Top tips for using SOCS to create a stronger partnership between schools and parents in the delivery of sports

Timing

To help parents and young people adapt to any changes in team news or the disappointment of not being with their friends, you need to get the information out as early as possible and be disciplined with your timing throughout the season.

Sending out team sheets the day before fixtures and competitions is more likely to create anxiety and frustration around selection than if the news is given three or four days before. See how increasing the time from delivering team news to competing in fixtures helps calm things at your school.

Do they know?

We know that many well-meaning parents can get very emotional about which team their child is selected for. Letting parents know clearly what your processes are gives transparency and helps keep them on board with decisions. Here are three things schools would do well to keep reminding parents of:

· Selection policy

· Game time policy

· Sports Philosophy

Does the school have a published and clear copy of each of these which is honest about what criteria impacts selection for weekly fixtures and national competitions? Keep these documents simple and a manageable length to read.

Are they adhered to by coaches and teachers? The sense of injustice when a school says one thing and does another is often an avoidable flashpoint between parents and schools.

Investing in doing these documents well, will engender greater parental trust in the school's processes and demonstrate how staff prioritise their child's needs and development.

Key information

On the team sheet, is all the information there that parents need? Meet time, venue postcode, and match timings? SOCS gives you all the tools to share this information. Sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised how often a team sheet is lacking some of this basic information.

Do parents know what to do when they are unsettled?

‘Life is in session’, and that means that it doesn't always run perfectly. Sometimes selection will not follow the selection policy due to necessity. Team sheets will be published late because of weather or injury issues making it harder to release. Nobody can control all these factors or do things perfectly with so many competing pressures, but do parents know what their approach could be when the information that SOCS delivers causes upset at home?

I encourage parents to coach their children to have conversations with the necessary staff members and to trust the school rather than respond by email. Some schools refuse to discuss selection and game time policy with parents, insisting that this is a conversation between students and staff. (I warm towards this approach.) Being clear on the methods parents can use when inevitable tensions arise will help you all to navigate those challenging moments.

As human beings you don't need me to tell you that a set of policies can’t cover every situation, nor do they satisfy a parent's desire to see their children play in the team they think they should be playing in. But having a clear understanding of how parents can handle these difficult moments will support you and your staff in the long run.