The use of home-school diaries is seen as “good practice” for children with SEND. These are notebooks in which parents and teachers can write notes to one another about a child’s learning, behaviour or non-urgent medical information.
Used well, they are a quick and easy way for parents and schools to communicate. They are particularly useful for pupils who are unable to tell their parents about their day at school because they have difficulties with spoken language or because they struggle to recall events hours after they’ve happened, or for children who travel to school by bus or taxi and whose parents have no regular face-to-face contact with their teachers.
It is when the diaries are not used well that problems can arise.
1. Diaries are seen as the only communication channel
The home school diary should be seen as part of a wider communication strategy. Telephone conversations, emails, digital photos, consultation evenings and chats at the classroom door are all part of this strategy too. It is important for parents to know that even if their child has a diary, they can communicate with the school in other ways.
2. Confidentiality
Home-school diaries are not always private. If a diary falls out of a school bag, anyone could pick it up and read it. This point was brought home to me when my son was at primary school and another child’s diary was mistakenly put in his book bag. Of course I didn’t read it, but it was a wake-up call to me that the diary cannot be guaranteed to be confidential.
3. Lack of teacher response
Some parents tell me that they write a lot in their diaries, but get no response. They find this difficult and upsetting, not knowing how to raise this with the school. Sometimes parents complain that the class teacher never writes in the diary and that this job is left to the teaching assistant. While most people understand that it would be difficult for the class teacher to write in the diary every day, parents want to know that the teacher is at least aware of it.
4. Lack of parental engagement
When a parent doesn’t write in the diary, this doesn’t necessarily mean that they aren’t interested. They may find it difficult to use the diary because of issues with literacy or because they have English as an additional language. It might simply be a matter of time as they manage the demands of a busy family. Or they may, like me, worry about confidentiality.
5. Diaries used to criticise
The diary should never become a weapon to be used by either parent or teacher. Criticisms of the school or teaching practice are never best delivered by a home school diary. Similarly, criticisms of parenting practice should not be delivered by diary either. It is important for parents and teachers to agree about how they want to use the diary so that both parties are ─ are far as possible ─ on the same page from the start.
Dr Katherine Runswick-Cole is senior research fellow in disability studies and psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University
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