Why don't most parents get involved in their children's schools?

[zebraX]

Recent travel survey for my son's school -- 30% reply rate by parents.

"Help us identify your child's talents?" survey at same school, 25% response rate (so far).

Latest preschool committee meeting -- 4 commmittee members, plus committee officers turned up (80 children attend the preschool). Which is pretty good compared to

8 people at Friends of the School meeting last night (~300 children at the school), planning FunFair events. They have at least 20 events on, all of them designed to require low staffing levels, due to lack of parental support.

WHY DON'T MORE PARENTS GET INVOLVED, at least reply to surveys designed to help their school and their child's education, help out with fund-raising events???? I just don't understand. I know some people have legit excuses, but do 75-99% of the parents have good reasons for not helping out???

I know this thread is not directly about school funding, but as it has been mentioned by one or two I thought I would post anyway.

Agree with WWW, why don't all those that think schools aren't funded well enough, write to their local MP, the Education Minister and the Government.

Do any of you live in the following LEA's? If you do, then you are in one of the worst funded LEA's in the country.

Cambridgeshire,
Cheshire,
Cumbria,
Derbyshire,
Devon,
Dorset,
Gloucestershire,
Leicestershire,
North Yorkshire,
Northumberland,
Nottinghamshire,
Shropshire,
Somerset,
Staffordshire,
Suffolk,
Warwickshire,
Wiltshire,
Worcestershire,
Bury,
Dudley,
North Tyneside,
Solihull,
Stockport,
Trafford,
Tameside,
Wakefield,
Wigan,
Bath & North East Somerset,
East Riding of Yorkshire,
North Somerset,
Poole,
Rutland,
Swindon,
Warrington,
West Berkshire,
Wokingham,
York.

If we put enough pressure on the Government, then 'maybe' we can get things changed, but only if enough of us get involved. If/when things change schools won't need to rely on fundraising events for the essentials.

If you don't want to be a PTA volunteer, then surely it wouldn't take up too much time just to send 3 identical letters. I'm sure your LEA would quite happily quote some figures to go in your letters.

Bugger, that doesn't leave many LEAs, does it ?

Guess what NDP! Our LEA is one of the worst funded, we're 145th out of 150. When it's narrowed down to shire counties, we're 32nd out of 34!!

crikey . Best get me pen out then, eh ?

I have revived this thread to say...

I went (to vote) in the school DD1 is going to attend in September, today. And there was an article (photocopied and laminated) pinned up on the wall (about epilepsy). Which I wrote in December 2001.

So I reckon that by the time DD1 starts there I shall have had backdated involvement in the school (not to speak of my work pinned up before hers ) for four years.

Does that get me off cake-baking and Embarrassing Jollity, please miss?

That was very forward thinking of you motherinferior to get your reputation to precede you at your dd's new school - I hope the article had your name attached to it

The only problem I can foresee is that you could be called upon to become secretary of the PTA as you're such a good writer

It had my name in HUGE LETTERS, which is how I noticed it in the first place. Dd1 has my surname as well as DP's so I can embarrass her already in front of her friends from the off.

have to confess I'm hopless with survey's - I always take them home with good intentions - and then forget about them (or fill them in and by the time I remember to take them back it's too late ).

However, I DO try to get involved when I can with DS1's nursery - I make and effort to take 'spare' things in they may need (either clothes or 'building' materials) and went in to help put up Christmas decorations with a few other parents (with toddler in tow LOL).

DS1 starts school in September and I've already been 'helping' his new school out even though he's not there yet - they've had me playing the piano for them as they have no-one that can play!! I 'hope' to help out a lot with his new school - but then I'd feel REALLY guilty if I didn't - as it's right next door!!!

MI: yes.

But you might have to write the school prospectus, and the PTA newsletter, and the regular newsletter from the head.

And could you just get the press to come along to school events? Or perhaps cover them yourself? And could you please try and get national press coverage of the Summer Fair - any chance of the front page?

If I wrote the head's newsletter it would at least have semi-colons where they are required, not endless commas.

Havent read the whole of the thread but for me personally I no longer help as when I responded to helping in the past, along with another 25 or so parents(320 in the school) the organisation of the helpers was 0, the staff didnt seem to know what they were doing, there was no plan of action for getting anything done and if you did, after 15 mins of standing round doing nothing start to do something...ie move the food to the area where it needed to be moved to you were asked not to just in case it wasnt done right....and then after another 10 mins of doing nothing we had to put 320 plates out set them up with food on them and take them up to the park on trys instead of the logical idea of taking the sarnies/sausages etc up as they were and sorting it out when we were up there....the kids were told to swop if they didnt like the stuff they had on thier plates. Hygeine(sp?) was 0...rant over...ok!

trays

Have just popped back to this thread and it's so sad to see that some people just are so anti helping in school. It's such a shame when the payback can be huge for what is really such a small effort in the grand scheme of things.
Half-an-hour manning a cake sale stand for our class last term meant that our teachers could buy a wooden pirate ship to support several weeks' teaching, and the kids raved about it.
And my daughter keeps talking about plants and seeds etc etc because two other parents spent just one hour with them in a mini-garden outside their classroom; something they wouldn't have got otherwise. And how about just sitting listening to children read to you once a month - it all helps with their education.
Just think about what you enjoy (reading, gardening, painting) and see if there's a way you can share that with the school.
Also, isn't it sometimes true that it's actually shyness and a fear of "failure" (in this case, failing to fit in straightaway) that stops us getting involved? Getting to know new people is hard, whether chatting at a party or helping in school: I hated that part of becoming a parent at a new school, where many people had older children and already seemed to know everyone else. But I forced myself to make conversation and have now made some good friends, including people who I would never have thought I'd have anything in common with.