2.8 COMMUNICATION WITH SCHOOL

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Good two-way communication between parents and the school is essential for childhood education. Parents of pupils with a different first language may have difficulty communicating with teachers and school management due to insufficient knowledge of the Czech language. However, there are some options and services that allow parents to work with the school to overcome these obstacles.

PERSONAL COMMUNICATION

Class meetings and consultation hours are reserved for personal communication with the class teacher. For security reasons, parents usually do not have access to the school premises. For this reason, it is necessary to arrange personal meetings outside of these situations in advance by phone or email.
In addition to talking to teachers and school management, you can find information on the school’s notice board and in writing (e.g. information leaflets, school newspapers).

! For a personal meeting, it is possible to arrange for intercultural workers to function as interpreters or accompaniment by social workers of non-profit organizations if the child or parent do not yet understand Czech well enough. These services are free. Schools can also make use of free interpretation and translation services (provided by National Pedagogical Institute).
! It is inadvisable to use the child as an interpreter. This places disproportionate demands on the child, burdens them with stress and forces them to take on the responsibilities of adults. In addition, interpreting by children is highly unreliable.

PHONE COMMUNICATION

Telephone interpreting is possible, for example, free of charge via a charity interpreter line. Hotlines are available in Ukrainian, Vietnamese and Mongolian every Monday and Wednesday. It is inappropriate to call the school during class time. In urgent situations, it is recommended to provide the school with contact information to a reliable person who will translate the information to the parents.

ONLINE

Basic information about the school and contacts for school staff can be found online on the school website. It is essential to set up an email address that you will use to communicate with the school and access the school’s online system (“Bakaláři”, “Škola online”, “EduKit”, etc.). To sign into the web app, it is also necessary to enter the username and password that you will receive from the class teacher. On this website, you will find an electronic student’s book with grades, a timetable, a schedule of school events and news. The portal is also usually used to excuse absences. It is advisable to agree to make use of automatic translation, which is more practical for both parties than spoken communication in cases of insufficient knowledge of the language.

It is also important to be actively interested in the child’s education. Even if another person (sibling, interpreter, nanny, etc.) is helping out with communication with the school, ultimately, responsibility always lies with the parents.