Main Office

Miss Jodi Roux is our Office Manager and Admissions Officer. For admissions enquiries, please contact her via: jodi.roux@claremont.kent.sch.uk

Mrs Stephanie Kirk is our Administrative Assistant. For all general enquiries and attendance/absence queries, please contact her via: admin@claremont.kent.sch.uk

The school office is open from 8.30am and closes at 4.00pm. Tel: 01892 531395.

Finance Office

Mrs Julie Cook is our School Business Manager. Please contact her via: julie.cook@claremont.kent.sch.uk

Mrs Tracy Brookbank is our Finance Assistant. For general finance enquiries including online payments and dinner money, please contact her via: finance@claremont.kent.sch.uk
 

Communicating with parents

We use Schoolcomms as our main form of communicating with parents. We try to keep emails to a minimum so send home a Newsletter every Friday via Schoolcomms. This is our main means of communicating news and forthcoming events with parents, so please do read it!

The link to the school calendar is on the homepage. Please follow this link for term dates and staff development days. 

Should you move house or have any changes to your contact details and email addresses, please inform the school office as soon as possible.
 

Concerns or issues

If you would like to discuss any concerns or issues, please contact the school office in the first instance. If you wish to speak to the class teacher, please email admin@claremont.kent.sch.uk and we will forward it on your behalf. If you need further assistance with your concern we can also communicate this to pastoral leader. Please see the staff and governor page for details.
 

Communication Protocol

We work hard to ensure that communications are effective and useful. Communications occur continually throughout the school day. If you send an email, our office team will reply whenever possible. Any other emails are forwarded on to the relevant person. If you leave a voice message outside of the school day, the office team ensure that these are listened to as part of their early morning work to ensure no message is missed.

Emails
As you will be aware, teachers are not able to receive or respond to emails during the school day as they are teaching or planning for upcoming lessons. Other staff members, e.g., the SENCo, may be involved in professional meetings. Not having an immediate response can cause some frustrations or anxiety which is most certainly not our intention. Please know that we will endeavour to respond in a timely manner.
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• If it is about a safeguarding concern, one of the DSLs will respond asap or you will be invited in.
• Daily business: If it is a general question/information about something that the office staff cannot answer e.g. homework or a class activity, we will aim to respond the same day or the following morning, where possible, in order to support the child. All communications about drop off and collection are passed onto the class teachers in person by the office team. Please endeavour to inform the office of any changes by midday.
• Other: If you would like to discuss/ask a question/seek guidance or help, about something to do with your child or a situation that is concerning you, the teacher, SENCo or SLT will need time to consider the communication carefully and, potentially, gather information in order to respond appropriately or organise a face-to-face meeting with you. This may take up to two full working days. If this is the case, we will endeavour to send a holding email to let you know. Please trust that there will be a response; approaching the teachers about the situation can be tricky to communicate effectively on the playground at pick up, and so would not be our preference.

Parents' consultation meetings

We hold parent consultation evenings for the whole school in terms 2 and 4. Information letters will come home with your eldest child in advance of the meeting. Please see the school calendar for dates. Please click here for the online booking system.
 

Class WhatsApp groups

Many parents are members of a WhatsApp group that connect parents in a particular class. These group chats are set up by parents, for parents, to share information, receive updates and reminders about school events as well as share general advice. Teachers or other school representatives do not participate on these groups. To help keep these groups a positive environment in which to participate we
have developed some guidelines that you may wish to keep in mind:
 

• Before writing, consider whether the group WhatsApp is the best forum to raise your point/question. Face to face may be best and if you have a specific query or concern, it may be better to raise this directly with the relevant parent, class teacher or, where necessary, a Pastoral Leader.
• When writing, remember that whatever you say on social media may be forwarded to someone else and can be quickly seen by many others.
• If your message is not relevant to the majority of group members, please consider if it is more appropriate to reply by way of a personal message.
• Consider the time you post. Early in the morning, late at night and during school holidays may not be appropriate.
• Consider whether what you're saying is essential for the purpose of the group. For example, the group may not be the appropriate place for private or confidential messages, to express personal opinions or gossip about children, other families or school staff. Remember any opinions expressed are the opinions of individual members and may not be representative of the whole group.