How does your childs school communicate with you?

[maidamess]

Do you have a letter home each week? Home school notebooks?

Big blackboards in the playground for folk to read?

We were chatting about it at school today.

What if you want to see a teacher ,or a teacher needs to see you? How is that done ,and does it work?

We have a monthly letter home, plus for the younger members of school we have notebooks.

Aside from parents' evenings I stick my head round the door once every half-term just to make sure everything's OK (in a very informal way). If the DCs come home with various bits of concerning news in the interim I might either email or go in again.

This is at primary school. At secondary school there is very little communication other than a couple of letters throughout the year. However, if again there is some news that I find disturbing I will email or phone the school.

In primary we communicate via a home/school record book which the teacher and I both sign every day and either can write notes or comments. If you want to see the teacher you ask via the book and will normally be offered a slot within a day or two. It's not really acceptable to ask for "a quick word" which I found strange at first. The school sends e-mails for notices and updates and and the monthly newsletter is sent home but is also available on-line.

In secondary you sign the student's journal each week. You are encouraged to phone or e-mail the care group teacher if you have any queries, DS1s is particularly good at chasing up other teachers and answering questions so I only have to deal with one person who I feel like I have some kind of relationship with. I think from next year (Y10) we have to deal with individual teachers though.

This school is particularly good though. I sent a letter to the head voicing some concerns about the pre-school class (DD) and he phoned me back within hours of receiving it having already gone to see what I was talking about and offered a solution to my concerns.

We have an end of week letter that covers things like whats going on the following week (if any clubs are cancelled, general news, requests for volunteers etc).

If a teacher (or the head)wants to see you they usually grab you in the playground before or after school and either chat there or make an appt if necessary. If anything crops up in the school day the secretary will phone and let you know or arrange for a time for you to see teacher.

They don't, on an individual basis unless there's a major disaster.

If you want to keep up with the news you access the daily school bulletin online.

Weekly letter home

White board in classroom window

Homework books with space to comment

If you need to see teacher go in after school.

Weekly letter home

White board in classroom window

Homework books with space to comment

If you need to see teacher go in after school.

In infants we are encouraged to spend first 15 mins of the day settling kids into classroom, which makes it easy to chat with the teachers without it being a big deal. Can easily ask about little niggles - saves lots of aggro I think.

In juniors this is reduced to once a week. That also seems reasonable.

At the end of the day the teachers are also around to chat for a few minutes.

They also send a monthly newsletter for the whole school and each teacher sends a letter each half-term describing activities and areas that will be studied.

The head greets children and parents on the way in almost every morning so it's easy to catch her too....

PS this school had outstanding for every ofsted aspect apart from attendance (which parents are responsible for )

letter home if something is happening. try to catch teacher if there is a problem, usually at the end of the day unless it NEEDS to be before school. If they want you they collar you at home time!

Thanks for all your replies. We are trying to find better ways to getting info to parents , and from parents.

I suggested a 'note drop' on each classroom window, a box where you could pop a note to the eacher, as classroom doorways are notoriously crowded and manic, a 'a quick word' is sometimes impossible.

there are always people who slip through the net though, like the 4 families who turned up a day early to start term!

Secondary school head rings me personally about once a term (because DS2 is in BIG trouble again )

Other than that we get a termly newsletter, which they post out now because most of them never found their way home.

Weekly newsletter. Can leave notes in reading or homework record. Every teacher has a weekly surgery for half an hour after school and can pop in for 30 seconds while kids are putting bags on pegs etc. Letter from teacher at beginning of each half term saying what they're going to be doing that half term. (Also an excellect OFSTED for everything except attendance )

Homework books, reading logs and paper letters.

They are however, doing away with paper letters now in favour of emails or textmessages, something called Parentmail which is something the school has signed up to but seems to be administered by a company. We shall see how it works.

If you want to see the teacher you go in at the end of the day and have a chat. If it isn't convenient you make an appointment. They don't like to talk first thing in the morning as it keeps the children waiting and they are there to settle them in. However, you can leave a phone message or write a note if it is something important.

We have a newsletter every Friday and an up to date website.

We have planners with a space for notes to and from school.

We also have a telephone.

Maidamess, dd1's secondary school use something called Parentmail which you can opt in/out of. Anything written, newsletters, school trip info and so on gets emailed. During intro period stuff was also sent home - very interesting to see how little made it out of the bag! I know not everyone has email but it seems to be working really well. DD2 at different school and there appears to be very little communication, even about stuff I consider important (eg, they've STOPPED streaming kids except in Maths........don't get me started)