What are the various other schools' policy on parent visit ?
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I guess I am ok with the procedure for visitor to register and get a visitor badge. It is kind of a common practise everywhere.
However, like I said before, this procedure does not ensure any safety of our children. The guard don’t check against the identity of the visitor against any photo ID, they don’t ask which class your child is in. Maybe he don’t it because he already familiar with the faces. But then, if they are already familiar with the faces, like the security guard at the condo, the residents don’t need to sign in…
Contact tracing…if we are in a raise alert level against a pandemic, we need even better control, we have experienced that, so the current registration process would be too brief for any useful contact tracing purpose.
It is like not here, not there. It is not sufficient to serve any real purpose, yet it is there to ‘do it for the sake of doing it’.
I can think of a better solution, which involve the school purchasing some equipement would be a bar-code reader (like the supermarket cashier) scan the NRIC, which records date and time, and the database will tell if this IC holder has any child studying in the school or not. And this process will be faster too.
I guess the question I really want to ask is - do you school resort to chasing parent out if they think you spend too long in the school ? If yes, after how long ? -
my son’s school also have the same policy about parents not allowing to remain in the premise other than a valid reason e.g going to see the teacher or visit to the office/bookshop. I did get the visitor pass from the security guard actually to buy uniform, but i also did move quite abit to inspect the school premise, so far nobody stop me.
My son has a similar schedule lk yours. Once a week he needs to be in sch early for his cca and follow by enrichment cls. Therefore he will need his lunch and of course snack during recess. At first i did comtemplate the thought of staying behind and wait for him to have lunch, but both his activities tk 2++hrs, guess im not dat patient. I also did think of going out school premise and return later to have lunch with him.
In the end, to save the hassle and my precious time. Everyday of that week, i will pack a more substantial sandwich (ham/cheese, chicken or tuna) or japanese onigiri complete with salad and fruits, all in a lunchbox. So during recess, he will buy snack from the canteen. So far has been a few weeks, it works out well. Furthermore, after his enrichment cls, all the students will be out at the canteen having lunch with teachers supervising them, so my son may feel ‘funny’ if im the only parent there. So far he told me there are no other parents waiting in the school.
Im not sure if the admin will chase any parents waiting there, near to the security guard, there a kinda of waiting area for parents. I guessed that is where i shld be if i want to wait for my son for lunch. -
Parent need to go to school for a variety of reasons, and to the parent, all are valid: fetch child; buy books, uniform from book shop; talk to teacher; sometime, the child is not feeling well (not really MC, but just mild); some special needs case…
Even if just to see the child, once a while, is still valid - parent’s love !
Even if just to look around the school’s facility - want to know if the school’s is good or not - out of concern, to me is still valid.
Would a parent really ‘loiter’ (definition: •loiter - To stand about without any aim or purpose) in school ? The use of loiter to describe parent’s presence is a bit derogatory. -
Amos2010:
You decide if it is derogatory or factual after reading this because there are indeed such parents:Parent need to go to school for a variety of reasons, and to the parent, all are valid: fetch child; buy books, uniform from book shop; talk to teacher; sometime, the child is not feeling well (not really MC, but just mild); some special needs case...
Even if just to see the child, once a while, is still valid - parent's love !
Even if just to look around the school's facility - want to know if the school's is good or not - out of concern, to me is still valid.
Would a parent really 'loiter' (definition: •loiter - To stand about without any aim or purpose) in school ? The use of loiter to describe parent's presence is a bit derogatory.
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Education/Story/A1Story20090719-155758.html -
Thanks for the good read ks2me
There are such parents and I know for sure because my DS's classmate have parents like that.. ..
I have nothing against parents' visit to school for valid reasons, but guess for some kids their parents feel that they need to be around school more often till their kiddo settles down. -
auntieM:
You are welcome..Thanks for the good read ks2me
There are such parents and I know for sure because my DS's classmate have parents like that.. ..
I have nothing against parents' visit to school for valid reasons, but guess for some kids their parents feel that they need to be around school more often till their kiddo settles down.
Yes all parents are anxious for their own personal reasons. If they really have a valid reason other than just anxiety, it would be good to discuss with the school for valid exceptions instead of ending up like the mom in the article. -
I was going to write something else this morning, but saw that interesting article posted by KS2ME.
My reaction is - there is a obvious breakdown in the communication between the school and Mary.
Let me give the benefit of the doubt to Mary. Come on, we are all parents, lets stand on the same side first.
Perhaps since the day Mary's child started P1 in that schooll, misunderstandings add up. Mary became more and more distrust of the school - answers given by teachers to her questions did not satisfy her; when her daughter could not come to school early to use up the breakfast coupon (...meaning her P1 or P2 daughter is in morning session ?), the school wants to stop printing the coupon - i.e., taking away her other rights becuase of her other difficulty (unable to wake up early ? traffic jam ? given that her family is a single parent family ?)
Maybe most of us here are in better living condition than Mary. We have a full functional family, maid may to make breakfast and take care of the child. Not in Mary's case. Let us have sympathy in this society.
Now, calling of the police on 29 Jun and 1 Jul 2009. Wait a minute ! Didn't the school have their own security guard ? Why can't they get their security guard to do this ? Again - I am questioning the fucntion and usefulness of the uniformed security guard here.
