Wey Valley Academy

Parental Consent

As part of the academy’s admission form, parental consent is requested for your child. This will remain valid until you contact the school, in writing, to cancel or change the permissions provided.

You can do this at any point by emailing office@wva.weareauthentic.education

Please see below for further information on the five general permissions we collect.

Extreme Weather Permission

In the event of extreme bad weather conditions during winter months, a decision to close the school may have to be made. We will send a text/voice message home via SIMs InTouch system and inform Wessex FM (97.2) and 2CR (102.3) of our decision, who will then broadcast the information. If the school is NOT mentioned then we are open as usual. This procedure works well if we have to close the school before the normal start time in the morning.

If bad weather develops during the day, and a decision to close the school is made; again we will contact Wessex FM (97.2) and 2CR (102.3), and text/voice messages will be sent home via the SIMs InTouch system. More information can be found on the school website under the News and Events menu.

Permissions can be given for the child to be sent home or to remain at school in the event of an extreme weather school closure.

Publicity

The school sometimes uses student’s photographs to include in items such as academy newsletters, local press, around the school and on our website/social media accounts.

Permissions given would approve for your child’s photograph to be taken and published if required.

Copyright

The school may wish to publish a student’s work on the Internet or in a press release.

Permissions given would approve for your child’s work to be used if required.

Internet Access and Emails

For our students to get the best possible education, we require them to have a school email account and use of the school internet. The permission agrees for your child to use both the internet and their school emails in accordance with the ICT Acceptable Use Policy, which can be found on the policy page of our website.

ParentPay

Wey Valley Academy operates an on-line payment system called ‘ParentPay’ which supports parents/carers to pay for school trips, stationery and school meals on-line.

Connected to your ParentPay account is cashless catering – a system where your child’s fingerprint is scanned and linked to the account for school meals and borrowing of books from the school’s Learning Resource Centre. There are many benefits, including:

  • No need for students to bring cash or cheques into school. Reduced queuing times in the Diner.
  • Fingerprint recognition is more efficient than cards, passwords or a PIN number as there are issues with lost or forgotten cards or PINs.
  • Easy to read and user friendly on-line (ParentPay) system for parents to view both the money paid into your child’s account and the meals or snacks purchased in school.
  • Students eligible for Free School Meals will no longer need to collect a ticket and will instead use their fingerprint (same as all other students) to collect their meal.
  • Parents can set a daily limit for their child to spend in the Diner. The initial limit will be £4 per day, but please contact the Finance office (01305 817035) if you wish to change this limit. As long as the Academy has received your consent, student fingerprint scanning would have taken place in their first week at the Academy.

This permission allows Wey Valley Academy to take a partial fingerprint scan of your child and for it to be used as part of a recognition system for school meals and the Learning Resource Centre.