As someone who was recently living in Ireland and experience both systems, I absolutely prefer the English system.
There was no communication with the Irish school, I had no idea what was happening with my DCs, including one regressing and spiralling out of control. There was no way to have an informal chat at the school gate as teacher in England do. An example, today my 5yo DD injured herself, the HT happened to be spending time in her class so brought her out to me explained what happened and also handed me an injury form. Took all of 20seconds as I had no questions. In Ireland I got one of my DDs to the car and looked over at her to see her entire ear bruised, there was dried blood too, so not a small injury, an ear dose not bruise and bleed easily. I went back into the school to find out what happened, but the teacher had already gone by the time I walked from my car which was parked in the school grounds, back to the reception area. I had to wait until the following day for their account. My DD just said she hurt herself. This is the same DD who went from a vivacious outgoing child to a nervous wreck within 12 months in the Irish school system. The school were not telling my about very important incidents which had I known about I could have helped my DD earlier.
I didn’t even know what my DDs teachers looked like, they were no where to be seen at the start of the new school year and at the end of the school day, there would be over 500 pupils pouring out with an odd adult standing right at the back of the yard before rushing off to their cars. In England the HT or another senior staff member would be at the school gates every morning. On the first day of the year the teachers come out smiling and introduce themselves if they haven’t met any parents. And are always available if a parents need them after school.
One of my friends 5yo DD was locked outside of school, a different school. She was only discovered when her older sisters class had their playtime over 30mins later and only by her sister and friends who took the poor wet cold child inside. Her parents weren’t told at pickup. It was only when her older child finished over an hour later did my friend find out by her older DD. Again, the younger child’s teachers were nowhere to be seen to find out what happened.
There was no system in place for children’s mental health to be monitored at all and the fact teachers don’t communicate with parents makes this very worrying for many parents as so many mental health issues are being missed in Irish schools.
When we left 5 other children from one of my DDs classes also left.
Talking to other parents from other schools, these are not isolated incidents, but a systemic problem in many schools.
Communicating with parents is and should be a very important part of their job. Of course if parents are constantly hogging a teachers time then this needs addressing with the parents. Class dojo is great for communicating. After moving back, I got updates from all my children’s teachers after the first 2 weeks to see how they were settling in and to let me know the outcome of their assessments to see what if any areas needed working on. However, I do understand how this could be abused by some parents.
I don’t need a long chat everyday at the school gate, but as a parent I do want to be communicated with, I don’t want to wait till the end of school parents evening.
Also for the children climbing the school walls. This is a very common complaint from Irish parents I met, no before or after school club availability, something which most parents rely on here. Our school here teams with another school, our school runs the breakfast club with staff taking children from the other school to school, then the other school dose the after school club, again our school drop children off.
Clock in and clock out times might be good for Irish teachers, but not necessarily for the children and their parents.