Dear Parents/Carers,

Online Booking System for Parents’ Evening Nursery to Year 6

Video Appointments

We are holding our Spring Term Parents’ Evenings on Wednesday 24^th and Thursday 25^th February 2021 and for these, parents will be able to make an appointment using the online booking system.  Appointments will be offered throughout the day, from 9:00am until 6:00pm on Wednesday 24^th and between 4:00pm and 6:00pm on Thursday 25^th.

Our unique website through which you can book appointments is:

        https://olton.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

You will log in to the system by adding your details and those of your child, including your child’s date of birth.  The parents evening system uses the details we hold on the SIMS school system.  If it does not allow you to log in, please check that you have used your child’s full name or tried the legal name and preferred name.  You can add in the email address you wish to use for confirmation and reminders of your chosen appointment time.

Attached with this letter is a Parents’ Guide for Booking Appointments which should take you through the process step by step.  You will be able to book appointments through the online portal from 4pm on Friday 5^th February.

We hope that you find the online booking system quick and easy to use.  It should allow you to book the most convenient slot based on availability and for you to co-ordinate appointments, as necessary, if you have more than one child at our school.

Due to the current situation with COVID-19, we are running the appointments as video calls.  These calls will be made via the parents’ evening booking system which means that you will use the same log in details as when you booked the appointment and you won’t need to download any particular apps or programs to enable you to join the call.

There is a video call guide attached to help you attend a video appointment using the online system.  It also includes a step by step guide as to how to invite another parent or guardian to the call.

If you are having any problems or do not have access to the internet, please contact the school office at either site who can offer support.  However, as you will need to be able to log in successfully to the system in order to join the video call, they will not be able to book the appointment for you but can help you book the appointment for yourself.

To enable the teachers to be available all day for the parents’ evening appointments, the teachers will have prepared activities for a ‘screen free’ day for the children.  These will be shared with you via Teams, Century Tech or Class Dojo as activities would be normally.  Aside from the benefits for the children of having a screen free day, as the teachers will be on video calls for the majority of the day they won’t be able to provide the same level of support to the children as readily via message or video or provide the same level of feedback on any work that would be submitted.  The teachers will still provide learning opportunities and activities for the children on this day, they will just not be based online.  There will also not be any live whole class Teams calls on this day.

For children who have attended school within a key worker pod, the parents’ evening conversation with the teacher will be very similar to normal as the staff will have a clear idea of the children’s learning and progress.  However, for those children who have been learning remotely, we will be asking you to share information with us about their approach to learning and wellbeing so we can best support them when we reopen to all pupils.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Mr Chamberlain                  Mrs Gray

Head Teacher                      Deputy Head Teacher

(n.b. Parents' Booking Guide for appointments can be found under 'News and Events - Letters Home' page)