Contact Between Parents

[NotQuiteCockney]

What does your kids' schools do to facilitate contact between parents?

I'm thinking about putting notes in everyone in DS1's class in September, saying "I'm making a list of parents with contact details, give me your details and I'll give you a copy of the list." - does anyone else's school have these sorts of lists?

Also, I'd like to have an email list or discussion board for parents. Does anyone's kids' school do this? Or is it a PTA sort of thing?

DS's school (he starts in September having been in the nursery) issues a list of all the children's names, parents' names and contact details - extremely useful.

For children in his class, I meant to add.

I'd love it if the school did that, but DS1's school is so so so badly organised, they'd probably do it all wrong.

I've gradually acquired the ones I want (ds's friends) from playdates and birthday parties.

I think it's a good idea to put a list together in that case, being sensitive to the fact that some parents might not want to be included for whatever reason. Do you have a class rep for the PTA?

okapi, I have some of them, but I'd rather have them all in one place, in a structured sort of way. There's no PTA representative in the class, I don't think.

As it's not a school thing, I figure it's pretty clearly optional. I'll certainly make that clear. I think "if you want the list, agree to be on it" is a fair rule.

just curious QC - why do you want them?

I mean NQC

Just for arranging play dates and so on.

Well, the other thing was, at one point this year, I got really really ill and couldn't get DS1 to school. I had a hard time scavenging up help for the school run - and later, people said, "oh, if you'd called me, I would have helped!"

just wondered as I didn't feel the need for ALL the kids contact details and wondered what I was missing

re the lifts to school, a parent from another class stopped me the other week and said - you live near me - I've seen your car outside your house - let's swap numbers in case of emergences - so we did.

As a class rep I drew up the contact list for the year 2 people at dd1's school and I willl do the list for year 3. I'm only supposed to do my cass but one rep left and her replacement doesn't have a computer.

We had just one parent who didn't respond to any of the requests for info and I've just realised that her daughter has been put in the same class as my DD and I've been told that they work well together which is one of the reasons they are in the same class. Help!

Why don't you ask the school?They may alreadyhave a system of class reps in place. If they don't perhaps suggetst one and volunteer yourself. In our school class reps are nothing to do with the PTA - they just do teh class lists, arrange the parent helper rota and most importantly arrange the mum's nights out!

Hmm, I probably should talk to the school about it. I just find the school admin so incredibly disorganised, it depresses me. For example, the whole school shut because of power problems (fair enough), but they only called the junior school kids to tell them, not the nursery kids. With an email list, or a call chain, this sort of issue could be sorted quickly.

I'm hoping the new head will mean better admin, but I'm not holding my breath. I think I'll sort it for DS1's next class, and not worry too much about the school as a whole, as we're only there for another year ...

It's reassuring to find out that lots of schools seem to do what I'm trying to do, so it's something some other parents see a point to.

I just figure, if I'm going to collect up a bunch of names and numbers, I might as well do it for everyone.

Our school does this for us. I was initially a bit sceptical, but in fact it works really well. Especially when party invitations need to be sent over the holidays, or when kids come home with someone else's property and you feel you should ring the other mum and let her know you have X's blazer/tights/ribbons etc. Or when your child has told you something you don't quite understand and need to discuss with another parent. And it gives you a geographical handle on who is closest to you. Obviously if anyone wanted to opt out they could, but I think the kids are the winners and parental "privacy" is a bit precious in this sense.

We do this at our school for every class ,you do need to be aware of Data Protection issues and we send out a letter asking for contact details and explaining that the list will only be used for social reasons etc.We did have aproblem a few years ago with some parents in a pryamid selling scheme using the list for marketing purposes !We have also had some parents asking us not to disclose their child's date of birth (half the poiunt at the younger end as used for Birthday party planning)_as can be used to identify their bank details when they are older!

Our school (and all other state schools around here) have always said that they are not allowed to do it themselves because of data protection (the private schools do though). I think a lot of people who find it useful. Even having a list of parents' first names next to the children's would come in handy, I am always forgetting and calling people by the child's name.

This is a private school, just a really badly run one. I've mentioned my plan to a few other parents, they seem happy at the thought.

I figure anyone who wants to opt out will probably not be very involved in swaps and lifts anyway.

I think I'll ask for:

• child name
• a couple of caregiver names (as appropriate - so we get nanny names)
• and associated phone numbers
• an email address.

Sounds perfect

We're the same as Tamum - school won't release pupils details; mums/pupils have to approach each other.

When dd started in reception, she'd only been there a few weeks and it was her birthday. She wanted to ask lots of her new friends to the party and of course I didn't know who they all were. I asked the teacher if I could have a list of names - just names, not tel numbers or addresses - but she said she wasn't allowed to give it to me.

Now I make sure I always get my copy of the class photo when it's taken. Dd tells me who's who on it so that we don't forget someone. Useful for when she's writing her Christmas cards too.