Your children’s school comes under your parenting range. You and your child’s school, both are responsible for your child’s development. Teamwork is superior to relegation. You believe that if you enrol your child in the best school, your responsibilities end here. This school will deal with everything else. Your responsibility ends there and you only need to visit the school once or twice a year.
However, that is not the case. Being parents, you will always need to meet the school authorities (more) often than you think. A balanced communication between parents and school fosters a helpful link since you can watch your child’s growth and get neutral feedback.
Tips to Cope with School Authorities
- Follow the Rules: You have to be well aware of the rules and regulations while dealing with the school organization. You should know the rules and regulations of your children’s school with the intention of dealing with the organization. These details can be obtained easily from the school list or your children’s class diary. Notices, e-mails, and school circulars will keep you updated about the changes in rules and regulations or about forthcoming events.
If you are having any problems and need to approach school authorities with this regard, then follow the given procedure. It will also help both you and the school administration in avoiding pointless discussions and saving valuable time.
- Be Respectful: Be respectful while dealing with school staff. Doesn’t matter what problem you want to discuss with the school system, be respectful to them. Convey the feeling of responsiveness while you talk with the school staff.
- Telephonic Medium: The telephone is a very good medium for being in contact with the school authorities. So, just call them when needed! It will save your energy and time. Ask your questions from the school’s receptionist or front desk and clarify your doubts. You should make to-the-point discussion. If you want an appointment, just call before reaching at the front desk because it’s always better to take appointment before you reach there.
- Keep Your Cool: Keep control over your anger while dealing with the school authorities. Keep your cool and wait if you have been requested to do. Remember that the school authorities need to manage many other responsibilities and activities at the same time and they might be unable to give you an instant reply. The situations might arise when you have different opinions than that of the viewpoints of the school. No matter whatever the reason is, handle all the things in a cool and calm way without making any disturbance.
- Be in Contact with the Teachers: Be in contact with the teachers of your child. Actively take part in the extracurricular and academic activities in your child’s school. Attend school festivals, PTMs, and sports meets. An effective way of monitoring the development of your children during school time is to develop the friendship with their teachers. It’s good to arrange a social get together with your child’s teachers. Send them good wishes during the festivals as well as on other occasions. In addition, spare some time and meet them if you get a chance other than school PTMs. Never be indecisive to value the hard work of teaching staff as well as other people. All those have a distinctive part to play in the progress of your children.
- School Authorities’ Response: School authorities reply positively to the parents that take a dedicated interest. The staff also takes notice of the educational and extracurricular success of your child. They know the hard work put by the parents through effective parenting. The school authorities should go one step ahead to support you when you contact them on any issues.
It’s very important that you become a part of your child’s schooling life. It will make easier for you to handle them in a friendly way. Parents always want to enrol their children in the schools, that give importance to different activities. Though, when the parents are requested to help their children by doing these activities, their response is always cold. Parents should avoid the approach of throwing liabilities of their child on the school authority’s shoulders. The parents should become a part of their child’s school more willingly than thinking that it’s only the school’s responsibility.
General Procedures to Deal with School Authorities
Normally general details outline the troubles you and your children can have with the school and general ways to deal with the school authorities. If you are not able to solve the problem through general procedures, then you need to consult some experienced adviser to get some advice. Let’s talk about some of the terms used:
- Parent: It means either one or both the parents, or child’s guardian, or some other person who is having parental responsibility of the child.
- Education Authority: It is an education department or a local education council.
- Parent Forum: It is a joint term used for all the parents of the children that attend the local authority schools.
- Parent Council: It is the body in which the parents’ forum of the school has decided to associate, to give their views to the school. In many cases, the parent council can replace the school board.
All the information here applies to the child of the local authority schools. Here the general procedure of dealing with the problem at the school is given in the arrangement they need to be used normally. You can also contact the organizations that give details, suggestions and help on the education problems before taking any action. You can find the addresses of those organizations, that provide information and suggestions online through the Internet.
- Step 1 - Discuss with Your Child: You may know that your child is having some problem in the school either because he or she has informed you or you are informed by the school, some other parents or your other child. If possible, you need to discuss the problem and ways to resolve it with the child before you take some other actions. Nevertheless, according to the child’s age, it can be essential to talk with his or her teacher with the aim of clarifying the problem.
- Step 2 - Discuss with Guidance Teacher or Your Child's Teacher: It is generally useful to discuss with your child's teacher about the problem before taking any further action. Your child’s teacher generally knows the problem and solves it, providing more details and he or she can be well prepared to help you. In case, your child is in the secondary school, then you need to contact the suitable guidance teacher initially if the trouble is a common one.
- Step 3 - Discuss with the Head Teacher: Even though the head teacher is having extensive powers for running the school as he or she wants, he or she has to consult the parent council, some equivalent body, or education authority as well as in reference to the agreed policies. The head teacher, predominantly in the big schools, can hand over responsibility to deal with the individual child’s problems to some other member of the staff. However, you can ask to talk with the head teacher in case you wish to do that.
- Step 4 - Discuss with the Other Parents: If you believe that the problem of your child is the one that can also affect other children, you can think about talking with the other parents as well as act together.
- Step 5 - Discuss with the Parent Council: You can also ask the parent council or any other equivalent body to talk about your child’s difficulty, but at the general level only. To discuss the problem in the council meeting, you need to contact the council and find out the finest way to do it.
- Step 6 - Send Application to the Education Authority: Dependent on what the difficulty is, you can also send an application to the education authority. You have to confirm with the education authority or school if you can send application and if it’s possible what the process to do it is. In case the right of appealing is with the education authority, then you could go to your neighbouring councillors before appealing because they can be in the appeal council or can give some support and advice.
As parents, you should constantly meet with the school authorities. A reasonable understanding between the parents and the school creates a beneficial link where you can look at your child’s development and get an unbiased opinion. In case you have any difficulties and need to contact school authorities about it, then pursue the given process. It will help both you and the school administration to avoid unnecessary discussions and save the time of both the parties.
