Bulletin

Entry in a mother's booklet with bees as an award "for exemplary behavior" (GDR, 1986)

DIN A6 booklet that was used as a mother book in the GDR

A bulletin board is a booklet or a smaller book that is used for communication between teachers in a school (especially class teachers in the entrance classes ), a kindergarten or a special educational institution and the parents of a child. Such booklets can be found in German schools as early as the early 19th century.

It is also referred to as a notebook, communication book, traffic booklet, pendulum booklet and colloquially and often ironically as a mother booklet.

A notice booklet is used to inform parents regularly about certain events at the school, for example parents' evenings , project lessons and excursions as well as their home preparation. In addition, the behavior of the individual child is recorded. This includes censure , but also praise and awards . Awards can be indicated by stamps ( called "bees" in the GDR and afterwards). In some institutions, the entries have to be signed by the parents to confirm that they have been taken. According to studies, parents see the note booklet as well as other forms of written information as an important addition to other communication with the school, which they often find rather unsatisfactory.

Typical format of these books is DIN A 6. They consist of several A5 sheets ( eighth arches , hence the name Octavo Notebook from lat. Octavus "eighth", see octavo ), which folded in half once and using staples are connected.

Further forms of written teacher-parent communication

In some schools, notices are entered in the child's homework book instead of in a notice book, along with the homework list .

Notifications, insofar as they concern all students in a class, are also given by the teachers in paper form as a letter to parents or sent as an email .

As a formal completion notification for a year or -halbjahr serving certificate .

Individual evidence

↑ So z. B. around 1838 at the municipal daughter school in Berlin. “Every child would have to hold a booklet in octave format, in which each of the teachers would have to write a short judgment about the child on the last day of each month (with the exception of every third month, on which a detailed censorship would be given in all classes). The parents and foster mothers of the poorer pupils would be inclined to keep these little books in constant attention to the domestic diligence and management of the children. ” Landesarchiv Berlin , A Rep. 020-02 No. 259 Bl. 3.

^ Rüdiger Laskowski, Katharina Weinhold: Critical distance. For communication and cooperation between family and elementary school with all-day offers in Saxony. In: Regina Soremski, Michael Urban, Andreas Lange (Ed.): Family, Peers and All-Day School . Juventa Verlag, Weinheim and Munich, 2011, ISBN 978-3-7799-2157-8 , pp. 129-145 (Google Books).

[1] So z. B. around 1838 at the municipal daughter school in Berlin. “Every child would have to hold a booklet in octave format, in which each of the teachers would have to write a short judgment about the child on the last day of each month (with the exception of every third month, on which a detailed censorship would be given in all classes). The parents and foster mothers of the poorer pupils would be inclined to keep these little books in constant attention to the domestic diligence and management of the children. ” Landesarchiv Berlin , A Rep. 020-02 No. 259 Bl. 3.