Positive Communication

Recently I posted about Encouraging Positive Behaviour, with a focus on how to deal with bullying. This week I'd like to discuss how we encourage another important aspect of our positive school culture: parents dealing with concerns. Issues, challenges, misunderstandings and conflict are a natural and important part of any community and how we deal with these will help our young people to become emotionally intelligent and effective communicators.


We believe that positive communication to the right person at the right time AND in the right forum will strengthen our relationship and put us in the best possible position to make learning even better for our children.


With this in mind, our guidelines for parents or adults who may have any concerns is to always: "...contact the person involved and discuss the matter. We ask that parents approach the staff member concerned directly, and as soon as possible, to prevent issues escalating or remaining unresolved". 


In the actual procedure document (p.1 of the handout) you'll notice it is worded guidelines for dealing with a complaint. This wording is somewhat negative as it may only be a niggle or a worry or concern, whereas a complaint is something that should happen after informal discussion has not resolved the issue.


In today's digital world, email is sometimes easy and quick, however we find that dealing with issues via email is never as effective as face to face dialogue. Please know we welcome your feedback and I encourage you to email if you can't come in and alert the staff member that you need to talk. That way we can make a time for you to come in or call. This information is in our Welcome Information Booklet as well as our web site.


If ever you find an issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, my door is always open and I encourage you to use our complaints procedure if you need to. My role is to facilitate quality dialogue and resolution so we can improve learning.