These provide information about past and forthcoming events that occur at the school. Some parents feel that newsletters are too late as sometimes they do not hear about an event until after it has occurred. Some feel that newsletters are rather bland and irrelevant, lacking the real information they need to know about.
"It'll tell you who the captain of the hockey team is but (not) how your child is doing at school: that is my bottom line concern." (parent with disabilities, secondary, Aberdeen)
Newsletters are often given to children to deliver to their home and this is one of the forms of written communication which often may not reach the parent. One school had adopted the practice of allowing parents to have newsletters posted home - with the parents paying a small sum for the service.