2 Responses

1. personal experience
   Martin

   I don’t know if this helps but most of your professionals and volunteers will probably be parents themselves so they should be able to empathise with their “audience”…from my experience as a parent (and chair of the PTA) I would say the following:

   1. Communicate in a timely fashion- if the communication is to consult give time for a response
   2. Communicate in a certain fashion- can you be certain the communication reaches the addressee? (or will it end up lost at the bottom of a school bag or dumped)
   3. Communicate in a human fashion- stay away from ghastly quasi-legal or pretentious language, avoid jargon.
   4. Communicate in an accurate fashion- make sure you’re spelin an grammer our rite.
   5. Communicate in an appropriate fashion- pick up the phone, send an email, go and visit rather than always writing a letter.
   6. Remember that silence communicates, as does a look or a gesture.

   Rus

2. Communicating with Parents
   Martin,

   I have designed and deliver a workshop for a local authority “Working in Partnership with Parents”. It aims to develop the necessary skills for education, health and care professionals who have a statutory duty to work in partnership with the parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

   Much of this is about communication skills so you may find some of the content useful. If you email me I’ll be happy to share some of the content with you.

   Regards,

   David