To complain DD’s head when schools are struggling, and teachers are frazzled

[PointySetter]

I can see that last term was an incredibly difficult time for teachers, and while I did email some concerns last term - I don’t feel I was given satisfactory responses. Schools are now closed, so I wondered if I should put in a more serious/formal complaint - or just give the school a break.

My main concern is about the safety/wellbeing of the children. New arrangement for drop and pick up of children has led to the following situation. There is a car park next to the school which parents use. As children are released at pick up time, children (Yr5) are released into the road serving the car park. The cars aren’t driving at speed, but I’ve seen 4 or 5 children run out in front of a car to their parent who is waiting on the opposite side of the road. I complained, and the heads response was to say that - as the children are older - and allowed to walk home independently - once the child has been dismissed, it’s the parents responsibility. However the teacher dismisses the child into the road, and the child (excitedly) runs across the road to their parents. The school (begrudgingly) then asked parents to not wait across the road after my complaint, but towards the end of term it was happening again.

My next concern is that my daughter was absent twice last term. One was a lengthy absence, and I needed authorisation - but I got not response until I promoted about 3 days later. Later in the term I emailed a second absence - however again I received no acknowledgement of my email. My concern is that if my daughter was walking to school, and didn’t arrive - and need the security of knowing that an absences are acknowledged by the school.
My third concern is that she has a reading record book, which I believe is supposed to be a two way communication, but is never - or rarely written in. I wrote a note in the book stating that my daughter had already received a flu jab, and wasn’t on the list to have one at school. There was no tick/response to my comment. My daughter asked a question in the book about her story - again no response. Book titles, page numbers, comments are only written by my daughters. Throughout her time at the school, I’ve only viewed her school books twice, and we never visit the classrooms to see displays etc (precovid times) as parent evenings are held in an office with no opportunity to view books/work. Should I complain?

Not today.

No.
Hth.

Schools are not closed. They will be open for vulnerable and key worker children and providing remote provision for all other children.

Teachers will be even more stressed now than they were last term.

I would leave it.

No - not today. But before school starts again in Feb? It’s more to know if my concerns are valid concerns - or if I’m being moany.

Are you serious? Do you not think there is enough going on right now?

Wow. If parents are stupid enough to wait on the other side of the road to meet their 9/10 year olds then they need to supervise their child crossing the road towards them.

Can you actually imagine any school acknowledging every message regarding children being off school? The whole point is they contact you if you’re child has not turned up and you HAVE NOT let them know. If you’ve let them know then no need for them to get in touch.

Reading record - a bit crap not to get feedback but it’s been a busy old year.

No, you really shouldn’t.
The last two are very petty anyway and now is not the time for the first.

If this is all still bothering you after February half term maybe mention it calmly then. I would leave it for now though as these issues won't be happening while schools are closed for the next six weeks.
When I was a teacher I wouldn't always have time to respond to messages in reading logs and that was pre-covid times. It's much more likely to be TA reading these as well, rather than the teacher.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

I am 'one of those parents' who regularly corresponds with school. I would drop point three as it seems irrelevant in current times, and I'm not sure what the issue is with point two - you told them she was absent, they recorded it. If you hadn't told them she was absent and she didn't arrive, they'd put in motion their protocol.

Regarding the cars/road - this is not really a school issue, so I would approach them not in a complaining way but more a 'how can we improve this' way.

And I think it actually is the parents’ responsibility to know whether their upper ks2 child has road sense.

If your daughter didn’t arrive at school and you hadn’t emailed, then they would contact you? You told them she’d be off, so there’s no safeguarding issue.

Did she get given another flu jab?

Re the car park - what would you like to happen?

The first issue seems to be the parents problem rather than the schools. They shouldn't need to be told to not stand on the other side of the road - that is just common sense.

If you want an immediate response to absence reporting you could do it via a phone call rather than an email.

The reading record is a valid thing to raise but I don't understand why you would write about a flu jab in there - send that in an email.

Totally can’t believe you would consider emailing the school about these things this week!!
It’s not as though any of it is going to be relevant during the closures anyway. Do you know how much pressure teachers are under?

So the situation is - teacher is waiting with child one side of the road, teacher sees parent on other side of the road. Says goodbye to child, and child runs in front of car because they have seen their parents. The child doesn’t check as they cross.

No. Just no. Do you understand how frazzled schools are right now? Headteachers have bigger fish to fry.

If parents are waiting at the opposite side of the road, how is that the teacher's fault? What are they supposed to do? Hold the children hostage till every parent crosses, everyday??

The email/contact issue - Do you recognise the sheer volume of emails/calls they get? They would let you know if your child didn't show.

Reading book - just feed it back later in the year if it continues. It's not worthy of a complaint.

With the absence, I requested a two week absence as I was caring for someone vulnerable. I didn’t know if it was authorised, and I was with DD 2 hours away from the school, and I didn’t hear back until I phoned 4 days later.

These are non issues.

If there is bad car driving, take note of numbers and report to the police. Road safety officers will be prepared to come to the school when it reopens.

Other things, not now, perhaps at time school re-opens fully.

Regarding the reading record issue, you would be a bit unreasonable due to the fact that it was very difficult last term regarding the quarantine of paper based books and therefore, my own DDs reading record was not completed by their teacher but I have been completing my sections for motivation for my own child. In normal times yes, mention it but not because of last term.
I an all honesty, I’d leave your issues with your child’s school for now.

You sound hugely passionate, and driven.....but I think maybe you need to lay off the school a tad.

I get it though, I tend to 'see' problems and ways to fix them in all walks of life, I could very easily become bogged down in helping people with my correspondence 😬, but I try and keep a lid on it.....mostly. X

Assembly on road safety
At that age I would say that is totally acceptable they can walk home alone at that age

The rest of it 🤷‍♀️
Depends what you think reasonable communication is and what they think reasonable communication is.

Small issues really
The teachers will have all kinds of families to deal with

@PointySetter

So the situation is - teacher is waiting with child one side of the road, teacher sees parent on other side of the road. Says goodbye to child, and child runs in front of car because they have seen their parents. The child doesn’t check as they cross.

Is it your child? If not, I’d leave it.

Are you asked to email in absences or phone? If they hadn’t received your email and your child was absent, they would be calling you surely to find out where they are?
Absences take up so much admin time.

Reading records: we aren’t supposed to be using these at the moment due to covid, they shouldn’t be going back and forth. I also wouldn’t use this as a means of communication, I would have talked to the school office about the flu jab, it’s not the teachers responsibility.

Seeing books... in normal times, these are always made available at parents evenings, do they not get sent home at the end of the year? You can always ask/feedback to see your children’s books I am sure?

The running into the road: I bet my bottom dollar that the teacher reminds the children to check for cars and not to run into the road. Every school I work at has permanent reminders about cars not being allowed in certain places and are they listened to? Nope.

In short, I am sure they would appreciate feedback about the car situation but I personally think the rest doesn’t warrant a complaint.

Definitely not today OP.

I also think you're being a bit precious about it all. Has your DC almost been knocked over? Have you instilled some road sense into them and have you decided to wait on the same side of the road as the school? You can't force other parents to do the same unfortunately.

As for responding to emails, you're being picky over nothing. If she didn't turn in on time without an explanation, the school would phone you quick enough.

As for the reading record, I'd say this wasn't the way to communicate with the school. I would have told DC teacher in person or by a phone or email to the school. One of my DS doesn't get the flu vaccine at school but it is all documented with the school nurse. You could also contact them.

As for parents evenings, why did you simply just not ask to see the books at the time?

I don't think you should complain, I think you should communicate with the school and adjust your expectations.