Useful Information
Pastoral Care
Pastoral care is considered very important and a variety of support strategies are available if needed. Each girl’s welfare is the special responsibility of her form teacher who may refer any problem to her Head of Year. The Heads of Year are responsible to Senior Staff for the overall pastoral care of their group. Contact Details for the Pastoral Care Team can be found here.
Student Well-being
In this section of our website you will find useful websites and information about a range of issues for both parents and students. Our Student Well-being page can be found here.
Student Absence
Please help us to support your child and ensure that they achieve their best through excellent attendance at school. Parents/carers are asked to advise the School by telephone or email, before 8.15am if possible, each day a student is going to be absent.
Student Absence Telephone:
01920 462210 – Option 1
Student Absence Email:
attendance@presdales.herts.sch.uk
Appointments during school hours
Please email attendance@presdales.herts.sch.uk to notify us of an appointment during the school day. Please ensure your child signs out and then back in at Reception.
Students unwell at School
If students feel ill during the school day they should ask their teacher if they can go to see our Principal First Aider in the First Aid Room or, if she is unavailable, go to Reception. Students may not go home unless this is arranged by the First Aider/Reception, their Head of Year or a member of the Senior Leadership Team. They should not ring their parents directly. Please do not come and collect your daughter until you have received an official telephone call from the school. In a large number of cases, after a short break in the First Aid Room, girls are able to continue with their day.
If a student needs to take medication during the school day, it must be kept in the First Aid Room and permission given by parents/carers for it to be administered. This includes all items which have a restriction of the number of doses to be taken in a certain period i.e. Strepsils, paracetamol, ibuprofen etc.
Lost Property
Lost property is kept in a cupboard outside the First Aid Room. Lost property that is particularly valuable is kept in the First Aid Room until the end of the school year and disposed of during the summer holidays. Lost PE Kits and trainers are kept by the PE department in the Sports Hall. Clothing, shoes and miscellaneous items are recycled at the end of each term. If your child has lost anything at school, please urge them to come to the First Aid Room and look for it before the end of term. If named items are found, the students are emailed and asked to collect from the lost property cupboard. To reduce the amount of unnamed lost property, we would be grateful if you could please make sure items of clothing and other personal belongings (e.g. bags, pencil cases etc.) are named. PE kits should also be clearly named as we have lots of girls with the same initials and we can’t always locate their owners. All students must be responsible and accountable for their own
property at all times.
Parents dropping off items to their children
As we are still trying to reduce any contact from outside school, parents will only be allowed to drop off essential items during the day. Please place any items in a named bag, put the bag on the table in the porch of the main building, then contact your child to let them know that you have dropped the item(s) off.
Change of contact details
If any of your contact details have changed, including email addresses, please update EduLink or notify the school by emailing admin@presdales.herts.sch.uk.
WisePay App
Please click here for the WisePay App user guide.
Presdales unique organisation code for Wisepay is 37131546
Facilities for Hire
As we start getting back to normal in school, we are also starting to make our facilities available for hire again. We have a new page on the website for advertising our facilities. Please direct anyone you know who may be interested in hiring the swimming pool, sports hall, classrooms etc. out of school hours to here.
Social Wall
Are you on Facebook? Do you have Twitter? Please click on the links below to join our school accounts or visit our social wall.
Presdales (formerly WGS) Alumni
Please help us reach out to our former students using your own networks. From doctors to dancers, pilots to plumbers, we need alumni from a range of careers to open our students’ eyes to what’s possible.
If you are a former student or know of any who’d like to stay in touch and give back to their old school, ask them to sign up at: https://networks.futurefirst.org.uk/former-student/presdales
We’d love to hear from the girls – and boys – of previous years.
Upcoming Events
Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th September : Bronze Qualifying Expedition (cohort of 2020-2021)
Tuesday 21st September : School Photographs
Friday 1st October : Year 12 Politics visit to Westminster
Tuesday 5th October : Isle of Wight trip information Evening
Friday 8th October : Year 13 Politics visit to Westminster
Friday 8th to Sunday 10th October : Silver Qualifying Expedition (cohort of 2020-2021)
Friday 15th October : Inset Day
Monday 18th October : COVID-19 vaccinations
Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st October : STEM Army activity day – Year 7
Friday 22nd October : Non uniform day
Please click here or on the link below for what else is coming up this academic year.
