Social Media Communications Guidance

Communication guidance

The way in which we communicate now is much more immediate and social media can be a hugely useful tool to get messages across to a range of audiences. However, messages can be misconstrued and people can become misinformed or worse still very upset by messages delivered via social media. To avoid distress to anyone we ask you to consider carefully what you post.

Who will send you information?

The school will send you information regarding school trips, events, clubs, school management issues, news, homework, school meals, PE etc. These will be sent via School Comms (email), newsletters, or the school website.

The PSA will send you information about fundraising events, calls for volunteers, newsletters, calls for donations, ticket sales, reminders. These will be sent via school comms, PSA newsletters, the PSA Facebook page.

Class Reps will send you reminders, ask for volunteers, sharing PSA messages. These will be either face to face or via WhatsApp. Please remember that the PSA committee and class reps are parents just like you, so if you have queries about anything other than PSA matters, the best place to go for clarification is direct to the school.

PSA newsletters are approved by the senior leadership team before distribution and these are sent out by the school. Class reps usually create an email and/or WhatsApp group to share PSA information with their class. These groups are an efficient way to stay up to date. Commenting on PSA Facebook or WhatsApp Class WhatsApp groups are primarily for sharing information about PSA events, school reminders of trips etc. If you would like to post about something other than a PSA event, ask yourself if it might be better suited to a smaller group of parents in a separate friends’ group.

Your class WhatsApp group is not an appropriate place to share comments, messages and views from other groups or organisations or about any children or parents in the school. It is easy for comment threads to get out of hand and it is important to think about how your post could come across. It is also not permitted to share photos of school events that show pupils at St Mark’s on Whatsapp or any social media platform. 

It is important to report any posts you feel are inappropriate to your class rep or a senior member of school staff. Please be assured that we will not tolerate inappropriate emails, posts or messages. You can always choose to leave a WhatsApp group – and no-one should make a judgement about that and you can request that any photo or comment in which you or you child are mentioned is removed.