Participating in the Parents Network on Schooldays.ie - FAQs
What is the'Parents Network' on Schooldays.ie
The Parents Network allows individual parents to communicate with other parents in their childs school year at either primary or secondary level. By clicking on the Parents Network link on an individual school’s profile page on the Schooldays.ie website, you can choose to associate yourself with the year group (known as Streams) in your child’s school(s) that you wish to ‘follow’, e.g 1st class or 2nd year. To ‘follow a stream’ means to be able to view or post to the threads within that stream. Only members associated with a specific stream can view or respond to the posts of other members within that Stream.
Why join the Parents Network
For a wide variety of reasons, it can be difficult for parents to link up with other parents in their childrens classes. The Parent Network facility on schooldays.ie allows parents to make those contacts which can be invaluable in facilitating practical issues such as arranging school runs, sharing childcare, exchanging second hand goods, arranging school social events, exploring homework problems or simply checking out what other parents are doing with regard to specific events, e.g. are you letting your son/daughter go to the local disco this friday?
Joining a 'stream(s)' is also useful in helping you to navigate quickly to your child's school profile page on our site - each time you visit our site, you can simply click on the 'my streams' link which appears on the top of every page when logged in - this provides you with the immediate links to the schools you have associated yourself with. It also means that you can receive notifications when there are updates to your school(s).
Can I discuss any topic on the Parents Network
The Discussion Boards or Streams are not the appropriate forum to air problems that you may be experiencing with individual teachers or issues which may be arising between individual students. You could however ask other parents within the stream who are experiencing a problem with a particular subject for example to PM (private message ) you and then continue your discussion off line.
In some cases you may wish to post a question or seek advice from the whole schooldays.ie audience rather than just within your Parent Network. Where this is the case, you should submit your post through our General Discussions boards which are visible to the full schooldays audience and our streamed on our homepage and a number of other pages throughout the website.
We would remind all contributors that in registering on the site you agreed to abide by the Rules of our Forums. In particular we would remind you:
- Treat others with the same respect you expect from them
- Do not post anything you know to be false, defamatory, obscene, racist, offensive, hurtful or invasive of a persons privacy. While debating and discussion is fine, rudeness, insulting posts, personal attacks or purposeless inflammatory posts will not be tolerated.
- Do not use the network for advertising
Can I contact the school through the Parents Network
The schooldays.ie website is independent of the schools and therefore if you ask a question directly of a school through the parent network, you are unlikely to receive a response. If you have a question for a school regarding application procedures, requesting an application form etc, you should contact the school directly. Where it is available to us, we have listed school contact details on the website. Where email links are displayed, you can click on the email link to send an email to the school.
How can I participate on the Parents Network on Schooldays.ie
To participate in the School Network on Schooldays.ie, you first need to register on the website.
How do I register on the Schooldays.ie site and is there a charge.
There is no charge to participate on any of the communication forums on Schooldays.ie but in all cases you must register on the site to participate.
Registration on the site allows you to participate in the Parents Network, the General Discussion Forums, the Childminders Forum, respond to News Stories and to advertise for free in the Second Hand school book section.
Remember that you can opt to use an image/avatar, either a photo of yourself or a funny avatar (cartoon type image) which will appear beside any posts you make on our site. To register on the site click on the ‘Register’ link which appears above the pencil on the homepage.
Should I use my real name as my ‘User Name’ when registering
The User Name that you choose will be displayed alongside your posts however your email address will not. You may either use your real name or a pseudonym as a ‘user name’ but remember that if you use your real name, it is likely to be clear to other parents in the parent network who your child is in the school - you need to consider whether you wish to identify yourself in this way. Remember again, that if you uploaded a photo of yourself when you registered, it will appear beside any of your posts in the parents network.
How do I join the Parents Network in my children’s schools
Once you have registered on the site and are logged in, choose the ‘Find a Primary School’ or ‘Find a Secondary School’ option which you will find near the top of the green menu list which appears on the left hand side of each page on the website.
These links will bring you through to the link pages that you need to find your child’s school.
