School communication

Schools in UK are now fairly sophisticated in how they communicate with the parents of the children in their school community.

In many schools, gone are the days when parents needed to hope their child managed to bring home the weekly or monthly newsletter. Most schools now have websites on which they load their newsletters, regular communications and calendars of events.

The best way to understand how your child's school communicates with parents is to find out how information is disseminated at their school.

Good school communication

 

Quality school will provide:

• regular newsletters
• access to an annual report
• orientation packs or guides for new parents
• an up-to-date website
• a principal accessible by appointment.
  

There are so many ways now that schools communicate with parents, it’s up to parents to do their research and engage with all the school has to offer.

Other methods of communications

 

These include:

• class orientation at the start of the year
• parent-teacher interviews
• informal gatherings and school welcome events
• the appointment of parent representatives
• parent-only social functions.
  

Parents take the opportunities usually offered at the start of the school year to meet their child’s teacher.

Many schools have class welcome events for parents to see their child’s classroom and hear about what is planned for the term or year. These are usually group affairs, and not one-on-one meetings, but give parents the chance to meet the teacher and other class parents.

A lot of classes also appoint a parent representative whose job is to communicate class activities and events with parents. These parents will try to get the email addresses and mobile phone numbers of all the parents, so make sure if your child brings a note home asking for your contact details, you fill it in.

These lists can be lifesavers when you’re trying to find out if there’s a class event coming up, or if you lose a party invitation or similar.

Structured contact with your child’s teacher is built into the curriculum via parent-teacher consultations. At most schools these enable parents to find out how their child is doing, see examples of their work and discuss any issues. Some schools now include the children in these meetings.