Parent Partnerships

At Parkland Primary School we recognise the importance of and value parental involvement in the life of the school. Throughout this website the term parent is used to refer to parents, guardians and carers. We believe that education is a collaborative enterprise involving amongst others, parents, staff and children. As a school we are therefore committed to establishing and maintaining an effective and purposeful working relationship between the school and home.

“It’s what parents do rather than who they are that counts” (Charles Desforge)

“Parental involvement in a child’s education can be a more powerful force in learning then family background and parents’ education level, and contributes to no less than 10% of variation in achievement”. (DfES 1999)

It is known that:

Parents/carers are the most important influence in a child’s life. Any educational initiative can only be fully effective if there is partnership between parents, children and providers
Parents want their child to succeed
Children need educational and emotional support if they are to succeed. Parents need to be able to provide this effectively
Many parents have missed the opportunity of furthering their education and training
The school is a resource for the community it serves

Aims:

To develop good communication with parents and to fully inform them about what is happening in school
To actively involve parents in the education and progress of their child
To make good use of parents’ expertise and willingness to enhance their own learning and that of their child and other children and to actively involve them in school life
To establish the views and opinions of parents of the school and act upon these

To actively involve parents in the education and progress of their child we will:

Offer two parents evening for each year group each year
Hold an annual pupil/parent/teacher consultation day
Send annual reports at the end of each year

To develop good communication and fully inform parents about what is happening in school we will:

Ensure all school communication and key policies are “user friendly”, useful and informative
Aim to keep parents right up to date with news and events, via email and text messages
Provide regular communication between the home and the classroom through the school communication online platform, Class Dojo (Tapestry in Foundation). In addition to relevant letters and communications, class teachers will also use this app to share photos of learning and lessons each week.
Send half termly school and curriculum newsletters containing information such as dates and events
Keep parents up to date with school activities through the school’s twitter account @ParklandSch
Invite parents to a parent’s evening in both the Autumn and Spring Term
Hold a parent’s meeting in the Summer Term for parents and pupils to meet their new class teacher for the following year
Ensure key information is regularly updated on the school website and the displays around the school

To make good use of parents’ expertise and willingness to enhance their own learning and that of their child and other children and to actively involve them in school life we will encourage parents to:

Volunteer to support within classrooms and/or become parent governors.
Regularly offer parent engagement days linked to the curriculum and school priorities
Attend class and praise assemblies
Attend school performances, events and celebrations
Become involved in school projects
Participate in Family and Adult Learning events organised by school
Join or support the school fundraising group
Use opportunities to have informal discussions with staff members

To establish the views and opinions of parents and act upon these we will:

Hold an annual parental questionnaire and inform parents of the results
Ask parents to evaluate key events in school
Seek parental consultation on key issues in school.
Establish a Parent Partnership Group