Some issues become niggles that drag on. You know the ones I mean:
⚽ A parent is unhappy about a decision — their daughter should have been picked for the team.
🙅♂️ A parent insists their son would never behave that way — maybe not at home, but he does at school.
😡 A carer says their child is being picked on and the perpetrator must be moved to another class. Now!
They take up time.
And they wear people down.
They build up.
Week after week.
Term after term.
Year after year.
You handle them in the moment, but you don’t always spot the pattern until it’s too late — and it’s turned into a bigger problem.
Worse still, it turns into that parent — the one who is never happy.
And who’s child is in Year 2 (yep, 5 more years of this!).
Here’s a simple leadership tweak that changes everything:
👉 Add a 5-minute ‘parent radar’ slot to your weekly SLT agenda.
Once a week, take 5–10 minutes in your SLT meeting to ask:
- Any early parent rumblings?
- Repeated names?
- Recurring themes?
This isn’t about creating drama. It’s about creating awareness — so you can spot patterns early and respond with consistency, clarity, and collective action.
It’s not much more work, but it’s definitely fewer problems later. Proactive leadership takes less energy than firefighting. It protects your time, your team, and your focus — and it lets you resolve parent’s issues without becoming the perceived ‘baddie’.
Here’s to fewer niggles, and a term that runs on your priorities — not on parent problems.
Sonia ❤️
P.S. Next week, I’ve got a video for you about the parent who keeps coming back about the same issue — and how to handle it without losing your sanity.
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