Is it normal for teachers to ring parents with praise?

[posey]

This isn't a bragging thread ( though of course I am proud) but one of dd's teachers rang today to praise dd. This has happened before with other teachers and dd knows other people in the school who have had " nice" phone calls home
I think it's really nice to get but it certainly never happened when I was at school. Is it a thing that happens all over the place? I know about sending postcards home with compliments, but not phone calls.

[tethersend]

No, not normal practice but it bloody should be

Well done your DD.

[Grockle]

I call parents if I can't speak to them in person. I'd call them about negative things so I think it only fair that I call them about positive things too.

[SouthGoingZax]

i call with positives.
Helps to end the day on a high note. Nice for me, nice for the parent, nice for the child.

[Bluebell99]

It would be nice! I have heard that others have had postcards, (one bragger used the back of it to give me a tel no) nothing here yet tho :(

[metimenow]

I work in a school and we make good and bad phone calls.

[kalo12]

we do in my school

[Goblinchild]

I've had postcards praising DD and DS from specific departments, and some emails.

[NonnoMum]

It'll be school policy.

[basingstoke]

Yes.

When I returned to teaching after a 5 year break, I was gobsmacked at how often we are expected to contact parents, compared with before.

[mummytime]

I've had postcards and telephone calls. For minor stuff the kids get credits, then next step is a post card, I think a phone call comes after that, and then of course there are prizes at prize giving. I think if you get so many credits or a post card you get a "raffle" ticket with little prizes at the end of term.

[GnomeDePlume]

We do get phone calls.

[Yellowstone]

Never, ever, ever had a single phone call about any of my DC. Ever. Or a postcard. Annual parents evening and reports, that's it.

Is this secondary or primary? (assume secondary).

[Goblinchild]

Secondary. In primary, you nobble the parent in the playground and chat.

[EvilTwins]

I do. We send postcards, but they go through such a long-winded system of folk so that they can be logged on the "system" (from me to the logger (via pigeon hole) to the Yr head (via pigeon hole) to the tutor (via pigeon hole) and then to the student to take home) that it can take up to a week between me writing the card and the parent getting it, that I do phone calls too. It's lovely calling a parent to praise their child - especially if it's a child who would be more likely to get bad calls - parents are always very wary until you explain that you're phoning to say good stuff!

[Yellowstone]

Well is it really only to parents of kids who have turned a corner then Evil ? Or do you not discriminate and phone all parents of anyone with an A?

[Goblinchild]

My daughter ia a straight A student. She didn't get praise for achieving things that came easily to her. Her cards were about the times she'd stepped outside her comfort zone, or really challenged herself.
DS the same, and he is a child I've had a lot of phonecalls and emails about as he and the world adjusted to each other.

[Goblinchild]

No point in them phoning me, I'm at work. Plus you can put a card on the wall, or in your record of achievement or wave it at relatives.

[EvilTwins]

Yellowstone - why so cynical? I phone parents when I have positive things to say. It might be because they've turned a corner, it might be because they got an A. It might be because they have gone out of their way to do something helpful.

[twinklypearls]

It is not unusual, but still something to be chuffed about.

[sillybillies]

I do the odd positive phone call, usually a follow up to a bad one to say they've met targets/improved etc. Tend to use letters and postcards more though.
I've had occasions when kids have asked me to ring home to say they've done well.

[GnomeDePlume]

We have had the positive phone calls. I think it is great. DC's school is gradually pulling itself out of a very deep mire (in and out of special measures, head fired as no one was better than him - literally). The school has made huge strides dealing with the negative. These phone calls attempt to address the positive as well. There is an immediacy about them which doesnt come across with the post cards.

[prosopon]

I've never heard of it from friends (or other people at schools) before reading this thread. Positive comments at parents evenings, in reports, even at the school gate but never a phone call. At one primary school I visited children were sometimes praised at weekly community assemblies for being kind and thoughtful, they celebrated anything positive. The head there was a great man who tried to make each child feel valued but I don't think he made calls home.

[posey]

Thanks for all your responses
Have got used-ish to postcards but the phone calls still make you feel really proud and very touched that the teacher took the time to make a call. I'm a great believer in praise if praise is deserved. People in all walks of life are very quick to complain but not so quick to compliment, esp in things like service industries.