School Dinners - are they eating them?

Can I be sure my child is eating their school dinners?
This question is usually raised by parents of very small children. You should be reassured by the school that part of the role of the midday supervisers is to oversee your child’s lunchtime experience – and their food intake is certainly a part of this. Clearly they have a lot to do and will not be certain that your child will always be able to be as closely monitored as you would like. However, most schools are very accommodating if there is a particular concern and will pay special attention to individual children if directed to do so.

Reading books - too easy? too hard? boring?

The most common of these is the assertion by parents that their child's reading books are too easy.
I have heard this said by parents in the past but it is my belief that it is usually borne out of a lack of understanding about the development of the successful reader.
Your school will probably have a policy document that covers their philosophy about the teaching of reading.
In my own school, we are keen to promote the enjoyment of books from an early age and we talk about the 90-95% rule; that is, if your child is able to read between 90 and 95 % of the words in the book, then it is probably set at about the right level of challenge. So, conversely, if they are unable to or are struggling to read more than about 10% of the words then it is likely that the whole experience of reading that book will be counter-productive.
We are in the business of encouraging our children to develop a love for books – every reading experience needs to be a successful and a pleasurable one, not a struggle and a lesson in failure.

School assemblies - compulsory?

I don’t want my child in school assemblies. Do I have a say?
Absolutely. Schools have a statutory obligation to perform what the law calls a ‘daily act of worship’ and, in the UK this needs to be ‘mainly of a Christian nature’. Now, in practice, nobody ever actually checks up on or enforces this and in today’s multicultural and secular Britain it is true to say that the overwhelming majority of schools are probably interpreting this statute to fit their own context.
However, every parent has the right to withdraw their child from the act itself and it is the school’s responsibility to accommodate this wish as well as to provide the pupils with an activity and the appropriate level of supervision.

Expulsions, or fixed term exclusions

We often still tend to talk about children ‘getting expelled’ although for a long while now the term has changed to ‘excluded’. There has been a huge drive by local and national Government to reduce the numbers of these exclusions but, of course, they are still an option open to schools.
There is, however, a fairly clear and transparent approach to exclusions these days. A Headteacher cannot simply and out of the blue, exclude a child for a one-off misdemeanour unless it is incredibly serious.
Usually, there will be a number of steps that would come before it ever got to the stage of permanent exclusion. These would be a number of ‘fixed term exclusions’ – ranging usually from between 1 and 5 days in the first instance. Each of these would be accompanied by a letter from the school clearly setting out the rationale for this course of action, defining its length and – crucially – notifying you as a parent about your right to have the case heard by an appeals tribunal which may even overturn the school’s decision. So, if you do not feel that the process is just, you should definitely take this as an option.
It will vary from school to school, authority to authority, but it is increasingly prevalent to have several of these fixed term exclusions before a permanent exclusion is considered.