Please help complete a survey on schools and communication

I have just read a fabulous post on The Sardine Tin entitled Schools and Working Parents. It warns of a ranty post, and really made me laugh. You can get the idea from the title but please read it.

Whilst I was commenting, I thought Hang on, I'd love to know what our blogging friends' experiences are with schools and communcation and event times. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is trying to work out how she can attend the next coffee morning in the last week of term, with no holiday left, but desperate to attend to show off ~~her~~ Elf's "fire" project (now that you've asked, it's a model of a house and garden with Elf and his friend with sparklers and rockets).

So here is a quick survey. I'd love to know your answers so please comment. (Please note this is tongue in cheek, but I will post results!)

Demographics

Are you a working mum or dad? Full time or part time?
Are you a SAH mum or dad? Or do you work from home?
Do you mostly pick up from school or use wraparound care?

And now down to the serious questions

When planning events, does your school take into consideration working parents, ie having a later showing of a play etc?
Have you ever baked anything for a coffee morning? Did you bake but not attend?
Have you made anything for an event? (eg fair)
Have you joined the PTA or Friends of… or applied to be a governor?
Do you volunteer at your school on a regular basis?
Have you ever forgotten a daily item (like a water bottle or a library book or a reading book)?
Have you ever forgotten a packed lunch or lunch money?
Do you get parentmail?If so, Text? Email? Newsletters? More than 1 of the above?
Has your school failed to communicate something important to you?
Do you feel that your school is good at, well being a school, but you feel bad complaining about the communication?

Watch this space!

Would I Lie To You board family game review

Would I Lie To You? "The game of believable lies and unbelievable lies ", linked into the TV show of the same name. Purchased: December 2017 in Waterstones, for around £20 In a nutshell: These TV show-affiliated games usually show themselves up (Never Mind The Buzzcocks, Top Gear) but this game is fun and easy to play (if a little modified) as a family. You don't really need specialist knowledge to play, just the ability to lie! Every year for Christmas, I like to buy a board game to play, even though no games better either Ludo (in which my dad is the reigning cheater-champion, and argues to high heaven over the rules about doubling up or how to place your counters in "Home") or Rummikub (which we can now play with two packs of cards lest we forget the game). This year, Would I Lie To You caught my eye in Waterstones (other emporiums - emporia? - for book lovers are [locally] unavailable). It's a game, it says, for 2-8 players; however we dec...

A walk from Portchester Castle to Salt Cafe

Well we just had to choose the worst day of the year to walk. The date had been set weeks before - who knew there would be the worst winds of the decade almost on this very day? But we didn't want to be beaten. We will walk to the cafe. At least it wasn't raining! Parking is free next the castle and obviously, it wasn't busy this day! We set off around the outside of this medieval monument. The sea wall affords views across to Portsmouth and Gosport, and Portsdown Hill if you look behind. You can see the Spinnaker Tower in my photos, but you'd have to zoom in. The sea wall leads to a walk along a path, switching between grass (a much more sheltered area) beside a playpark, and the beach. It is an easy, flat walk, made slightly harder in the wind. After 1.75 miles, you reach the Salt Cafe (@saltcafe66). This took us one hour - that wind did slow us down! I've had a breakfast bap there before and remember it being delicious, but slightly expensive. But today, we...

That's not my Elf, he's too rude and noisy

At nursery drop-off this morning, I was handed part of Elf's transfer to school pack, you know, the bit that the pre-school teacher had completed and also that Elf had drawn in (looking worryingly like a blaze that Fireman Sam ought to be putting out instead of rescuing Norman's head from a saucepan with the "jaws of life"). Reading it, I had a sense of "That's not my child" in the way that the above tractor book is written. Surely, the little angel you've so kindly described here doesn't really exist, and certainly doesn't pretend to be my little Elf? So here is "This is not my child" book, by A Humdrum Mum. That's not my child He's too rude and noisy That's not my child He's uncaring and unkind (to me sometimes) That's not my child He wants to sit in front of the TV not run around in the garden That's not my child He won't help me take in the washing This is my child ...

A Humdrum Mum

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