Speaking out on School Communication

I’ve worked in the schools sector for over 20 years, and in that time, I’ve seen a huge amount of change, though there is always a lag with the rest of society. Schools are terrible at communication, and with the tools now available to us, this is proving less and less acceptable. I think it’s time we created something better.

Before I go any further, I don’t think we need to adopt off the shelf solutions! I’ve been working in communication with schools for many years, in publishing, assessment, training, and policy; and schools are a clear and distinct community. Often schools are forced to take on models or products designed for business, such as the introduction of interactive whiteboards. Rarely do schools take the initiative to get ahead and create something that works better for children, teachers and their school communities. Nowhere is this gap more evident than in terms of school communication. But that also makes it a huge opportunity.

Most schools (especially primaries) are at least 10 years behind a similar sized business/organisation. Over the next few posts, I intend to explore some of the issues around this, and suggest some ways things could be improved. I want to start by pointing a finger at the inertia in how we view schools.

We all love our schools, right? Like the NHS, our local school becomes a place where we invest a huge amount of faith, trust and hope. As the work of schools is a mystery to most people, we assume that things are as good as they can be, unless they are faced with evidence to the contrary (inspections, ‘data’ or reputation). Teachers are stressed, overworked and .. well, I need not finish that list. No one wants to add pressure onto our increasingly politicised schools.

Which might explain why we put up with such crappy communication.

Does any of this look familiar?

• A clutch of scraps of paper coming home in school bags
• Letters home about trips with essential information missing or wrong
• Teachers not available or contactable except during working hours
• Notification of events at school at very short notice
• Announcements made about changes to school life, without consultation
• Staff meetings where there is no agenda, no minutes, and no follow up
• Parents not sure who to talk to about issues or how to raise different topics
• Slow or no responses via email from the school (messages not getting through)
• School calendars rarely reflecting actual life of school
• Staff struggling to manage all the information and data required of them

It would be bad if I was pointing the finger at teachers. But I think this is a problem for all of us. This might seem obvious, but most complaints, disciplinaries, failings, and causes of bad feeling are down to poor communication. So, Governors, Parents, Suppliers, Partners, (etc), all have a role in taking this forward. We should ask what we can do to make it better (more on this in later posts).

Yet schools rarely tackle this area as a specific issue for improvement, despite the fact that it would have a huge impact on the quality of teaching and learning, staff wellbeing and economic viability.

Over the next few posts, I am going to look at:

• why it matters (enough to prioritised alongside T&L initiatives)
• who schools communicate with and how
• where communication could be improved

So, what is your experience of school communication? Is it great where you are – and if so, what are you guys doing right? What sort of problems are you seeing? What support is out there?