Reykjavik - School Report Question and Answers
How is the overall communication between teachers and parents, and the administration and parents? How is communication facilitated?
Communication is good overall, but if a parent would like frequent and/or detailed updates on their child, it is on the parent to reach out to the administration or classroom teacher(s) directly. The administration and PTA provide news on the overall status of the school a few times per year (through the PTA newsletter, and by email), and the classroom teacher(s) send out a monthly newsletter (by email) with pictures and some information about what the students have been working on in each subject area. So communication is regular, but not extremely frequent or detailed. However, classroom teachers and the administration are responsive - an email or phone call will generally get a quick response. - Jun 2023
They use an Icelandic website linked to Iceland's national ID (Kennnitala) system for communication with parents, and this is problematic for international parents who aren't in Iceland's ID system. The school is aware of the problem and has increased communication directly via email. There are often last-minute changes to school schedules, particularly in the after-school program, which can cause disruptions. Communication with the mostly American staff of teachers has been excellent, with teachers responding by text or phone call during the school day. - Jul 2022
It was mixed in our experience - it seems that some students got more communications and attention than other students and families. The administration was - for us - hard to get ahold of, and regular school staff did not seem to like to being bothered with questions from international families-we found them not very helpful or proactive. - Jan 2022
A - Mar 2015
A- Because of our great student-teacher ratio, we could afford to have frequent teacher-parent meetings. In addition, the school had a very informative newsletter go out to all parents. Those parents who felt communication was not good were often the ones who neglected to read the newsletter and/or emails from specific teachers. - Aug 2014
Excellent. I only have positive experience with this. All emails are responded to promptly and meeting requests scheduled timely. All the teachers I've communicated with have been very helpful and listened to my feedback. It was respectful and professional. In the beginning, there were some confusion about homework; but after speaking to each of the teachers, I got a good sense of the rhythm and routine as to what was expected. The teachers also informed me if something was missing from my children's homework folders. - May 2014
We hear nothing from the teachers except for parent-teacher conferences (3 times/year) or if there's been a fight at school. - Apr 2014
The parent-teacher conferences are only scheduled for 20 minutes and the kids are supposed to attend - it really isn't enough time to cover everything. We have asked several times for longer meetings (since the kids have the entire day off from school, this shouldn't be hard to do) but they just told us that if we need more time, we should schedule a meeting later. - Mar 2014
