Building a rapport with parents is important, not least if you want them to embrace rather than oppose any changes that you implement during your post as the school’s head teacher.

However such a task can seem near impossible, particularly when we consider that how very little time you have in your working day to communicate with parents in person.

Making effective use of the school’s noticeboard is one way in which the school can build up good communication with parents. And yet the results of a survey conducted by Greenbarnes suggest that as few as 25% of head teachers take a personal interest in the school’s noticeboard.

Other findings of the survey were that school noticeboards aren’t typically the responsibility of just one member of staff, but are seen as a shared enterprise, thus creating a sense of cohesion not only between the school and the parents, but also between members of staff within the school.

It found that:

• Noticeboards are the province of the SBM or an administrator.
• As for deciding on the position of the noticeboard, this was mutually assumed – two thirds of schools have positioned it at the entrance of the school.
• The member of staff who wishes to communicate a message is responsible for putting their message on the noticeboard.
• Expired messages are removed by office staff.
• An administrator is just as likely to take responsibility for keeping the noticeboard clean as the school cleaners.
• The responsibility to fix a broken noticeboard falls with the school’s caretaker.

If you are thinking of acquiring a new noticeboard for your school, we have a range of styles of outdoor noticeboards which you can see on our website.

Alternatively, please do call us on 01280 701093 and we’ll be pleased to discuss our boards, send you a brochure, and give any advice and guidance that you may require.