Policy on Working Together in Scoil Mocheallóg
Parent-Staff communication
This policy was developed by the staff of Scoil Mocheallóg the Board of Management and the Parents association in the school year of 2017-2018.
Its purpose is to provide information and guidelines to parents and staff on parent/staff meetings and parent/staff communication in Scoil Mocheallóg. 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 of the stakeholders in Scoil Mocheallóg 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.
Staff are encouraged to:
- Participate in any meetings with parents in a positive and respectful manner and affirm the role of the parent as the ‘primary and natural educator’ of their children (as per Article 42.1 of the Irish Constitution)
- Collaborate with the parents in an open two-way communication so that both parties are working together to develop the full potential of the student.
- Be aware of the activities of the Parents’ Association and link in with them where possible to support their fundraising activities.
Structures in place to facilitate open communication & consultation with parents.
- Meeting for new parents, before a child begins their time at Scoil Mocheallóg
- Details of classroom staff communicated to parents at beginning of school year and any regular updates re temporary teachers. Advance notification to be given where possible if a regular member of staff is leaving so that parents can prepare the student for the imminent change.
- One to one meetings between parents and teachers. Earlier in year for senior classes later for infant classes.
- School report for each pupil at the end of each school year.
- Communication and consultation throughout the year (homework journal, reports from Special Education Teacher)
- Through on-going communication between the Principal and the Parents’ Association, parents are invited to discuss and contribute to the drafting and review of relevant school policies.
- Any policies reviewed will be made known to all parents in written format, on school website and text.
- Newsletters and texts to keep parents up-to-date with school events,
- holidays and school concerns.
- Homework and communication diary are used to relay messages. Parents are requested to sign diary each day to certify that homework has been completed and weekly texts have been checked.
- Parents invited to events throughout the year e.g. Christmas play, graduation mass, Seachtain na Gaeilge performances.
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/staff meetings
The aim of Parent/Staff meetings is:
- To improve communication between the school and parents.
- To let parents know how their children are progressing in schoo
- To inform staff on how children are coping outside and inside school
- To establish an ongoing relationship and communication with parents
- To help staff/parents get to know the children better as individuals
- To help children realise that home and school are working together
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 staff 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 knowledge of their students’ progress through providing further information about the students’ learning at home.
Report card templates
Schools should help parents to understand fully 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 and 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
All primary schools must use one of the report card templates (available at www.ncca.ie) for reporting to parents on students’ progress and achievement at school with effect from the date of this circular.
Formal Meetings-IEPs
Formal timetabled parent/staff meetings on the subject of the Individual Education Plan take place usually in term one (senior classes) and term 2 for (junior classes). However, 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.
All communication 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 staff(s) individually for parent/staff meetings.
Informal Parent/Staff Meetings
1. Scoil Mocheallóg encourages communication between parents and staff.
2. Meetings with the class staff in the reception lobby to discuss a child’s concern/progress are discouraged on a number of grounds.
a) A staff member cannot adequately supervise their student/class while
at the same time speaking to a parent
b) It is difficult to be discreet when there are potentially other parents and children standing close by.
c) It could cause distraction 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 member of staff 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. A parent wishing to speak to a member of staff urgently should in the first instance indicate their request to the school secretary. The school secretary will pass on the request to the Principal if the staff member being sought is a teacher or SNA. In the absence of the Principal, the secretary can use discretionary judgement to communicate the request to the deputy or directly to the member of staff themselves.
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 requested to sign pupils out for appointments etc and on
return as per our visitor’s policy.
Parents are strongly discouraged from taking pupils out of school during term
time in order to facilitate family holidays.
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. Note: This is a procedure reached through national agreement between the INTO and the CPSMA and was written to deal with complaints about teachers. Because of the special nature of our school and the large numbers of ‘non-teaching’ staff, the word ‘teacher’ has been replaced with ‘staff member’ throughout.
Stage 1-informal stage
1. A parent/guardian who wishes to make a complaint should, firstly approach the staff member with a view to resolving the complaint
2. Where the parent/guardian is unable to resolve the complaint with the staff member he/she should approach the Principal with a view to resolving it (or the class teacher if the complaint is against an SNA. In this instance the class teacher will work with the parent/guardian and SNA to try to reach an amicable resolution).
3. If the complaint is still unresolved, the parent/guardian should raise the matter with the Chairperson of the Board of Management with a view to resolving it.
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 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:
2. Supply the staff member with a copy of the written complaint and
3. 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:
a. The staff member should be supplied with copies of any written evidence in support of the complaint
b. 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
c. The Board may arrange a meeting with the complainant, who may be accompanied by another person to this meeting.
Stage 5
1. Following the Board’s 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 is something we work on with the students in the school but this also extends 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 and is a major part of our education model, 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, they may be asked to remove themselves from the building. In certain cases, the Gardaí may 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.
- Staff are generally available to listen to a quick issue in the morning and after school. However, 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 9:20 am and finish at 3:00pm and this time should not be interrupted if possible.
Ratified by the Board of Management May 2018 .
To be reviewed in 2020
Chairperson: Canon William Fitzmaurice
Date: May 2018