Home school agreements

[HerGraciousMajTheBeardedPotato]

What is the point of them?
Are they 'enforceable'?
What if the parents choose not to sign them?

To set out expectations on both sides.

Not my expectations: I have no say in it.

And the enforceable aspects remain enforceable whether or not I sign.

It seems to me that they are quite pointless.

I thought they were just something Ofsted like to see but a waste of time other than that...

The parts that relate to behaviour and other policies remain enforceable eg homework and uniform sanctions will still be applied to children whose parents who refuse to sign the form

If there is some part you don't agree with, you can have this over turned and they can't punish your child. They can try, but when you repeatedly tell them you have not agreed to this, they soon back down.
They aren't God.

I wonder what proportion of parents sign them?

"they can't punish your child. They can try, but when you repeatedly tell them you have not agreed to this, they soon back down" .
So when a child repeatedly tells a teacher to f### off, disrupts lessons, deliberately hurts other children we should just pat them on the head if parents don't want them punished. With no additional needs just "my mum says you can't tell me what to do".

Sounds like a reception parent who told me their DC must never hear the word "no", as it would crush their artistic temperament!

No, H/S agreements are not worth that much, but it does set up expectations on both sides. Someone mentioned (maybe another thread)that they didn't have input so it wasn't an agreement because only the school that drew it up. I didn't have any input in my contract and it is a legally binding agreement. Plus we can't personalise every agreement depending on what the parent wants ... that way chaos lies with dozens of different expectations and agreements.

Almost all of ours are returned with parental signatures.

Tiggy

I am basing this on personal experience and when I took mine out of detention other parents followed.
It caused the school to change the homework policy.
Whether they can enforce it or not is irrelevant when parents don't support them.

I would prefer to receive a document that said, essentially, "This is what you can expect of us, and this is what we expect of you." Without it being presented as an agreement or contract for me to sign.

Schools don't need parental permission to issue detentions.

"they can't punish your child. They can try, but when you repeatedly tell them you have not agreed to this, they soon back down".

Yes they can. They can enforce behaviour sanctions, homework, uniform etc.

Her I completely agree with you. Over the years I have noted that schools seem to of converted into businesses rather than a service IYSWIM?. Headteachers are managers, Deputy heads are assistant managers. The first time I received a letter from the deputy head at dc's school signed assistant manager it left me scratching my head thinking I had dropped my Dc off at Tesco rather than school.

The way I see it is that most policies are there to cover themselves so aren't worth the paper they are written on, as it says above they will enforce whatever/whenever they want regardless of whether we sign or not.

In the past Ds wasn't getting the additional support he should of been at school and when I was rude enough to point this out our relationship broke down. Some months down the line Ds started to refuse to do homework/read/get up for school because of the above and they were quick to pull out their 'policies' (which I had never seen before therefore had not signed) and what was expected from me to cover themselves, so I dug out some policies to show what was expected of them.

They are posturing.

IMO they add very little in terms of enforcing policies. For some policies there are laws which deal with the issue others are negotiable in terms of inclusion and the fact you cannot issue responsibility quite so neatly when dealing with a child's education.

Homework for example should be differentiated according to the educational needs of the child. Parents cannot enforce that it is done. Additional social and emotional needs come under the bracket of SEN so then there is the issue of inclusion if homework does not take account of this.

Behaviour policies should also be shown to be inclusive.

Signing one does not affect your rights as a parent, if any additional needs come to light a school still needs to do all they can to be inclusive. Really not worth worrying about.

The law is being changed soon, so that Governors of schools do not have to produce a Home School Agreement.

"Home-School Agreements
We plan to remove the requirement for governing bodies to adopt a home school agreement. This would remove an administrative burden on the governing bodies of maintained schools." [[Home-School Agreements
We plan to remove the requirement for governing bodies to adopt a home school agreement. This would remove an administrative burden on the governing bodies of maintained schools. Link]]

A good idea. One item less of record-keeping for the school. And as the policies need to exist, and to be made clearly available to every parent, then all they need to do is issue them as part of every pupil's induction.

None of this quasi-choice signing nonsense.

they were quick to pull out their 'policies' (which I had never seen before therefore had not signed) and what was expected from me to cover themselves, so I dug out some policies to show what was expected of them.

I did something similar. I felt they weren't keeping to their side of the agreement so I refused to sign it. I don't suppose it made one iota of difference to them, but a two-way partnership has to work two ways. It's not just the parents that need reminding.