Backchat Newsletter - Issue 100 - January 2008

Scottish Parent Teacher Council, the independent voice for parents, is a national organisation.
It has been serving parents’ groups in schools for 60 years.

In this issue

• Membership Renewal
• Conference Report
• Respectme
• Cyber Bullying
• Hygiene Campaign
• Your Questions Answered
• Regional meetings

Best wishes for 2008 - A Year of celebrations

Not many people get to celebrate a 100th and 60th birthday in the same year, but we do!   We start 2008 with the 100th edition of Backchat and we will end the year with our 60th Anniversary Conference. We hope you will join us in our celebrations in November.   We are planning a major event so look out for further details.

Membership Renewal
Meanwhile, back to rather more boring matters:

• if you are an independent PTA
• or a Parent Council who requested that your PTA’s membership (including insurance) be transferred to you,

your insurance cover ran out on 31st December and is due for renewal.   We sent out renewal forms in November and “thank you” to all those who have already renewed.   However,

• If you have not received a renewal form, please contact the office.
• If you have paid but haven’t received a receipt, please phone/email us in case it has got lost in the post.
• If you are no longer involved, please pass this on to the relevant person.
• If you pay late, the rules of the policy mean that you still have to pay the full fee.

If you are a Parent Council in one of the following authorities - Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Argyll & Bute, Clackmananshire, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Dumfries & Galloway, East Dunbartonshire, East Lothian, Fife, Glasgow, Moray, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, Shetland and South Lanarkshire - you do not have to do anything as your authority has paid for all its Parent Councils to have SPTC membership (including insurance) until 31st July 2008.

Bullying in Schools:  Can parents help tackle it?”   Conference Report

Our annual conference in November looked at bullying and whether/how parents can be involved in school policies.   Bullying has always been a very important issue for parents, even when, in the past, it was ignored or seen as no more than a normal part of growing up; now it is likely to make its way onto Parent Council/ PTA agendas, so what can they do?

The conference took the form of a workshop run by Andrew Mellor and Kate Betney of the Anti-Bullying Network.   They advised that anti-bullying policies that were no more than a piece of paper should be torn up.   Bullying policies need to be live, responsive and built into the ethos of the school.   They also need to be realistic and accessible – not stuck in a file and forgotten by everyone.  

It is important to start by taking stock honestly of what is happening and of any bullying problem.   This should not be a blaming and shaming exercise, but an honest appraisal of what works and where there are still problems.

It is also important to understand what bullying is.   It is wrong to see every squabble or falling-out between children as an example of bullying.  Real bullying is best defined by its effect.   A person is being bullied when s/he is seriously upset/hurt by the actions of another person, s/he is powerless to stop those actions and fears they will happen again.   There is usually an imbalance of power; children, asked to draw what it felt like to be bullied, showed themselves as physically small.  

However, it is also important to recognise that not all negative interactions are bullying.   For example fights between people of approximately equal power may lead to injury, but are not bullying.

The next step in getting a workable policy is to highlight good practice either within the school or elsewhere, and discuss how this can best be used to prevent bullying – peer mediation was offered as an example.  However, it is no good simply lifting a policy from another school and expecting it to work.   Schools need to customise policies to suit their own circumstances. 

Part of the open and honest approach is to recognise that it is impossible to eradicate bullying completely.  Therefore, victims must get a sensitive response.

For their part, parents can help by providing consistent support when problems arise within the school.   They should offer constructive comments and criticism, and avoid the blame game.   Moreover, bullying often happens outside the school e.g. on the way home; in these situations it is often parents that need the help of the school to tackle the problem.

Parent Councils/PTAs can undertake “audits” of their schools against key characteristics.

• Honesty: Do staff acknowledge both the existence of bullying and that bullying problems are not easy to solve?
• Openness: Are problems discussed openly?  Is the physical environment safe or are there “no go” areas e.g. the toilets?
• Understanding: Do children get a sympathetic response when they say they are being bullied?
• Responsibility: Everyone has responsibility for reacting to bullying.   No one can just walk by looking the other way.

Cyber Bullying

Meanwhile, a recurring concern for many parents – often fuelled by scare stories in the media – is cyber bullying and child safety on the internet.  A few years back we were involved in a project with Learning and Teaching Scotland and partner groups in Iceland, Holland and Spain to develop an information pack for parents on safe use of services on the internet.   The pack was written by parents for parents and the starting point was a set of simple, common sense rules that anyone can follow.   They provide a ten step guide for safe but fun use of the internet.    The full pack can be accessed on line www.besafeonline.org   It is also available in printed form from the office. However, the basic rules are as follows:

• Keep personal information confidential.  For example, don't give out your name, age, or phone number.
• Get to know the services and websites that your child uses.
• Don't believe everything you read or see online.
• Encourage children to tell you about anything they find that is suggestive, obscene, threatening or makes them feel uncomfortable.
• Don't immediately blame the child if they receive or access something obscene - this may have been done accidentally.
• Use the internet as a family activity and if possible, keep the computer in a family room rather than in a child's bedroom.
• Try to get to know your child's online friends as you would their other friends.
• Try not to use the PC or the internet as an electronic babysitter.
• Set your own golden rules and after discussing them, stick them at the side of the computer.
• Enjoy surfing!

