Communications

We use various different systems for communicating and working at Varndean School and so to help families we have created a guide to illustrate what is used and when, please click on the link below to view.

A guide to accessing Varndean School communications

Communicating re Your Child's Progress

A key factor in Varndean’s success is the strong partnership between home and school. One area of focus is the academic progress students are making and to aid this effort we have produced the document linked below which sets out the variety of ways that school and home can communicate about this priority. This will be especially useful for families new to the Varndean community but may also remind some more seasoned parents of the tools at their disposal. The document also sets out how parents evenings will work this year post COVID and includes some small changes we have introduced to respond to the feedback you have given us previously.

Parent Partnership - a Guide for Families

 

Student Bulletin

For students we produce a student bulletin each Friday with details of upcoming events around the school.

 

Further Help

Should you have any queries regarding any aspect of technology for either you or your child, please don't hesitate to contact us  

Varndean PLUS

Varndean PLUS enables parents to view the latest information about their child's attendance, achievements, behaviour and homework. 

Varndean PLUS User Guide

You should have received an email from Varndean School containing your Varndean PLUS username, password and a link to Varndean PLUS itself. Using these details you can log on to Varndean PLUS. If you have not received an email from the school with your details in, please either email school@varndean.co.uk or call 01273 561281.

When logging in to Varndean PLUS, you will need your username and password. Enter your registered email in box number (1) and your password in box number (2) and click login in (3). If you have forgotten your password, then you can click the forgotten password link (4) and a reset password link will be emailed to you.

On the main page of Varndean PLUS, after logging in you will see a display overview of your child's performance to date, this will include varying items such as achievements/behaviour/weekly lesson timetable etc. Depending on your child's individual information, some items seen above may not be applicable and so not shown as the above is an example account just to give you a typical view. 

In the top left you will see your child's name(s) with a photo of them to the left of that. If relevant, you can switch between which child's information you are looking at here. Also along the top are the areas of navigation, general/attendance and so on; by clicking each of these you are shown additional options that will give you more detailed information.

(It is advisable that you ensure you are able to access the system from the standard desktop web access method prior to following the mobile App instructions).

Before you can connect you will need to set the address in the App settings, to complete this you need to click on the settings icon as shown above in red.

Simply enter the URL as show above - https://plus.varndean.co.uk  - click ok to return to the previous screen and enter the email address and password that you used to confirm that you were able to login on the web based system.

If you’re not able to successfully sign in, then please check that you have entered the following items correctly:

  • Are you using the same email address that the school have on record, if not then you will need to email or contact the school to update your record.
  • Have you changed or forgotten your password? If you have then from the login page you can simply select the option “Don’t know your password?” enter your email address and click on submit. If you have an error at this point it means the email address being entered is different from that on record and you will need to contact the school.
  • Please check that your bookmarks are not still pointing towards the older systems we have had in place. The current address is: https://plus.varndean.co.uk.

The mobile App is available for android and apple devices. If you do not use one of these style of devices then please use a standard web browser.

If your App has stopped working then please uninstall it and re-install it following the above guide.

Not receiving messages from school?

If you believe you're not receiving messages from us we recommend adding us to your 'safe senders' list, this usually helps sort out the problem. The address to add is: 

8464012@sims-communications.co.uk

 

You can also try the following:

Hotmail accounts

1. Sign in to your account. Go to inbox.
2. Click Options located at the upper-right side of the page.
3. Select More Options.
4. Under Preventing junk email, click Safe and blocked senders.
5. Click Safe Senders.
6. In the text box, type in the email address or domain you’d like to always receive email from, and then click Add to list >>.

 

Gmail Accounts

If Gmail has marked emails you wish to whitelist as spam, tell Gmail the emails are not spam.

  1. In Gmail, navigate to the spam folder.
  2. Search for emails containing the domain you wish to whitelist (eg onlinegroups.net).
  3. Select all the emails shown.
  4. Click More and then Not spam.

 

Outlook Accounts

Add the address to your safe senders

  1. Click the cog icon in the top-right corner and then More mail settings
  2. Select Safe and blocked senders and then Safe senders
  3. Add add the domain of the email you want to whitelist to the list of Safe senders
  4. Return to Safe and blocked senders and then select Safe mailing lists
  5. Add the email address of the online group you want to whitelist to the list of Safe mailing lists

 

The school's email address that needs adding to the safe senders / whitelist is:

8464012@sims-communications.co.uk

 

If you have tried these steps and are still not receiving emails, please let us know by contacting reception: