June, traditionally the time of an all day school trip if not a residential usually involving some broadly speaking educational objectives so they will be a field trip with things to find and worksheets to work though either individually in in twos.
I did surprisingly given my autism manage a conversation face to face for the best part of three quarters of an hour with a woman I'd never met before while out shopping whose youngest child goes the local Primary School and others are at a nearby girls school and University where the topic of Residentials came up in the context of the digitalization of school communication as in a school specific app post the was a rolling list about the week long residential that wasn't structured with requirements such as clothing clearly separated and annoying no paper check list was made available which is often the most efficient way of ensuring cases are properly packed ticking off as you go along.
Even getting the school to print *anything* off given many people don't have printers not least those who tend to use smartphones proved a battle of wills.
Then there was the matter of being late in sending any notification of their leaving and an update given the motorway issues that plague this area.
Not everybody uses the internet well - many grandparents who look after school age children when parents are at work do struggle - and yet everything goes through this with no use of importance to highlight urgent stuff in a deluge across the day
That means things like Internet only Teacher/Parent introductions to that years work can get missed and in any event isn't better for parents to meet others and all to meet face to face the class teacher, Head and Deputy so everybody knows each other and if anyone has skills then offers to assist are more likely to be forthcoming than leaving many feeling marginalized.
It seems to me this digital only approach is rubbing schools of an actual real sense of community between it, parents and the wider community.
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