RESPECTME

Respectme, the Government funded anti-bullying service has also focused on cyber bullying.  

• They run a free helpline for those who are being bullied on 0800 441 111.  
• They also provide free, generic training sessions for any adult involved with children to equip them with the practical skills and confidence to deal with bullying behaviour wherever it occurs.  

For more information visit their website www.respectme.org.uk

Hand Hygiene Campaign

A completely different issue, but one that is equally topical, is the spread of infection and how it can be controlled.   Attention has largely been focused on hospitals and super-bugs.  However, good hand hygiene in children is also important as it will help prevent the spread of common communicable infections such as colds and tummy bugs which are particularly prevalent at this time of year.   Getting this message out to children will influence their hand washing practice at home as well as school. 

The Government first launched a National Hand Hygiene Campaign in January 2007 and is set to re-launch it with the aim of raising awareness of the importance of hand washing.

As part of the original campaign, a children's pack was produced, containing a range of hand washing related materials designed to help young children learn about hand hygiene.  The pack was developed with the help of Learning and Teaching Scotland.   It contains a short DVD featuring a cartoon character called Handy, some posters and stickers of Handy and a range of Handy activity materials, all of which are free to be copied for use by educational establishments.   Hard copies of the pack were distributed to local authority and partner nurseries and primary schools across Scotland.   It may be worth digging it out of the cupboard. 

For more information go to the campaign website www.washyourhandsofthem.com

Last year our PTA organised a children's craft day and a summer fair.  At both events, families bought strips of tokens (photocopied coins of differing values) to use on stalls rather than actual cash.   The idea was to improve security and minimise the risk of loss.   This year we would prefer to have actual cash; we think people might spend more if they didn’t have to go back and queue for more tokens and it would also be good for the children to handle money. 

Our Treasurer still isn't keen from the point of view of organising the float and the security side.  Do you have any advice?

I agree with you that it is better to use actual money, not tokens, and involve children who can take their responsibility very seriously; all you need to do is work out procedures for handling money, particularly large notes, and ensuring that the money does not pile up at any one stall.  One idea is a central cash point where money is held, counted and which, if necessary, can provide change to stalls.  This should be manned by two people at all times.   (You would need a relief team to allow folk to get a cup of tea, wander round the fair etc.)

If there is a stall where the turnover is likely to be fast e.g. the first half hour on home baking, you should plan to have more adults with someone dedicated to handling money.  You could also set up a group of pupil "runners" who go from stall to stall to see if anyone wants to hand in money to the central point or get change.  They would report back and an adult plus pupil could then go round collecting money or delivering change.

Counting of money should be done at the central point, by two adults to confirm accuracy.  Children could count coins into fixed amounts – single or five pounds.  Again, you should have two children counting for accuracy.  An adult would sign off at the end.   I hope you can work something out and persuade your Treasurer that having more folk involved and using real money is more important than losing the odd 50 pence.

Parents and PTA committee members have been asked to cover playtime duty on various occasions recently.  We are concerned as to where we stand on this from a health and safety point of view and what should happen if there is an accident in the playground while a parent helper is on playground duty and no teachers are present.  Should we be agreeing to do this?  We feel uneasy and would like to refuse but don’t want just to look like we are being awkward.

If the school asks you to undertake playground duties, then the school is responsible for you and for anything that happens during your period in charge.   Make sure that the teachers understand this and that the school has the necessary public liability insurance to cover you.   You should also ascertain from the school what health and safety procedures you should follow.  If you do playground duty, then you do so as the school's "agent" because you are doing it at the school's request.   You most certainly are not doing it in your role as PTA folk.   PTA activities are only PTA activities if they have been initiated by the PTA. 

STOP PRESS

HOSTS WANTED FOR REGIONAL MEETINGS

We are keen to run meetings throughout Scotland for groups of Parent Councils and PTAs so that they can discuss what they are doing, talk about any difficulties and generally compare notes.   We recently had a very successful meeting in Fyvie, Aberdeenshire.    Nearly forty people turned up from several local schools and were soon swapping experiences.    Even more recently we ran a meeting in Overtown, near Wishaw where sixty people turned up.   If you are willing to host such a meeting please get in touch.   We ask you to take out the school let and provide tea and coffee, we will do everything else, including contacting local schools, chairing the meeting etc.