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Parent/Staff Communication Policy

Parent/Staff Communication

Introduction

This policy was reviewed by the staff of Baltydaniel NS, the Board of Management and the Parents Association in the school year 2014.

Its purpose is to provide information and guidelines to parents and staff on parent/staff meetings and parent/staff communication in Baltydaniel NS. The family and home are central to the social and intellectual development of the child and the nurturing of good, moral values. The school and the family strive to be mutually supportive and respectful of each other so that the child’s education can be effective. All the stakeholders aim to work for the benefit of the child and their learning.

Parents are encouraged to:

  • Develop close links with the school

  • Participate in meetings in a positive and respectful manner, affirming the professional role of the staff and all staff members in the school

  • Collaborate with the school in developing the full potential of their children

  • Share the responsibility of seeing that the school remains true to its ethos, values and distinctive character

  • Become actively involved in the school/parent association

  • Participate in policy and decision-making processes affecting them.


Structures in place to facilitate open communication and consultation with Parents

  • Meeting for parents of new Junior Infants – mid June

  • Parent/teacher meetings one-to-one in November

  • Parents receive school report of each pupil at the end of each school year

  • Meetings with parents whose children have special needs once a term

  • Meetings can be facilitated at any time during the year between parents and teachers if the need arises. 

  • Written communication through a letter, email or the child’s homework journal

  • Through the parents’ association, parents are invited to discuss and contribute to the drafting and review of school policies that are relevant to them. Decisions taken to change current policies and procedures or to introduce new ones will be made known to all parents in written format via the school newsletter, email or text

  • Regular newsletters and emails keep parents up-to-date with school events, holidays and school concerns

  • Homework journal 1st – 6th class, used to relay messages which are signed between parents and teachers. Parents requested to sign journal each night to certify that homework has been completed

  • Parents are invited to events throughout the year e.g. fundraising events, school masses and school concerts 

  • Involvement of parents in the ‘Grow in Love’ religious program section for parents


If a parent wishes to consult with a teacher, he/she can contact the school secretary to arrange a suitable time.


  It is vital that the school is immediately informed if family events/situations occur that cause anxiety to your child and therefore may adversely affect his/her education. In all matters pertaining to the wellbeing and education of pupils, only the parents/legal guardians named on the enrolment form will be consulted by staff.

 
Parent/Teacher meetings

Formal Parent/Teacher meetings will be held once a year for all classes (Circular 14/04). Where possible, they will be held in the first term. Details regarding time, etc. will be worked out by the class teacher, in consultation with parents. The school will attempt to co-ordinate times where siblings are concerned. Time slots will be electronically sent to parents to select their time.  Meetings may take place in classrooms and learning support rooms. The teachers use prepared guidelines for the meetings and collaborate in advance about the progress of individual children. Any issue which is brought up at the meeting which the teacher feels needs documenting will be recorded under the contact log for that child. The contact log is saved on Aladdin. 


The purpose of the Parent/Teacher meeting is:


  • To establish and maintain good communication between the school and parents

  • To let parents know how their children are progressing in school

  • To help teachers/parents get to know the children better as individuals

  • To help children realise that home and school are working together. 

  • To meet demands for accountability

  • To share with the parent the problems and difficulties the child may have in school

  • To review with the parent the child’s experience of schooling

  • To learn more about the child from the parent’s perspective

  • To learn more about parental opinions on what the school is doing

  • To identify areas of tension and disagreement

  • To identify ways in which parents can help their children

  • To negotiate jointly decisions about the child’s education

  • To inform the parents of class test results


Circular 56/2011 Initial Steps in the implementation of the national literacy and numeracy Strategy has been adopted by the Board of Management. References to parent/school communication are:


Reporting to parents

Parents have the primary responsibility for their children’s learning and development. Schools can strengthen the capacity of parents to support their children in this way by sharing meaningful information with parents about the progress that children are achieving in the education system. This information needs to draw on the different sources of evidence that staffs use, such as conversations with the learner, data-collection and documented progress on objectives and milestones reached in their short and long-term planning, examination of students’ own self-assessment data, documented observations of the learner’s engagement with tasks, outcomes of other assessment tasks and tests, and examples of students’ work. In turn, parents will often be able to enrich staff's knowledge of their students’ progress through providing further information about the students’ learning at home.


Report card templates

Schools should help parents to fully understand the evidence of learning that the school reports to them, especially information from any standardised tests. The NCCA has provided a range of standard report templates to assist schools in reporting information about the progress of primary pupils to parents, including information from standardised tests. The NCCA report card templates were developed through a process of consultation with schools and parents can take account of research commissioned by the NCCA.


The report cards provide for reporting in four key areas:


• The child’s learning and achievement across the curriculum

• The child’s learning dispositions

• The child’s social and personal development

• Ways in which parents can support their child’s learning


Formal Meetings

  • All communication for meetings sent from the school will be sent to the child’s home address as given on the enrolment form, unless otherwise requested by parents. 

  • In the case of separated parents, requests can be made by both parents to meet their child’s teacher(s) individually for parent/teacher meetings. 


Formal Meetings-School Support Plus (IEPs)

Formal timetabled parent/staff meetings on the subject of the School Support Plus Plan will take place once a term with the support teacher, class teacher and the SNAs will attend if required. If a parent wishes to arrange a meeting at any stage during the year to discuss their child, they may do so by prior appointment.


