School Problem

meritaten

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

BTW, just to add, he does have PR.

Also his son is only 6 so he can't rely on him to tell him what's going on at school. I know he shouldn't rely on him but maybe if he was a bit older it might be easier in terms of knowing what was going on.

naw - ALL kids think parents know by Osmosis all that happens at school - and it doesn't get any better as they get older! Nick is going to have to get the school to 'include' him automatically. I suggest he approaches the head teacher first - then the school governers. he cant be the only parent who has this problem!

JoW123

I think this must vary from school to school. I have a son in secondary school and a daughter at primary. Since my son has been at secondary school all reports/information texts and website links are sent to his dad aswell as myself automatically. We were told this happened as standard practice when parents lived at separate addresses. My daughters school send two copies of her report home with her, one for each of us!! There is no animosity between us although their dad has always chosen not to attend any parents evenings in the five years since he left. I give the report to him myself when he next sees the children.


Your son has every right to the information if he has parental responsibility and I think approaching the headteacher is a good starting point.

Ms_Chocaholic

meritaten wrote: »

naw - ALL kids think parents know by Osmosis all that happens at school - and it doesn't get any better as they get older! Nick is going to have to get the school to 'include' him automatically. I suggest he approaches the head teacher first - then the school governers. he cant be the only parent who has this problem!

The only email address Nick has at the school is the Headteacher :eek: It's the Head he's been contacting all this time with no change.

Mojisola

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

The only email address Nick has at the school is the Headteacher :eek: It's the Head he's been contacting all this time with no change.

In that case he needs to move on to the Governors.

Every school should have procedures for keeping separated parents informed about their child and school events.

Jagraf

GedlingRed wrote: »

I work in a school office and if he has parental responsibility then he has every right to request updates & info.

In our office I've created a 'dad's list' where I keep all the address details for dad's who live separate to their children and have asked to be kept updated, I post out newsletters, parents evening info, school photo proofs, ticket info for performances and anything else I can think of. To be honest I decided to do it off my own back and it's creating myself extra work but I'm happy to do it as I know it's appreciated.

I suspect that whoever is in the school office or even the Head just thinks it's too much extra work to remember to do it, what I would recommend to your friend is to send into school a quantity of SAE's and a letter requesting that copies of all relevant information are sent to you and perhaps copy in the chair of Governors.

Do you have a policy at your school or is all onus paced on you for ensuring you are sending stuff to the right people? Ie, how do you find out who is entitled to the information / photo proofs etc? I'm presuming you know they have parental responsibility, so who finds this out?

Ms_Chocaholic

Mojisola wrote: »

In that case he needs to move on to the Governors.

Every school should have procedures for keeping separated parents informed about their child and school events.

To make matters worse, all their procedures online including complaints procedures do not seem to open from their webpage. I tried on a couple of separate occasions, days apart, in case it was just a problem with their website.

Jagraf

meritaten wrote: »

well done Gedling! but, its shameful that you had to do that on your own initiative. considering how many divorced parents there are these days, it should be standard if the noncustodial parents wants to be copied the info.
but again - Well done you!

I agree its shameful, but someone taking it on without a proper system in place could be a disaster, unless of course there s a system to check.

meritaten

A letter to the school governers is in order here now I think. and maybe a copy to LEA? the school are 'denying him his parental rights may be the approach? talk of 'solicitors and courts' may put a rocket up the school? not saying he should actually SEE a solicitor .................but if no progress then its a possibility.

Mojisola

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

He's asked the school on many occasions if he can receive the information but only receives it when he asks.

The school have said "we are working on it" and that's as far as he's got.

Ms_Chocaholic wrote: »

The only email address Nick has at the school is the Headteacher :eek: It's the Head he's been contacting all this time with no change.

I hope, for Nick's son's sake, that this school is better at teaching children than it is at administration!

Ms_Chocaholic

If he were to write to the School Governors, is it the Chair he writes to and how does he contact her, is this via the school.

Happy to provide details of school website by PM if it helps you.