If you have difficulty locating the school , you can also use the search option which appears on menu on the pencil at the top of each page – simply type in your school name and review the results.
When you are on the school page, click on the ‘Parents Network’ link. Here you will see the different links to click on depending on which Streams (class year groups) you wish to join.
When you click on one of the links to join a stream you will be required to complete the following fields
What information should I input as a Stream Remark
The stream remark lets you place a little more information about yourself that other users within the stream will be able to see.
For example you may wish to say something like
"Mum of girl in class 1N" or "Dad of student in 2Y" or if you are happy to identify yourself fully " Aoifes Mum'
If there are a number of classes at the same level, e.g. 3 classes of 1st year, it is useful to say which class group your child is in.
How can I amend my profile or "stream remark" if I want to give more/less information?
At any stage when you are logged in you will see a link to 'My Streams' at the very top of the website page (above the advertising banner) . By clicking on this link you will see a list of the streams of which you are a member. You will have the option to click to 'view the Stream Discussions' or to view 'Stream Members' You will also see a link to 'edit ' located beside your 'stream remark' . Click on the edit link if you wish to amend how you have described yourself. If you no longer wish to be a member of a particular stream, click on the dustbin image beside the stream to unsubscribe from that stream..
What does "Notify me of new posts mean?
It means you will receive an email advising you when there are new posts or new joiners to your stream. Emails are issued daily or weekly.
Can I join Streams in more than one school?
You can join a max of 3 streams in any one school and a max of 5 streams in total.
Once you are logged in, just locate the profile page for the second (or third) school that you want to join and repeat the processes set out above.
How do I 'un-subscribe' from a Stream if I no longer wish to 'follow that stream'?
At any stage when you are logged in you will see a link to 'My Streams' at the very top of the website page (above the banner advertisement) . By clicking on this link you will see a list of the streams of which you are a member. Click on the dustbin image if you wish to no longer be a member of a particular stream. Note that once you post to a stream, your posts will remain in the stream, even if you leave the stream at a later date.
If I am a member of a steam in more than one school, how do I quickly move between my streams?
Click on the 'My Streams' link at the top of the website page and you will see the list of your streams. By clicking on any of your stream links provided you will go directly to that page.
How do I reply to a thread within a stream discussions?
Once you are logged in, and a member of a stream, you will be able to click to read any of the threads within that stream. If you want to participate in the discussion, click on the 'reply' button, type in your response and click on save for your reply to appear live on the site.
How do I start a new discussion/create a new thread?
Once you are logged in, visit your Stream and click on 'create a new thread' - you will then see the following box
Insert a title indicating what the thread is about, choose a category as this helps other members to find information related to a number of categories. Make sure to click on 'this stream only' if you want only the members in the stream to see your post. If you are happy for EVERYONE who visits the schools profile page to see your post, then choose 'everyone'. Type in your message and click on 'save' for the message to appear live on the site.
What is a Private Message (PM)
As a member of a particular stream you have the facility to contact individual members of the stream by sending them a private message which cannot be seen by anyone else, including other stream members.
If you send someone a PM, they will receive an email from Schooldays.ie telling them to log-in to the site to view their private message. If you receive a private message, you will similarly receive an email. To view the message, log-in and click on the link to 'My PMs' which appears above the pencil on the home page . Here you will be able to read your PMs and send further PMs in response.
How do I send a Private Message (PM)
The user name of every poster appears alongside any post that they make. Beneath their user name you will see a link to 'PM me'. If you click on this link you can send them a private message, however if you click on the link 'reply' within a thread, your reply appears on the website.
If I am a member of a stream associated with a particular school year within a school, should I also join the 'General Stream' within that school?
Being a member of the 'general stream' if you are a parent in the school is also useful as there may be occasions when you wish to post a question (e.g. looking for some second hand item) to all parents associated with the school and not just to those in first year etc. Remember though anything you post in this stream can be viewed by anyone who visits the schools profile page on the site.
The general stream is also of interest to past pupils and prospective parents and anyone with a general interest in the school who wants to be alerted when there are comments or questions posted.