A Trusted Learning and Development Advisor
A Trusted Learning and Development Advisor
Tailored ‘Dealing with Difficult Parents’ workshops are highly recommended for schools and early childhood centres across Australia. This professional development training course is ideal for principals, teachers, administration staff, and school leaders who regularly deal with challenging or confrontational parents. Difficult parents often find ways to bypass your school protocols. They like to “catch” teachers in the schoolyard. They sometimes phone teachers on mobile phones out of hours with their plans for the best education for their children. “Don’t worry about the others, just focus on my little treasures.”
This specialist training program for education staff course was designed by an organisational psychologist specifically for Education Professionals. We also recommend inviting non-teaching staff, so the school has an integrated strategy to deal with difficult parents. Most education professionals will agree that managing the parents is far more difficult than managing the students. You’d probably also agree that 5% of the parents cause 95% of the stress. A great opportunity to improve teacher wellbeing and school staff wellbeing too.
This course is part of our broader range of Behaviour Management and Conflict Resolution training workshops designed specifically for the education sector. We can send you some school testimonials with an inhouse quote if you like. Available across Australia with flexible delivery options for school staff wellbeing and also sets parent engagement positive parameters.
Of course, parents have a right to air their views. But they don’t have a right to menace and cause unpleasantness to staff. Participants will also discover techniques to diffuse a situation quickly before it escalates. Make sure you prevent parents from phoning teachers as it’s a growing school harassment workplace hazard too.
Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline properly. — P. J. O’Rourke
When you become a parent, or a teacher, you turn into a manager of this whole system. You become the person controlling the bubble of innocence around a child, regulating it. — Kazuo Ishiguro
Working here at Preferred Training Networks means we’re always chatting to psychologists who help us with unusual training requests. Anyway, I was having a coffee the other day and I asked the psychologist who was currently sitting in the chair. And he replied it was “teachers”. And I asked who else is sitting in the chair. And he replied, “It’s just a conveyor belt of teachers,” so I’ll give you the conversation from there; Me – What’s the main concern with teachers Psych – Parents. Me – What else? Psych – It’s 90% struggling to cope with parents. Me – Who is paying? Psych – They pay themselves as they don’t want to admit to the school that they are struggling, particularly in the high-end schools as they feel they won’t ever get promoted if the school knows they are struggling. Me – That’s pretty sad. Psych – Yep. But what do teachers do if they find themselves in this situation. More broadly, what does anyone do? From our business perspective, we’ve noticed similar issues with engineers and financial/professional services employees. They just don’t want to admit that they are struggling to their employer. Unfortunately, the queue to see a psychologist is long in Australia. But if you’re struggling, we can always deliver one-on-one psych coaching or deliver a tailored course for the group. Anyway, if you’re in that position, give us a call, and we’ll try and give you some ideas that you may not have considered. Or if you’d like a quote for a group for dealing with difficult people or parents, please get in touch.
Q. Who should attend the Dealing with Difficult Parents training?
A. This course is ideal for principals, teachers, administrative staff, and school leaders who regularly interact with challenging or confrontational parents. It focuses on building effective communication strategies to manage difficult interactions and foster positive relationships.
Q. What are the key learning outcomes of this course?
A. Participants will learn strategies to manage difficult parent behaviours, resolve conflicts, build rapport, set boundaries, and effectively communicate to achieve positive outcomes for students and staff.
Q. Is this training available across Australia?
A: Yes, we offer this training in all major cities and regional areas across Australia, with options for in-person or virtual delivery.
Q. How long is the course?
A. The course can be tailored to your needs, with options ranging from 60-minute microlearning sessions to full-day workshops.
