Hi!
Here in Portugal things vary according to the region people live in, the school and many other factors.
Basically, Portuguese parents blame schools and teachers for their children �s lack of success. There are exceptions, of course but this is the rule.
Most parents don �t understand that when they �re children are rude it is their fault and not the school �s or the teachers �.
Each class usually has about nine teachers (one for each class) and one of these teachers is responsible for the class. He/She has to keep up records of students � marks, how many times they are absent from school and many other burocratical aspects.
This teacher has one hour a week to receive parents at school but many times parents don �t come to school and so they take advantage of this hour to work through all the paperwork related to students.
We have three terms a year: one ending in Christmas, another about Easter time and finally the last one which ends in June.
At the end of each term, the teacher who is responsible for the class has a meeting with the parents to talk about students marks, behaviour and other things that parents might want to know about.
Not all parents come to these meetings but at the school I work with most usually do.
Parents can also come to school to talk to the director and sometimes it is the director who calls parents especially in cases of bad behaviour or when a student is ill and has to go to hospital and the director needs one of the parents to be there.
I hope this may help you understand a little bit about Portuguese schools � reality.
Have a nice day!
