Playbook, private school
Are you open is four different questions on a school site
In term time it means what time does my child come out. In August it means is anybody in the office. From a prospective parent it means when could we visit. From a boarding family it means who is on duty tonight. A single row of times answers none of them.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for opening hours holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The junior school and the senior school finish at different times, which is the fact a parent with a child in each most needs and the one a single row of opening hours destroys.
- The published day is not the day most children have: registration comes before it, clubs and prep come after it, and wraparound care runs at both ends for a charge per session.
- The office keeps term time hours and closes over the holidays, so an enquiry sent in the last week of July is answered in September unless the material says who is in and when.
- Term dates, staff training days and half terms are a dated list rather than a pattern, and a parent booking a flight in October needs the date, not a rule about the third week.
How it arrives
- what time does the school day finish
- what time do the juniors come out
- is the office open during the holidays
- when does the autumn term start
- what time can i drop my son off in the morning
- how late does after school care run
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The school day, written per section | Registration, first lesson and the end of the day for the junior school and for the senior school separately, plus the days that run differently such as a games afternoon. One set of times across the whole school is wrong for half the parents reading it. |
|---|---|
| Wraparound care times and charges | The earliest drop off, the latest collection, whether a session has to be booked and what it costs. Working parents choose a school on this and it is usually buried inside a policy. |
| Term dates as dated entries | Term start and end, half terms, staff training days and any staggered start for a new year group, for this year and the next one. Publish the following year early, because that is when the flights get booked. |
| Office hours in term time and in the holidays | Which weeks somebody is in, the hours, and what happens to a message left in between. Silence through August reads as a school that does not want the enquiry. |
The reply
The two halves of the school finish at different times, and our school day page gives registration and the end of the day for the junior school and the senior school separately [1]. Wraparound care runs before and after that for a charge per session, with the latest collection on the same page [2]. In the holidays the office keeps shorter hours, and the term dates page lists the weeks somebody is in [3]. I can only quote what is published, so if you need a particular date confirmed I can pass your details to the office.
It leads with the split between the two schools, because a parent with children in both is otherwise given a time that is wrong for one of them. Wraparound answers the question underneath the question, which is usually whether the day fits a job. And nothing implies a particular day is staffed.
Where it stops
The trigger. A visitor asks whether the school is open on a specific date, whether a child can be dropped off earlier than published, or wants a wraparound session confirmed.
I can only tell you what the published calendar says, and I cannot book a session in after school care. Give me your name, an email and the date you are asking about, and the office will confirm it.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never give one finishing time for the whole school, since the junior and senior days end at different points.
- Never say a wraparound session is available, because those are booked with the office and nothing here can see a register.
- Never describe the school as open on a date unless the published calendar says so, as training days sit inside term.
- Never imply a message sent during the holidays will be read the same day when the office is not in.
Questions
- Our term dates change. Is it safe to index them?
- It is safe when each page carries the academic year it belongs to. The failure is a stale calendar quoted confidently in September, and a year label on the document is what prevents it.
- Can it tell parents the school is shut for snow?
- No. It has no feed from anybody and cannot know what was decided at six in the morning. Closure notices belong in the channel parents already watch, and the assistant should say where that is.
- Do prospective parents ask about hours?
- Constantly, and for a different reason than current parents. They are working out whether the day fits a working day, so what helps them is the school day set next to the wraparound times, not the office hours.
Keep reading
- Everything for a private schoolAdmissions timelines, fees, bursaries and uniform lists are safe ground for a school assistant. Anything about a named pupil or applicant is not.
- Handling opening hours in generalHolidays, seasonal variation, last orders and multiple sites. Keeping one source of truth so the assistant and your map listing agree.
- Three requests that arrive as one question about accessLearning support, an arrangement for the entrance assessment and a step free route are three answers, and only one of them is a fact.
- What a school can actually delete when a family asksRegistration papers, assessment scripts and a reference from another school are different records, and a child cannot make the request.
- The most contested clause in the parent contract, and how to state itWithdrawing a pupil, dropping the coach seat and stopping music lessons all carry notice periods, and they are not the same period.
Try it on your own material
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