Parent-school communication: How much is too much?
ITV’s parenting expert and former Deputy Head Sue Atkins discussesthe best way to engage parents, and the dos and don’ts of parent-school communication… Making the transition from primary to secondary school is both exciting and challenging for both pupils and parents. New larger buildings, as well as new school routes and new friendships must be navigated which can be quite daunting. But it’s also an ideal time for schools to create a strong home to school bond. So, what processes can schools set up to send news and updates without consuming more time for precious office staff while securing parental support for the years to come? And how do schools know when they are overdoing it when it comes to parental engagement? Too many school systems A major culprit of ‘information overload’ can be the sheer number of communication systems a school operates, which can have an adverse effect on parental engagement. A recent survey by parent communication and online payment experts, ParentMailrevealed a disconnect between what schools believe and how they are operating in practice. 62% of schools felt using two or more systems to communicate with parents was detrimental to effective engagement. And yet, a significant 45% admitted they had fallen foul of this trap and were operating more than one parental communication system. Using separate systems for emails, texts, cashless paymentsand booking parent eveningappointments means multiple login details for parents to remember, which can add to confusion and leave parents feeling disengaged. Managing all your parental communication in one place not only creates staff and cost efficiencies but dramatically improves parental response rates too. Keep on track Targeted messaging that is easy to access and relevant will help establish the important bridge between home and school. My advice is to make sure you keep them onside, by being ‘on task’. Think interrogative pronouns! Who, when, why and what. Who do you need to target? When is the best time to reach them? Why do you need to message them? And what do you want to tell them and is there any action they need to take? Year 7 parents want to know how to access homework schedules, not information about GCSEs so ensure your communication is targeted. ‘Pupil post’ may have been replaced by ‘paperless post’ thanks to technology, giving schools greater control over getting the right information to parents at the right time. But there is still a risk important messages will be missed if parents receive too much information from too many sources. Keep it simple – you don’t have to ‘shout’ to get your voice heard. Parent-friendly communication engages and informs, it doesn’t overwhelm or confuse. Simplifying your technology and your messaging will support staff and keep parents onside from the outset. For more information on how to connect your school and parents efficiently and reliably visit ParentMail.
Holistic Healing approach empowers children with emotional issues
Jacqueline Gray, the co-founder of Holistic Healing 4 Children along with Terri Allen, talks to QA Education editor Victoria Galligan about the work her team carry out with pupils and their families, as well as schools, to provide a holistic approach to empowering pupils to control their emotions. What is Holistic Healing and how does it help children? Holistic Healing 4 Children works closely with the family to bring about a positive change for pupils. As we are holistic we look at the whole child including their environment, diet, exercise, how much TV they watch, how much sleep they get etc. We have a questionnaire that we ask the parent to fill out initially and we generally have a talk to the parent before seeing their child, to get a good idea of the issue from their point of view. The pupil has a minimum of three sessions (this is usually enough to make a desired change to the situation) and the sessions are totally non invasive and very creative. We get a lot of information from the child through their drawings and guided imagery. Once we have got an idea where the problem lies and where they are out of balance, we then make recommendations to the pupil and the family. Sometimes an adjustment in the family is needed in order for them to become back into balance. They are given suggestions, recommendations, tools and strategies as to how they can make positive changes and we send a write up report with these suggestions after the initial consultation. We believe that working closely with everyone really benefits the client. This can even involve going to the school and doing observations and making recommendations for the teacher where necessary. What different types of services do you offer? We work individually with clients and we offer emotional wellbeing workshops in schools and training for teachers and parents on how to use our resources to get the very best out of them. How does the crystal healing bed work? The Crystal bed is something that we offer our individual clients, including members of their family. It helps to balance and harmonise the body as well as the emotions. Can you give some examples of how holistic healing has helped mainstream schools? We go into schools and deliver emotional wellbeing workshops using our books My Magical Garden and My Magical Tree. The workshops help the children with emotional expression and regulation through the use of their imagination.. We also offer teacher training to give the teachers the tools to access the child’s imagination and through this approach, which when used regularly, it can help a child/teenager to transfer a physical safe place to a mental safe place, giving them a new skill to cope with difficult situations. We have had great feedback from our workshops and they are always very well received. The children connect to the approach very quickly and when encouraged they use it to help them through negative moments. The books also offer advice in the back which teachers have found very informative and a way of encouraging their pupils to communicate their feelings. If you see our YouTube channel, you will see interviews that we have had with teachers who give their feedback after attending the workshop. It’s all about giving the children and teachers a strategy to use when there are emotionally challenging moments. What advice can you give to headteachers of mainstream schools re holistic healing? We totally recommend trying our workshops and learning about our approach. It is simple, enjoyable and yet very effective and in particular for children who present with challenging behaviours. When the strategy is fully embraced by the whole school it becomes a powerful tool to help develop emotional wellbeing in schools; a great resource for PSHE and an opportunity for cross-curricular activities in creative writing and art. It can have a significant impact, especially for the children who are more emotionally challenged, allowing them to flourish. Can children with severe SENDs benefit from holistic healing? Absolutely. Everything we do can be adapted to whoever we are working with. Holistic Healing 4 Children offers a non-threatening way to communicate and it offers a strategy for children who struggle with their emotions. Does holistic healing help families as well as schools? Yes we work with both schools and families. With schools we generally go in for a full day of workshops and at the moment we offer these for free (we do need to ask for travel expenses where necessary). We train the teachers and offer a workshop for the parents too so that everyone is onboard with the approach. We run workshops for parents and we offer individual sessions. The idea is to empower the child. We give tools and strategies so that they can learn to regulate their emotions without becoming reliant on us. We recommend a minimum of three sessions and usually that is enough but if more sessions are needed then we go with what feels best for each client. For more information, see the Holistic Healing 4 Children website.