Upcoming House Events
W/c 27th September : Benchball
W/c 18th October : Netball
Vacancies at Presdales
PRINCIPAL FIRST AIDER AND ADMINISTRATOR
Full details and an application form can be found on the school website.
Online Safety – A Guide for Parents and Carers
Teens today spend a significant amount of time online. The latest research from Ofcom found that 12-15 year olds spend an average of 11 hours per week watching YouTube, a further 13 hours using social media/messaging apps and this was in addition to time spent playing games and watching TV. Then during the pandemic all of us have been spending more time online and it can be hard to keep teens away from screens. As teens do more online the potential risk that they’ll experience online issues increases.
Teens today are more connected than ever before and they can feel a range of online pressures. For example, conversations between friends can be expected to continue online beyond the school gate and they can feel the pressure to present the best version of themselves online in order to be popular. Teens have a range of things to juggle in their lives; they have school work and extra-curricular activities as well as keeping up in the online world where there is FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), Staying on top of it all can be tough.
Online Challenges and risks
Research shows that there is a relationship between the time a teen spends online and their emotional wellbeing. Heavy online users are more likely to feel depressed and can find it harder to concentrate than those who spend less time online.
What can parents do?
· With parental support, teens need to learn to self-regulate their screen time to promote their emotional health.
· Parents should check they are only using age appropriate online platforms to protect their children from online hazards (under 13 year olds should not be using Snapchat or Instagram)
Cyberbullying is often a continuation of bullying that has happened in person and in some cases misunderstandings on social media can spark issues in real life. As online activity has increased so has the risk of being exposed to cyberbullying.
Research shows cyberbullying is most likely to peak at 14.The anonymity of the screen makes it easier for people to take part in cyberbullying and it can be more nuanced – e.g.leaving someone out of a chat group. It can be hard to decifer between bullying and banter when jokes go too far.
What should students do?
· Only communicate with people they know
· Only post online what they would say in real life
· Immediately block anyone who is bullying them
· Report them to the site they are using
What can parents do?
· Make sure they have set up privacy settings on their apps, platforms, devices
· Explain that friendships change and can break down
· Encourage students to talk about issues & help them to work through issues (contacting school where appropriate)
Today teenagers can face considerable online peer pressure. Fitting in is what teenagers have always struggled with – in the old days it was trying a cigarette in the bikeshed!
Now it is chasing likes and new followers to be popular, posting photo shopped images of themselves, taking part in a prank & posting it on social media and sending a nude picture to a girlfriend/boyfriend.
What can parents do?
· Talk about what they do online and the potential dangers if they compromise their values, break the law or put themselves at risk to ‘fit in’
· Help them to understand about creating a good digital footprint for the future
Grooming is a real online danger today. With the growth of social media platforms, online games and instant message apps children can talk to anyone – friends or strangers from around the world in minutes. This is where stranger danger is a concern.
What can parents do?
· Emphasise that they do not know who they are talking to if it is a stranger online (who will pose as someone they are not) and make sure they never give any identifying information about themselves to online strangers
· Spend time together setting up privacy settings
· Be open with your children about their social media experiences & encourage them to be cautious about what they share online
Useful Support Services for Online Safety
There are lots of useful websites to get parental guidance about online safety:
· Thinkuknow
· Internet matters
· Parent info
· Net-aware
· Child net
· UK Safer Internet Centre
· Safety Detectives
You will find links to all of these and useful parental guides for social media platforms on the Online Safety page of our school website.
Students will be taught about online safety issues throughout their years in school so that we can support you in keeping your child safe online.
Edulink
This is an essential resource to help you keep on top of communication between home and school. A log in and password is needed to access the system which was
emailed out to the email address you provided in you daughters welcome pack. You can access Edulink via a home computer using the tab at the top of the Presdales website or via an App downloaded to your phone or tablet.
Once logged into Edulink you can easily access the following information about your daughter:
· Homework – list of tasks set, with due dates so that you can check they have completed tasks
· Lunch choices – you can see what they have eaten in the canteen and see their Wisepay balance
· Reward and Consequence points for achievements and any behaviour incidents
· Parental contact details – so that you can update any changes
· School tracking reports when they become available.
Do get in contact with school if you have any problems accessing your Edulink account so that you can see all these things.
