PRIMARY COMMUNICATION APP

Over the last few years, our four Primary Academies have been using a number of different approaches to communicating with parents/carers. While all these have different strengths and weaknesses, we feel it is now time to take the same approach so we are consistent in what we offer parents/carers in all our schools.

For the last year, all the schools have been trialling the use of a system called Seesaw. So far, we have only used part of this system, which allows us to record children’s work in a digital format and enables children to take photos or record themselves talking through their work. This has proved really useful in helping us to record work where children need to explain their thinking, for example in creating a piece of artwork. While this function is useful, it only scratches the surface of what SeeSaw will let us do.

Our next step is to roll out the functions in Seesaw which can be used by parents/carers. These include allowing teachers to share a ‘digital’ portfolio of children’s learning with parents/carers, as well as functions which allow us to message parents/carers from school. The system also gives parents/carers the chance to react to their children’s work by sending positive emojis and to be able to celebrate their progress by scrolling through an online timeline.

In order to facilitate the roll out of the new system, we will start to transition from our existing Dojo and MyEd systems to Seesaw during the next half term. Depending on factors such as contract end dates, some schools will be ‘switching off’ their current systems at the end of this half term while others will be making a slower transition in the period up to July – your Academy Principal will communicate this to you. All you will need to do is download the Seesaw App and sign in using the details you will be sent.

One key change will be that Seesaw will only allow teachers to make announcements – a one way communication – to parents/carers. This means that teachers will be able to send reminders of important dates etc but parents/carers will not be able to reply. The Academy offices will be able to message parents/carers directly to enquire about student attendance etc – parents/carers will be able to reply to these messages. The system will operate in exactly the same way in every Primary Academy.

To ensure everyone using this exciting new system has clarity on how it should be used, we will be issuing a code of conduct for the use of Seesaw to all parents/carers prior to it being introduced in each school. This will cover areas such as what parents/carers can expect from us, what we expect from parents/carers in terms of conduct on the app etc. We will take the view that by downloading the SeeSaw App and signing into your child’s linked account you have agreed to these terms and conditions. Children will also be taken through the expectations we have of them in using the system.