Dear Parents and Carers,

At School of Christ the King, we would like to keep up to date with you and your children. To do this, we are using Zoom or Google Meets for our video-calling. We will be using our school account for this, so you do not need to buy anything or create an account.

We are therefore writing for permission so children are able to participate in video calls (see page 2).

When we make our video call, we will always send you a text first before we send your child a video link via their Google Classroom account. We will never email your child asking them to join a call without you knowing, and we will never ask to 'video meet' with you or your child outside our school hours which are currently 9am - 3.15pm.

When we make the video call, 

• please make sure the computer is in a suitable place, not in a bedroom or bathroom for example and the background is clear, showing just the wall perhaps, with no inappropriate objects/ information visible.
• Please ensure that your child is appropriately dressed. 
• School expectations and rules should be adhered to as they would usually be in the classroom.
• do not share the meeting password with anyone else.
• Microphones should be muted to reduce background noise unless speaking.

Teachers should not be invited to meet on zoom by parents/carers or children, unless prior mutual agreement has been reached  by all parties.

For your child's safety, we may record our call with you. The recordings are kept on our school servers and no-one is permitted to view them, without good reason and permission from the headteacher.

To use the video link in our email, just click on the link. The browser window will open and the first time you use it, it will ask you to download the software. If you use a Zoom account for another reason, please make sure you log out of that account before your child uses it. This will make sure any settings that you have made in your account do not override any that we have put in place to safeguard your child.

You may have read a lot about problems with video calling software. Zoom has improved its security settings recently. Our school account has settings that will limit problems with the following issues that you may have heard about:

• Zoom-bombing
• Risk of phishing
• Privacy concerns
• Recordings
• Private zoom meetings
• Inappropriate content
• Data Protection
• Poor privacy controls and security

To protect you and your child further, please:

Do not create or use an existing Zoom account for them, this will make sure that your child cannot change any of our settings.

Make sure the joining email is from our school email address, this will prevent any impact from phishing emails where people try to get you to click on a fraudulent email.

There should be no inappropriate content on any of our video calls. Please contact the school if you are concerned about any of the content of the video call.

Parents, please email us to confirm that you wish for your child to participate using one of our video calling platforms (zoom/Google meets). Without confirmation we may not be able to allow your child to participate.

Please send your permission email to the relevant class email address and state the followig:

I ___(enter your name)_____ give permission for my child ___(enter child's name)__ to use the schools video calling platforms.

Please send to the appropriate email:

• reception@ctk.education
• year.1@ctk.education
• year.2@ctk.education
• year.3@ctk.education
• year.4@ctk.education
• year.5@ctk.education
• year.6@ctk.education
• LH.2@ctk.education (Learning Hub 2)
• christ.the.king.p@bristol-schools.uk

If you would like any further information, please get in touch by calling us in school.

Yours sincerely,

 

Matt Condon

Headteacher