The school system is failing to effectively communicate with parents who have separated, according to a leading family rights campaigner.
Ian Maxwell, who acts as the national manager of Shared Parenting Scotland, has spoken about how the charity has experienced a huge increase in the number of people contacting them for advice since the lockdown began.
Among the concerns being raised is the lack of communication from schools to those parents whose children do not live with them.
Ian said: “We’ve had about 50% more enquiries since the start of Coronavirus just because there is more anxiety and problems.
“Some of these have been from parents who want to help with the education of their children but it’s apparent that the system isn’t coping with the idea of having two parents in different household.
“We hear from people from all over Scotland – from Dundee to Glasgow – and some schools have been really good with communication.
“But there has been some reluctance and even refusal to deal with the other parent.”
The issue of schools only communicating with one parent is one that has existed well before the virus hit. But with pupils being taught at home sine March, Ian argues that it has been made worse during lockdown.
He said: “A lot of the forms and things like that are geared towards there being one household per child whereas we know that about one third of families in Scotland have parents living apart.
“We always try and encourage the (separated) parents to be fully involved in their child’s education yet they face various problems in trying to get recognised.
“In the old days, it was about notes going home in the child’s school bag and not being passed on but nowadays more of it is about electronic communication.”
Playing detective
In a letter submitted to the Scottish Government’s education and skills committee, one father – who wished to remain anonymous – described the difficulties he faced trying to get information from his child’s school during the lockdown period.
He said: “I feel I’ve had to be a detective, piecing together a jigsaw I don’t know the picture of and do not have all the pieces for.
“I have to deduce what I’m missing so I can ask the school for it in order to support my son’s learning while he is in my care while schools are closed during lockdown
“I did not receive copies of the work packs, nor other materials. I did not receive communications with log-in details for online resources. I contacted the school and nobody answered the phone so I e-mailed and received no response for some time.
“When I finally did I was told I was lucky someone checked the inbox as I should have been using another e-mail address as per instructions but I had never received those instructions.”
“Some of these have been from parents who want to help with the education of their children but it’s apparent that the system isn’t coping with the idea of having two parents in different household.
Ian Maxwell, National Manager of Shared Parenting Scotland.
According to Ian, this father’s experience is one commonly faced by parents whose children do no live with them and he is calling for changes to be made.
“It should not matter if the parents live apart. They should both be involved in the child’s school work so we feel that schools should be telling both parents what is going on, he explained.
“It’s far better to spilt this hard work between parents rather than one doing it all. Parents have different skills and approaches and the child will benefit from having both when learning.”
“Schools can be caught in the middle but the process they should use is to communicate with both parents.
“Education does not stop at the school gates”
Despite challenges seen in communicating during lockdown the Shared Parenting manager believes the pandemic could present an opportunity for schools to improve the way they deal with parents who live apart.
Ian said: “I would hope that schools can use this experience as an opportunity to rethink how they communicate with parents and set up schemes which reach parents in all households.
“The more they can link with parents and get them involved with education the more help they can get the child because education does not stop at the school gates.”
