Scottish Parent Teacher Council

How can we get parents to stop parking outside the school gate?

I'm sure that this rings a bell with many schools. Its a good idea to involve the children. Does your school have JRSOs - Junior Road Safety Officers? Some schools send out these volunteers to go to the parents' cars and issue them with fake parking tickets. You could also get the children to make "No Parking" banners for outside the school.
For more ideas go to: www.saferoutestoschool.org.uk

What should I expect from a school's contact evening?

My son is an S1 pupil and we have found out that the S1 contact evening is this week. He was late in submitting his return slip which indicates that his parents wish to speak with some teachers. He was told that he should go around all his teachers and ask if they had time to see his parents on that evening. On phoning the school I was told that each teacher can see around 28 parents during contact evenings so IT IS ALWAYS THE CASE THAT SOME PARENTS ARE DENIED ACCESS TO THE TEACHERS. I'm very surprised at this; can you guide me through this policy?

As you rightly surmise a "contact" evening is the opportunity parents have to speak directly to their child's teacher(s). However, such events usually only last for between two and three hours and, if each teacher allocates just five minutes to see each parent, then on the two hour basis the teacher can see a maximum of 24 parents and on the three hour basis the teacher can see a maximum of 36 parents, always supposing that everyone sticks strictly to time. However, as some people inevitably take longer and some are delayed, then teachers tend to get behind their schedule. Moreover, talking non-stop to a series of different folk, is very tiring. Given that many teachers will see more than one class of S1 pupils, then it is inevitable that not all parent can be seen by all the teachers. The school's policy is not out of line with the policy of other schools and reflects the reality of the situation.

In general, when parents are asked to fill in the form making an appointment, there is an unspoken expectation that they will ask to see only those teachers that are most important i.e. either the teachers in areas where their child is having problems or in which the child is most anxious to succeed. That's the general arrangements; in your circumstances I can understand why you are somewhat annoyed. You cannot undo your son being late in returning the form and I think you can appreciate from the facts outlined above that some teachers will already have all the available time fully booked. However, guidance staff also go to such evenings; they have an overview of how pupils are doing and will go and ask subject teachers if there are any specific problems. I would suggest that you try to make an appointment with your son's guidance teacher plus with any of the other teachers that you want to see who still have some available time slots. If none of this works, then you should ask for an appointment with your son's guidance teacher for another time - this is usually best during/at the end of the school day.

I am looking for some information about probationary teachers and their role in school. Our school has had probationary teachers of varying abilities for some years now. I fully understand the need for probationary posts, but the only information I can find is about the rights and working conditions of fully-qualified teachers.

My first question is: do the pupils have any right re the number of probationary teachers they are taught by? My daughter has just been told that she is getting another probationer next year; that will make 2 of her 3 school years. I find this particularly unfair as our school has only one probationer at a time and I don't see why my daughter's class should always have the probationary teacher.

My next question is: do we have any rights to expect an experienced and settled teacher that we know already and have the chance to develop a rapport? Or are all the rules there to protect the staff?

The formal situation is that the use/allocation of staff is definitely a management decision and, as such, it lies with the headteacher. Also, probationer teachers are not necessarily poor teachers. There are many accounts of probationers who have a high level of enthusiasm and who work very hard to ensure that the teaching the children receive is of the very highest level. Also, depending on the ages of the other members of staff, the children sometimes relate better to a young probationer than they do to an older, more established, teacher.

Having said that, I can understand that you are unhappy for your daughter to have two probationers in a row, particularly as there is only ever one probationer in the school, at any one time. It is perfectly reasonable for you to express your disquiet to the headteacher. Primary teachers tend not to be year-group specialists and can work at any stage in the school, althoughthey may have a personal preference, so the headteacher is NOT tied as to where s/he places the probationer. It is not unreasonable to expect that s/he would decide to place the probationer with a different class from last time. Normally when a headteacher makes changes that will affect on particular class more than others, s/he is careful to monitor the change and ensure that the class is in no way disadvantaged. For example, the headteacher may compensate for disadvantage by putting a classroom assistant into the class.

You don't have "rights" as such to object to the headteacher's decision on the placement of the probationer, but you certainly have a reasonable case to object and certainly to require that the headteacher takes active steps to ensure that your daughter and others in her class do not lose out. You talk about the desire to build up a relationship with a permanent teacher. That is a reasonable wish and certainly fits in with the Executive's proposals for parental involvement. You could ask if you could be allocated a permanent member of staff - maybe a member of the management team - as a contact person whilst your daughter has the probationer.

I keep hearing teachers and others within my school talking about "Glow"; what is it?

Glow is the new-ish name for the Scottish Schools Digital Network. It is funded by the Scottish Executive and managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS). Glow is a national schools intranet which will digitally link Scotland's educators and pupils. It will hopefully give them powerful online tools to work together at any location or time.
If you like more information on Glow, go to the LTS website at: www.ltscotland.org.uk

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