Tomorrow night we have our last Parent Council meeting of the school session.  Reporting,  including our SPCE (Parents’ Evenings) arrangements, are on the agenda.

Positives –
I think the school offer a fantastic range and breadth of subjects at a variety of levels which offer many different pathway options for pupils. In comparison to other schools, Lasswade is ahead of the game with this and the pupils are very fortunate to benefit from this choice. The course choice system is really well communicated and there is lots of information available to support this. I feel the Guidance system is another positive aspect, my feeling is that the Guidance teachers know my children really well and have continued to go over and above to support them at Lasswade. They are very good at communicating home and I never feel that anything is an inconvenience to them. Both my kids feel safe and secure at Lasswade and this is credit to the hard work of their classroom teachers.

Even better if
I continue to be disappointed with the parental feedback that I have received from Lasswade in both the reporting and the online parental consultations. This has caused a real disconnect between the school and the community which is often aired on Social Media creating a negative story. I do not know any other school locally who has not returned to in person parental consultations. My child is going in to S6 and I have never met any of their teachers in person to discuss their progress. Online discussions are tricky and not as natural as face to face, not to mention the technical issues. I also know that this system can be set up for 5 minute sessions which run in to each other which would at least provide a bit more time as time is always lost at the beginning of each slot as the call connects. I know this will be a separate reporting consultation, again I feel the feedback from the reports is not useful in giving an understanding of my child’s progress. Copied and pasted comments from a bank which my child has selected them from or they have written themselves does not give me any understanding of their progress. Similarly, with the Senior Reports the pupils chose their target grades and there was no indication of the grade that the teacher thinks that they are actually working at.

In terms of improvement and our Reporting systems, it remains an issue we have not ‘cracked’.

In practice, our written reports this session were not what we hoped they’d be when we planned them.  We’re working with staff,  and will consult with parents/carers through our Parent Council tomorrow and through my HT Update this Friday.  This will include gathering views on our on-line evenings.