What are the various other schools' policy on parent visit ?

[sunflower]

Amos2010:

Thank you Sunflower, I enjoy your two messages.

You're welcome. Was just sharing my experience and thoughts. Hope the issue will be resolved soon.

[BlueBells]

Oh well, I was in school on a Sat to meet up with the SFE coordinator, and I was asked to leave the canteen by an Alumni staff when I tried to purchase a drink from the school canteen.

[Amos2010]

BlueBells:

Oh well, I was in school on a Sat to meet up with the SFE coordinator, and I was asked to leave the canteen by an Alumni staff when I tried to purchase a drink from the school canteen.

Sounds unreasonable to me.

(a) It was a Saturday;

(b) Alumni staff - what ? meaning \"old\" teacher/staff ? staff in charge of alumni activities ?

[Amos2010]

Now, I am no longer asking for parent’s input on their various school’s policy on parents visit.


I am now focusing on this critical issue:

"Are parents real security threats to school ?"

As seen in peceeding messages, many schools discourage or disallowed parents to enter or stay in school, citing secuirty as the reason. I do not accept this reason. I can accept, on the contrary, parents presence in school may:-

(i) cause distractions from pupils, if they are having some learning activities;

(ii) take up spaces (canteen seats) otherwise meant for pupils;

(iii) and other possible reasons along this line;

but parents, having their own children studying in the school, can not be security threats to school. In my earlier response to the news about Mary, I do not consider her a security threat in the school.

Security threat means - the person will cause bodily harm, property damage (willful) to pupils or staffs. In other countries, security threats includes: gang, drugs, violence (murder/stabbing/fighting), terrorism, bomb, kidnapping or hostage situation.

The purpose of this new round of discussion is - hopefully to make the commonly accepted perspective right. The school must cite the correct reason for limiting parents visit to school.

The security guard giving our visitor tags must have the ability to distinguish the visitors: parents, workers and contractors (carrying out work in the school), vendors and suppliers (to book shop or canteen stalls), others.

If it is necessary, the school should issue some form of identification to parents. I am not talking about another photo ID card that the parent needs to carry.

It can be as simple as a photocopy of the parent’s IC on a A4 white paper, clearly writing the child’s name and class/year, plus an original ceritifcation-stamp from the general office.

The paper could have the following wordings "This is to certify that the person whose photocopied identity card appeared below is the parent of (name of child) of (class) of our school."

When parent visiting the school, they can produce this photocopied paper to the school’s security guard. This does not take a lot of administrative work to prepare. Anytime, if the parent’s ID paper is destroyed, he/she can make another copy and get the child to get it certified through the form teacher or the general office. It is a less than a minute work.

So those visiting the school without this form of identification, the security guard must ask more questions about the visitor. This will then add to improving the security of the school

My suggestion.

[cluelessmom]

So far, I am able to enter my dd school compound w/o excessive restriction and I am grateful for tat. My dd even had a mini b’day celebration at her school during recess time and she was really thrilled. So yeah, I can emphatised with u… but it may be an uphill task as this is afterall S’pore and we all learn to play by the rules…nevertheless Good Luck and certainly some parents will be grateful for ur efforts…

[jedamum]

how can i be sure that parents/guardians of other students/wards will not harm my child?

[Amos2010]

cluelessmom:

My dd even had a mini b'day celebration at her school during recess time and she was really thrilled.

You are right ! I remember my child told me before that someone had a birthday party during recess in the canteen too.

[Amos2010]

jedamum:

how can i be sure that parents/guardians of other students/wards will not harm my child?

Guess I would ask you if you will hurt the other children ? If not, then no lor !

[tankee]

jedamum:

how can i be sure that parents/guardians of other students/wards will not harm my child?

or that someone with bad intention, pretend to be a parent / guardian to gain entry to the school compound and cause harm?

[jedamum]

Amos2010:

jedamum:

how can i be sure that parents/guardians of other students/wards will not harm my child?

Guess I would ask you if you will hurt the other children ? If not, then no lor !

will 1 reply out of a few thousands of school-going parents make a difference?
let's just call me an extreme pessimist....