WOODLANDS COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
We understand how crucial it is for home-school communication and at Woodlands we have many different channels of communication that we utilize in order to ensure parents receive the most up to date information from the school.
CLASS CHARTS APP
We would encourage all parents and students to sign up for the Class Charts App – this is the key resources for all information about your child’s attendance, rewards and behaviour. It also contains a messaging facility for you to report a student’s absence. Additionally, you will be able to view your child’s timetable and homework using the App. The App can be downloaded from the Apple or Google Play Stores.
All new Y7 students will be given a booklet containing their unique log in codes for students and parents to use.
If you have any issues accessing the App, or require your code to be reissued, please ask your child to speak to their tutor in the first instance. Further help can be requested by emailing it- support@woodlands.southampton.sch.uk
SIMS PARENT APP
Where parents have access to the SIMS parent app, this will be maintained by the school, however, we do not encourage new sign ups to this service. Class Charts is the school’s preferred parent app.
We urge all parents to sign up to the Sims Parent App. This is an effective application for monitoring your child’s progress, attendance and behaviour data as well as being able to see their timetable and update your personal details.
You can access the site directly at www.sims-parent.co.uk or download the app from the Google Play or Apple IOS stores.
You will need an account for either Google (Gmail), Microsoft (Hotmail/Outlook), Twitter or Facebook in order to sign up. We will send out invitations to all parents for whom we have an email address on file.
If you haven’t received an email please check your junk/spam box and if you still haven’t then use the form on our website to request a login
There is also a video detailing how to sign up on our website:
www.woodlands.southampton.sch.uk/parental-info/sims-parent
SCHOOL WEBSITE
We update our website regularly and the latest news will always be on our news page:
https://woodlands.southampton.sch.uk/news/
In the event of any unforeseen school closures we will also update the Important News section just under Mr. Henderson’s welcome message:
www.woodlands.southampton.sch.uk
Our Facebook page will be used to update parents on a range of events, activities and news items. Wow Work will also be shared here, and where possible, updates from residential trips will be posted here as appropriate.
https://www.facebook.com/woodlandscommunitycollegesouthampton/
We will update our Instagram account with relevant news, events and activities.
Our Instagram account is Woodlandscommunitycollege
TWITTER/X
We will update our Instagram account with relevant news, events and activities.
https://x.com/Woodlands_CC
TEXT MESSAGES/EMAILS
We will always continue to text and email important messages directly to us, if we have your details on file. Please note that in some instances if you have signed up to the Sims Parent app, text messages are delivered directly to the app, so please ensure that your notifications are switched on on your device.
If you feel that you are not receiving direct emails or texts from the school, please contact the school office, who will check the details that we hold on file for you.
LETTERS
We do where possible also send home hard copies of letters with students for those really important pieces of information. However in the interest of reducing carbon footprint and of course efficiency this is significantly reduced from previous years.
Hard copies of letters are held at reception, and electronic copies are posted on our latest news page of our website and where appropriate shared via the channels above.