Improving relationships between parent bodies, tuckshops and schools

How did relationships between the tuckshop, the school and the parent bodies fare over the last 12 months? Did everyone work well together, or was there some conflict or moments that challenged you?

It is not uncommon for us to come across challenging moments in any work environment

No matter how you got there, looking forward to rebuilding a relationship is important for both work culture and how much you enjoy the work you do, and where you do it

Over the many years of working with QAST members, the one element that can help get you moving in the right direction is finding how to develop more positive, constructive engagement between parties

Ultimately, finding a way back to a cooperative working relationship is beneficial to all parties

Below are a few steps you can take to help develop constructive dialogue.

SET UP REGULAR, STRUCTURED MEETINGS WITH KEY DECISION MAKERS

Regular engagement will help to communicate issues/successes/wins in a timely manner and enable you to talk about things in a more formal way, rather than an ad-hoc conversation

Limit conversation to business activities to start Keep language friendly, professional, courteous and civil

Identify a regular time that works for you (e g fortnightly or monthly) – try and make them before or after P&C/P&F meetings or school business meetings so you can provide and/or receive information in a timely manner Keep it short or at least under one hour.

If possible, limit tuckshop operational decisions or chats to these meetings

TOP TIP: Setting up regular catch ups helps to keep communication channels open about important issues and topics.

Setting Common Goals And Objectives

As a group, decide on tuckshop goals and objectives together with the school and the P&C/P&F (even if they don’t run the tuckshop). This can be done in Term 1 or 4.

Work through how you will achieve these goals as a group

Use SMART principles to set out objectives (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, time bound)

Revisit these goals throughout the year

TOP TIPS: Set tuckshop priorities early in the year to provide direction and focus for everyone. If last year’s goals are still OK, then just renew for another 12 months.

Work On Communicating Effectively

Miscommunication is often at the core of issues and conflict in the workplace While not always easy, engaging proactively with the school or the P&C/P&F is important

Some quick tips include:

Engage actively

Adjust messaging to enable greater understanding

Take time to understand as you try to be understood

Be aware of your personal bias that influences how you see the world.

Proactively engaging, while sometimes can be a hard habit to get into, will help you run your tuckshop more effectively, if only so you can better manage their expectations

Communicating Clearly In Meetings

Communicate decisions made at end of meetings to all attendees

Use templates wherever possible

Consistency in how information is presented improves the readability of the content

Set out an agenda of what you want to discuss in the meeting Limit it to the most pressing issues

Provide/request for important information to be in writing. Then you can track outcomes and responses

During the meeting:

Ask attendees what information they want to know about the tuckshop and by when

Tell them what information you need from them and by when

If you would like a confidential chat about any concerns you have about relationships between the tuckshop and the school and/or P&C/P&F , please contact the QAST team on (07) 3324 1511 or email enquiry@qast org au

It’s the end of an era at Ipswich Girls Grammar School, with long time convenor, Lorie Robinson, hanging up the apron one last time, after 27 years of service.

It all began with the desire for a career change after working as a teacher in country NSW for close to a decade. Lorie took on the Catering Manager role at Ipswich Girls Grammar School in December 1995 and the rest, as they say, is history.

With a background in food and nutrition, the job was a perfect fit for Lorie as she loved working in a school environment (who doesn’t love school holidays?) and has a keen passion for food.

While boarder numbers were strong when she initially started out, they eventually started to fall, so Lorie had to think fast to keep her staff employed. Enter the school tuckshop.