Improving Communication Between The Community And The School - Essay Example

Improving communication between the community and the school Everyone is aware how important communication is regardless of the fact where or how it is being used. For any two people to share their views and ideas and to understand each other communication is the most important tool. Keeping this is mind one must not overlook the fact that schools need to build a very strong link or channel of communication not only with the parents but also the community where it functions in order to provide high level of service to the community. The paper under discussion will provide an insight as to how this channel can be made stronger and through which methods can the schools communicate with the community. The school discussed in the paper is of elementary level so the points discussed will relate to this specific system only. Most of the people are aware of the basic image portraying a school girl or boy getting a bad result card or report. What happens if the result is given out directly to the students? More than often the child scared of the consequences either hides the report till the time to hand it back or may even destroy it. Some of them will return it to the teacher with forged signatures of their parents and both the school and the parents are unaware of the fact that the students are misusing the trust. Through this method which is mostly used by the schools it is most likely that the information is lost. Even the data of the students is easily tampered in the schools website or online data. Keeping in view of the lapses that may occur schools need to devise more appropriate communication plans that will lead to a beneficial mutual bond with in the community. The existing form of sending the report cards home and compiling the data is now out of date and extremely risky. Plan: The first step is to analyze or assess the basic need of how the communication channels can be built between the parents and the school. Survey on the need of communication will be conducted. This survey will have questions or address issues where people can provide their feedback. It will be sent with a letter addressing all those who are willing to give their time for the survey. The letter will be from the Principal of the school and will have the mission and vision statements available along with a brief idea about the schools objectives and goals. The forms thus collected will become the basic data from which further steps will be developed. Secondly the school will invite people for an in-house session where the Principal of the school will address them and share the concerns the school has regarding the communication amongst the community and the school itself. This will be an informal session with questions asked and answered by and from both the parents and the teachers. This in turn helps in brainstorming and leads to new ideas and options. The school’s website should allow parents to review and discuss their child’s performance online with the concerned teachers through logins provided only to the parents. This way the children will not be able to tamper the information. Also the parents could be invited through emails to Parents Day or meetings without involving the children. The direct approach will not only help with making the communication easier but will not allow the children to hide or miscommunicate messages. Implementation Steps: The first thing in the plan was to conduct a survey to understand what type of communication people want to establish with the school. For this purpose a form will be designed highlighting different aspects of communication and suggestions will be taken from the participants of the survey. The forms are designed by the school administration or the faculty as both will have some input in the development of the survey form. These forms will be sent with the students and asked to be returned in a week’s time. A week is sufficient for the parents to read and fill in whatever their views are. Once the forms are collected the surveyor will distinguish the similarities in the forms and then categorize them accordingly. The data will be assessed by the senior management as to select only relevant feedback. Based on the views the school can develop further programs for orientation and involve parents in meetings regarding school policies. The main purpose here will be to enhance the involvement of the community in the working of a school so as to earn mutual respect of both the setups. Parents and members of the community need to understand the importance of elementary education and how they can enforce this on to the children as well. They need to communicate the concerns regarding the children and the society to each other so that everyone is working towards the same goal. Second step for increasing the communication will be to participate or arrange for special community and welfare events. Once again the school management will look at the possible event that will involve both the school members and the people in the area. This activity will again provide a platform where people will interact and work together towards a common goal or event. After the event has taken place the feedback will be taken from the people who have participated. There are two ways to collect feedback from the people. One that they fill in forms that can be distributed and collected at the venue of the event. Another through email and the feedback and comments can be added to the webpage relevant to the event. Third step will be to develop and upgrade if already developed a website with news and events published. As suggested in the plan the parents can be given password and provided with logins to always interact with the school administration and also view the progress of not only their children but the school on the whole. Pages can be uploaded where latest news and blogs will be available and also parents can comment and suggest on different discussion points that are being posted on the page. Data Collection : This part needs to be developed by the student. Please add or attach the required forms or minutes of meetings if you can make them up. Strengths/Weaknesses It is important to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of one’s plan so as to be aware and manage any short comings. First let’s take a look at the strengths: 1. As the school is operational it already has a database of the students with their basic information. It will be quite easy to send them forms even via post if not distribute it amongst the classrooms. The collection of the data is simple and easy too as reminders can be sent through the children and the forms can be collected in the class. 2. To maintain a proper database is essential nowadays in the advancing world and it is also important in keeping track of people. To add more features in the database the forms will help a lot. Getting to know the person the school is interacting with is important as it will lead to the development of further programs. 3. The school has a basic infrastructure and will be able to handle the meetings and visits arranged for the parents. This will increase the rapport amongst the staff and the parents and will encourage them to take interest in their child’s progress also. 4. The events that may be arranged will also lead to involvement of the people with the staff members and the school administration easing out the communication channels that are required for a progressive and active school system. Weaknesses 1. As the survey forms are distributed through mail or a child there is a chance that they may be lost or misplaced. In such a scenario complete feedback will not be available. 2. Secondly while developing the school procedures and policies it may become very complicated to view and adjust all the suggestions made by the people. They may also not match the schools own vision and goal and furthermore the objectives. 3. The school’s website can be at a risk of having problematic parents commenting on the website in the blogs or discussion boards. Strict filtering will be required for such users. It is not necessary that the first survey or feedback collected by the school gives them a comprehensive amount of information sought by the management. It may also be that the open house or meetings with the parents are not successful the first few times and no one shows up. These kind of lapses are expected and thus these things have to be carried on time and time again. There always is a margin to change something or add new things in the existing pattern but in no way this should stop. The main aim or objective here is to make the communication stronger. It can only be done if more and more awareness is created and people start taking interest in what is happening in the community schools. They should be more inquisitive as to what their children will be benefiting from in the longer run. In case the open house discussions with the parent and teacher fail the school can arrange for one to one meetings with the parents and guide them to increase their involvement in their child’s future. As discussed in the data collection part the forms and survey report is attached along with. Read More