Mary is a parent - a known person. It is not that the police has to use handcuff to bring Mary away. They probably do the same thing an unarmed security guard can do too.. :?
Nevermind, maybe on 29 Jun, Mary really kick up a scene (while for my case on Tuesday, it was different. I am the one who call the General Office to get the Operations Manager involved !) According to the report as written, it was the Police who suggested to \"send a Strong Message\".
Let me tell you this: the Police are not the best people to deal with a long term communication and trust breakdown between parent and school. They are 'brute' ! Of course, they will suggest to use this method to send a strong message.
If I have been the school's principal, I can instead bring in social worker from a family service center to visit Mary's home. There are better social resources that can be use to deal with this situation.
Legally, the school is not wrong. They can call in the police to deal with a 'unauthrised' intruder. But as a parent, I fail this principal. He or she may have achieved 'send a strong message', but as an educator, as a person who is charge with the responsibility to nurture young people with love and care - FAIL !
If I read between the line, Mary's family need financial assistance. Mary's child may need counselling (why the reporter did not interview the school's counsellor ?) There are VALID reason for Mary's worry. We are not in her shoe, we cannot JUDGE her action. I can see that she is really distressed by the way the school treats her.
If I am the Minister for Education, or her MP, and if I read this news, I will get her some help. I will not just stop at this article and say - oh there are some parent who is really loitering in school.
Mary is not loitering in school. I beg to differ from the view. She intrude into classes, yes, but what is her aim ? Her aim is to find out what the teacher is teaching, get help for her daughter. Yes, her action has caused stress to the teacher, and disturbed the class. I did not say her approach is right. But she did have a specific aim to be in the school.
After reading the entire report - I did not see any security threat from Mary. Mary did not attempt to injure, or kidnap any other child. All the friction is between her and the school teacher, admin and operation staff. So, I also disagree that this is a security issue.
We tend to over-project a fear. Mary's action is no doubt unusual, to be fair to her, I cannot call this a security threat - unless it was not reported in that article, that she attempted to harass another student. That, as a parent, I will be scared too.
School is a place where they educate young hearts and minds. Education is a business that requires patiences and human interactions. Being strict with rules is something they have to think whether it is a thing in the past.
In school 30 years ago, we have so call 'naughty' pupils in the class keep disturbing others and don't pay attention to teachers. What do teachers do ? Cane them. Ask them to stand on the chair.
Today, we identified and know that there are special needs stuents - some of them are attention deficit (cannot pay attention), some of them are hyperactive (keep moving around and must disturb people).
30 years ago, I remember whenever the school needs financial help, the parents from all walks of life will donate money. The tie between parent and school is strong, extremely strong.
Today, the school is better equiped, principal, vice principal, admin manager, operations manager....created a super big complex structure. With big structure, they become more rule based. With so many more people, isn't there more hearts and minds ? Can't they get a more caring staff to really sit down with Mary and fully understand her ? Try to get her help beyond the school ?
Today, when parent wants to send their school to a branded one, then they volunteer - 40 hours. After that, when their child get a place in, no more volunteer.
I think we need to put in more heartware into this education system here.
FINALLY I would like to add this - it is Apr 2010 now. The incident happened in JUN/JUL 2009. If the MOE or the principal is reading my writing now, and you have not render any help to Mary - please do so now. She may still need help. Benita Aw Yeong, the reporter, if you are reading my writing now, please go and do a follow up story, let us find out how is Mary and her daugher doing now. Are things better ? -
What Mary did was within her span of control, especially the approach.
I suppose it would be good to find a resolution for your situation.
Lastly, for the appeal you made for Mary, if you genuinely want help to be drawn to her, the ST forum would be a better media with your full name published with it. People do not take actions on anonymous postings if you have read about that in the astroturfing article on the papers today.
Good to know you have a heart of gold. -
You mean this:
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_512858.html
Well, the admin manager and operation manager of that school, if they are reading this forum now, know who am I. It is not my intention to make the school look bad in this instance. I am using a new user ID, no mention of any details that can be traced to the school.
The admin manager also said that I can give them a proposal on how things can be done, which I am working on over this weekend.
For another view point on astroturfing, you can also read this:
http://singaporerecalcitrant.blogspot.com/2010/04/is-straits-times-above-astroturfing.html -
pokemon:
I thank KS2ME, QMS, DAISYT, POKEMON, AUNTIEM...for reading and participating.my son's school also have the same policy about parents not allowing to remain in the premise other than a valid reason e.g going to see the teacher or visit to the office/bookshop. I did get the visitor pass from the security guard actually to buy uniform, but i also did move quite abit to inspect the school premise, so far nobody stop me.
So far, it appears to me that other schools have similar policy for parent visit. Except in my case (and maybe Mary's - an extreme case), no one actually got chased away :x by the school's staff.
This is my conclusion so far.
I got another separate but related question to ask - for your respective school, does your school allow exceptions to the policy on parent visit for new P1 parents ? i.e., some school allow parent to go in during the orientation week. Does your school allow: 1 day, 3 days, 5 days/1 week, 2 weeks, or more ?
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