomas Tallis.

Priorities:①More training in the use of email and MIS for all staff.②Integrated approach to whole school communication.③Reduction in printed communications.④Development of web based communication within central school system.⑤Develop a more personal approach to communication which

reflects the situation.