Informal Parent/Staff Meetings

  1. The school encourages communication between parents and staff.

  2. Meetings with the class teacher at the class door/school gate to discuss a concern or child’s progress, are not allowed on a number of grounds:

  • Staff cannot adequately supervise his/her class while at the same time speaking to a parent

  • It is difficult to be discreet when so many children are standing close by

  • It can be embarrassing for a child when his/her parent is talking to staff at a classroom door.

Occasions occur where a parent needs to speak to a staff member urgently. Sometimes these meetings need to take place without prior notice. The principal will aim to facilitate such meetings making every effort to ensure that the children in the class do not lose out on any of the teaching/learning time.

 
If parents wish to drop in lunch boxes, sports gear etc, this can be done through the secretary’s office as it is important to keep class interruptions to a minimum.

Parents are strongly discouraged from taking pupils out of school during term time in order to facilitate family holidays. If they do withdraw their child they should give prior notice to the class teacher in writing.
 


Complaints Procedure

Complaints are infrequent but the school would wish that these would be dealt with informally, fairly and quickly. The following is the agreed complaints procedure to be followed in primary schools. 



Stage 1-informal stage

  1. A parent/guardian who wishes to make a complaint about their child or a class issue they should, firstly approach the class staff with a view to resolving the complaint. 

  2. Where the parent/guardian is unable to resolve the complaint after discussing it with the class teacher the Principal should be informed and work with all parties in an effort to resolving the situation.

  3. If a parent objects to contacting the class teacher the principal will inform the parent that all information shared will be discussed with the teacher and the situation will need to be resolved between all parties collaboratively.

  4. If the parent is still not satisfied with the decision that has been made by the principal, he/she can proceed to the next stage, stage 2.

  5. If the complaint is not classroom related the parent should bring the problem to the attention of the principal. Again if he/she is not satisfied with the principal’s decision on the matter they can proceed to the next stage.


Stage 2-formal stage

  1. If the complaint is still unresolved and the parent/guardian wishes to pursue the matter further, he/she should lodge the complaint in writing with the Chairperson of the Board of Management.

  2. The Chairperson will bring the precise nature of the written complaint to the notice of the staff member in question and seek to resolve the matter between the parties within 5 days of receipt of the written complaint.  


Stage 3

  1. If the complaint is not resolved informally, the Chairperson should, subject to the authorisation of the Board:


  • Supply the staff member with a copy of the written complaint  

  • Arrange a meeting with the staff member, and where applicable, the Principal with a view to resolving the complaint. Such a meeting should take place within 10 days of receipt of the written complaint.

Stage 4

  1. If the complaint is still not resolved, the Chairperson should make a formal report to the board within 10 days of the meeting.

  2. If the Board considers that the complaint is not substantiated, the staff member and the complainant should be so informed within 3 days of the Board meeting.

  3. If the Board considers that the complaint is substantiated or that it warrants further investigation, the following steps should be followed:

  1. The staff should be supplied with copies of any written evidence in support of the complaint.

  2. He/she should be requested to supply a written response to the complaint to the Board and should be afforded an opportunity to make a presentation to the Board and to be accompanied by another person to that meeting.

  3. The Board may arrange a meeting with the complainant, who may be accompanied by another person to this meeting such as a colleague or union member.


Stage 5

Following the Boards investigations, the Chairperson shall convey the decision of the Board in writing to the staff member and the complainant within 5 days of the meeting of the Board. The decision of the Board shall be final.     

         

Behaviour of all Stakeholders in the School

Positive and respectful communication is of high importance to our school. This not only extends to the children but to all of the stakeholders e.g. the staff, parents and the wider community.  Anyone entering our building should feel safe to do so. While the behaviour of children in our school is of vital importance, adults in the school community also have a responsibility to ensure their own behaviour models the types of behaviour expected of children.  


It is important that all stakeholders are responsible for their own behaviours in the school.  Examples include:


  • All stakeholders are expected to speak to each other with respect.  Shouting or other aggressive tones are not acceptable.  If a stakeholder displays anger or aggression to another member of the school community, they may be asked to remove themselves from the building.  In certain cases, the Gardaí must be called

  • All stakeholders will treat our children with the utmost respect while on the premises

  • Staff should not be asked to speak about another parent’s child. The staff of the school will respect your child’s right to privacy so it is asked that parents respect other children’s rights to privacy.

  • When stakeholders meet, it is important to respect that the time of meetings should be kept to a reasonable amount of time. Times of meetings should be agreed beforehand and these should be respected.

  • Should a parent need to have a discussion or meeting, an appointment should be made at a convenient time for both parties. This ensures that issues can be resolved. Classes begin at 9:05am and finish at 1.45pm for infant classes and 2.45pm for classes’ 1st-6th and this time should not be interrupted.


Safety, Health and Welfare at Work

The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act became operative on 1 November 1989.  It is an important piece of legislation for BoMs and for those who work in schools, as schools and colleges were brought under the scope of safety legislation for the first time.


It is recognised that school staff may be at risk from violence in the form of verbal abuse, threats, assaults or other forms of intimidation.  This behaviour may come from pupils, parents, guardians, other staff members or intruders.


In this respect, all staff should be aware of DES Circular 40/97 which deals with the procedures to follow if they feel they have been subjected to any of the above behaviours.  A copy of this circular can be found on the Department of education website.


Implementation and Communication

This policy was originally ratified in June 2014 and was implemented in September 2014. It was reviewed in June 2022 and is due to be reviewed again in June 2024 or sooner if circumstances demand it.  It is available to view on our school website for all parents or other interested parties.