 Working Together
Introduction to the Review Process
Attendance
Parents Evening
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| Working Together |
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Parents and teachers need to work toward a common goal with shared responsibilities if a child is to do well in school. Ideally, children will view their parents as their first teachers. When children see the school and parents working together, they become motivated to do better in school, resulting in gains at all ages and across all key stages. When schools, parents and carers share information and are in regular contact, everyone has a better understanding of how to help children learn, having a positive effect on attainment and achievement. The links in this section of the site are designed to help parents.
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| In order to better understand the views of parents, an Annual Survey is carried out. We live in a rapidly changing world. In order to meet the needs of pupils in the 21st Century, the school is working to implement the main aims of a Government document entitled “Every Child Matters: Change for Children (December 2004)”. As a school, we want to help our pupils to: |
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Be healthy.
Stay safe.
Enjoy/achieve at school.
Make a positive contribution to their community.
Achieve economic wellbeing. |
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This is something we can’t do in isolation. Only by working closely with all our parents can we truly hope to enhance the lives and opportunities of all our children.
Involving parents and carers: |
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Allows us to work with parents who are our partners in a child’s education.
Helps us to reflect parents’ views in our plans and activities.
Allows contentious issues to be sensitively discussed and satisfactorily addressed.
Means community needs can be better met. |
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| Research from the USA supports the view that the quality of a prents’ involvement with their child’s school/education can result in gains at all ages/levels and is a better indicator of long term achievement than either parental income or class. |
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Parents’ and Carers’ Views of the School, 2005
Our last survey was in May 2005 and was based on the 2003 Ofsted Questionnaire. The parents of pupils in Years 7-10 (836 students) were surveyed and we received 118 replies (or 14% of the cohort). This compares with a 19% return rate back in 2003.
Some 84 (or 96%) of parents said the school was welcoming, had high expectations, a good reputation, was well resourced, staff were approachable and handled complaints well.
Many parents echoed the views of one respondent who “found school to be well run and helpful when child has problems.”
Areas of concern which were highlighted included happiness/bullying; behaviour; homework; sources of help; understanding the curriculum; role of Governors; range of extra-curricular activities; initiatives, e.g., Gifted and Talented; communication. These concerns have been taken on board and we will seek to respond positively to them.
When we compared these results with the 2003 Ofsted Questionnaire, there was little change in parents’ views of their child’s progress (2003-97%, 2005-96%), homework set (2003-85%, 2005-86%), quality of teaching (2003-94%, 2005-93%), quality of leadership (2003-94%, 2005-93%).
Areas where a change in parental views was noted included behaviour is good (2003-93%, 2005-84%), extra-curricular (2003-83%, 2005-78%) and development of maturity (2003-94%, 2005-88%). Interestingly, the views of parents mirrored in many ways the views of both staff and pupils, who were also surveyed last summer, and this year’s School Development Plan includes targets relating to personalised learning, social behaviour and classroom management. |
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As a school, we will be seeking to better grow parental involvements in the next 12 months by:
Raising awareness amongst staff and parents.
Identifying areas for us to review in the light of parent voice, e.g., our website, letters.
Providing user-friendly information about the curriculum and how parents can work in partnership with the school.
Considering parents at the planning stage of new activities.
By revisiting our questionnaire annually. |
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| Any positive suggestions about how we can better inform/involve parents in future would be welcome, and parents are invited to contact either in writing or by phone Mrs M Grant (Deputy Head) with their ideas. |
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