School not responding

[cantwina]

I have been trying to speak sto someone at dc high school about her behaviour and progress as I am
Becoming quite concerned. I've left message after message, emailed and I am having g no response. Anyone know what I can do?
I ca t help but think if this is how they respond to parents then how do they treat the pupils.
I've had nothing about the progress or my dc and no parents evening. Dc is in year 7

any advice welcome

@Dacadactyl I haven't contacted them the last week about this issue but apart from that, I haven't emailed them at all. Why?

That’s bad. When my son was in year 7 at school and had his muffin taken off him and stamped into the ground by a year 9 boy from his primary I emailed the head of year at 9.30pm, I did not expect a reply then, but received one 20 mins later telling me it would be looked ar the next day. My son was spoken to at registration & the older boy was bollockec shortly afterwards. Email sent to he by lunchtime explaining what had been done. No further problems.

I have to admit I was impressed. That’s a much faster response than I would expect (& I did have some concerns about the HoY still working that late, even though it is something I do myself) but I would not be happy just being blanked as you have been.

That should say I haven't contacted them at all, apart from this last week.

Hi, I'm the office manager in a high school. Please don't turn up at Reception first thing in the morning. It's the busiest time of day, the relevant staff member will probably be unavailable and if you do get to speak to someone they will probably have no information about your child. Ring and ask to speak to the head's PA. Explain the situation and say you would like to make a complaint and could she help direct you to the relevant person. Worst case scenario ask to book an appointment with the Head. Good luck, keep us updated.

It was this message that made me wonder whether you were emailing a lot. I found the step up from primary to high school very different in terms of communication eg at primary there's a weekly newsletter and I knew everyone. At high school the Head does a termly newsletter and if my DD didn't tell me what was going on, I'd have no clue.

I suppose I was thinking that, if you'd been emailing previously about (from the schools point of view) "small niggles that they don't have time for" that they may treat your messages as 'something to get round to', rather than 'requires immediate response', IYSWIM.

Speaking as a HoY that’s not good enough, particularly for year 7. We have a policy that states that we should respond to an email within 24 hours (even if it’s a ‘I’ve received this and am looking into it’) and then urgent things should be investigated and responded to within 2 working days and non urgent within 5 working days. Obviously this isn’t always possible but having a really clear framework helps. Also the parents are aware of this so it manages expectations.

I have to say I’ve been disappointed by the lack of comms from DD’s school, also yr7. She’s a very bright child who has been put in a mixed ability class where there appears to be no differentiation of work. In addition there are a number of
extremely disruptive boys in the class whose names come up daily on complaints by different parents with very little appearing to be done about it. (I don’t doubt the boys need help but there are 26 other children who aren’t getting a fair chance at learning because every lesson is spent dealing with these boys). The “progress” section of the parent comms app is blank. Parents evening is in May. If progress is hampered, isn’t May rather late to be telling us?

These children missed out on almost 2 school
years during Covid. They had none of the residential trips where they would have met children from the other catchment schools. A 6 minute video call with the form tutor in almost half a school year just doesn’t seem enough.

The bullying has been rife, and that has been dealt with promptly by school. But the bright, confident girl who loved school is now bored and anxious and I’ve no idea how I’m meant to deal with this if I’m getting zero info from school about how she’s doing. 🤷🏻‍♀️

The lack of communication when they go up to senior school is a culture shock, however if I have had any concerns then school have been great at coming back to me. I usually email the school office or year head, but if you aren't getting anywhere then ask for a one to one appointment. If the bullying is physical then you can ask the police to get involved.

How serious are the bullying incidents? The HOY will be extremely swamped. When there was a serious incident at dd’s former school, I sent an email with the info in the title. The HOY saw it pretty much immediately. Within an hour I had a call stating the child had been spoken to, sanctioned and the parents informed.

In your shoes, I would find out the email address of the HOY and email them directly with a synopsis of the issue in the title. I see the pastoral support is aware. Has your dd been offered pastoral support? Or does she need it?

As for progress, you are not going to get much. Teachers are extremely busy. Look at the homework marking… if it’s marked in the first instance. As others have said year 7 parents evening is late in the year. The students take time to settle in. It would be pointless having one yet.

Look at the homework marking… if it’s marked in the first instance.

DD has had no homework since Sept bar 3 “writing our neatly-s” of work undertaken in class. Less than 1.5 hours of homework.

Her best friend (different school) gets about an hour’s worth of homework every night!