Yesterday afternoon I received a notification from my daughters’ elementary school that October’s newsletter was available on-line. Like any other good parent I went to check it out and see what was going on in her school.
A few seconds after I began to read it my head began to hurt. The principal’s address was written badly so badly it was actually astonishing. It was (hopefully) not proofread and contained a huge array of grammar and punctuation issues amongst other (what can only be described as) messes.
Thankfully this did not continue throughout the entire newsletter. Only the principal seemed inclined to rely only upon the virtues of spell check to proof their contribution to the newsletter. Now I admit I miss things when proofreading my own work but I do make an effort and it really appears that no effort was made here.
It brought back a reminder of the first school my oldest attended. That school was a great school in her Kindergarten year. It was dual track which had both English and French-immersion students. The principal was a kind man, the teachers were well informed and it was truly a great environment to learn in.
Mid-way through grade 1 a new principal took over as the old one retired and problem after problem began to pop up. By the end of that first year it was clear the appointment of this principal was a poor fit.
She didn’t seem able to communicate well with students, staff or parents. The environment of the school began to change rapidly and frustrated teachers and support staff began leaving the school in droves.
By the beginning of grade 3 I and many other parents were fed up, particularly those with kids in the immersion program. The librarian, gym teacher, music teacher, some of the resource and support staff had all been replaced and not a single one of those replacements was bi-lingual. What this meant was that in a French-immersion program there was very little French being spoken each day.
We moved mid-way through that year and I decided rather than wait for the new school year to begin that my daughter should switch schools between semesters. It was the best decision we could have made. When she was assessed at her new school it was discovered just how far behind she had fallen. I have no doubt that if she had finished the school year in her old school that she would not have been able to catch up.
Many other parents decided to leave the school at the end of the year but by then their children through no fault of their own were so far behind that they struggled and were unable to stay in an immersion program. I know of only three students from her kindergarten class who remain in immersion today, that number is including her.
What I learnt from this experience was just how important a principal is to a school. So when I read a newsletter written so incredibly poorly I worry. It doesn’t help that this is only her third year as principal or that her sister is the principal who had such a detrimental effect on the first school my oldest attended.
