The School: A Secure Base?

The relationship between families and schools spans a considerable period of the family life-cycle (Dowling and Osborne,1994). During this period the teachers are entrusted with responsibility for the children, but will have varying degrees of knowledge about events at home which are affecting the children’s development and state of mind. Considerable responsibility can be placed on teachers when the family is in crisis, although they are often not prepared for it. In the face of the increasing demise of local services, parents tend to use the school as the first port of call to share family crises and sometimes the expectations placed on teachers far exceed their ability to respond to parents in distress. (Personal communication from a primary headteacher.)