Working together with our parents

We are a friendly and welcoming school and love to involve our parents in their children’s learning and the life of our school as much as possible. We aim to establish a mutually supportive and respectful relationship with all our parents where trust and respect is at the heart of all we do. We like to keep parents informed and involved in a positive way, through working in partnership together in many ways in order to help every pupil achieve their full potential socially, emotionally and academically.

The research

All the research tells us that engaging parents in their children’s learning leads to improved social skills, behaviour and academic progress for the children in school. The Education Endowment Foundation says that children can make 3 months or more progress if their parents are involved in their learning over the course of just one year! This research, alongside all the positive benefits we see when parents become more involved in their children’s learning, has led us to think of new ways that we can work together with our parents to make this partnership even stronger.

Creative Fun sessions

Last summer term we established a ‘Creative Fun’ enrichment group on Friday afternoons led by Mrs Llewellyn and Ellie, a visiting art teacher, where children can work alongside their parents to complete art and craft activities. We have invited a range of children from across the school to attend. Spaces are limited but we have already had 21 children attend these groups and are ready to begin the fun with another 12 children. The children love the sessions and are so excited to see their parents and work with them to create something together. After the sessions Mrs Llewellyn takes the children back to their classes and the parents are invited to stay for a cup of tea or coffee; this is a lovely opportunity for parents to meet each other and chat informally about their child and school. During these times Mrs Llewellyn will take any suggestions back to Miss Harris; for example, one parent wanted to find out more about PE in school and Miss Harris is now going to lead a PE information session for parents.

The feedback from these sessions has been super!

Feedback from the children:

“I get so excited when it’s time to see my Mummy and come and make something together.”

“My Daddy was a good drawer and I was proud of him.”

“When I do stuff with Mummy, we can then make it again at home because we both know what to do.”

“I liked it and Mummy liked making friends and it was very funny sometimes when we all laughed!”

“Mummy had cups of tea with Mrs Llewellyn and they chatted about things and Mummy said it was nice to talk about children and schools.”

Feedback from parents:

“It really was the most enjoyable quality time with my son and it was nice to chat afterwards and know I wasn’t the only one with a concern about my child. It was great to be able to share things.”

“The sessions have been just brilliant! We talked about them a lot at home and even had a go again at the activities together.”

“It was good to see my girls with their teachers and friends and then we showed what we had made to the whole family later.”

“I really would recommend it! My child just loved it!”