My Number 1 Faculty In-Service Tip for Your Independent School!

↔️ While working with schools, we've noticed there is often a disconnect between what parents think the school and teachers are delivering and what is actually being delivered. Now, there are many reasons for this but I'm going to tackle one common one today.

🏋️‍♂️ Schools put a ton of effort into the parent handbook. It is one of the most overproduced yet underutilized things in a school. 😔

🤓 Although many schools require parents to read the handbook and often highlight important parts of the handbook in weekly communications, not many schools require faculty and staff to review the parent handbook. 🤔 And that sometimes leads to issues. 😬

🙄 For example, if the parent handbook says that we celebrate birthdays like this in school but a teacher does it another way, that leaves parents confused and it makes the school look unorganized and inconsistent. 🤔 Other examples might include ways the school communicates how the staff will respond to parents' questions or the amount of outdoor time students get, things like this. So, as unappealing as it sounds, reading the parent and staff handbooks is important for staff/faculty to do.

🤔 But how do you actually get that to happen?
Miki, an ESM team member, shared a great idea with a school client—make it a game. 🙂 Create teams of faculty/staff and then have them select things in the handbook that they think will stump other teams. Then keep score and see which team can answer the most and award prizes. 🏆 I suggest telling faculty/staff in advance of in-service to read both handbooks because there will be a test—that way they will be forewarned! Another option is to host a Jeopardy-style tournament with teams and prizes. 👏 Keep it lively and engaging. Because we all know those handbooks are super dry. 😎

What are you doing to ensure faculty and staff read your handbooks?
Drop a comment or send me an email [email protected]

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