Parents as Partners

Parent Involvement

Children have two main educators in their lives – their parents and their teachers. Parents undertake the child’s education pre-school and remain a major influence through the school years and beyond. The school and the parents play crucial roles throughout the school years and the impact is greater if parents and the school work in partnership.

A strong home/school partnership is key to children’s emotional development, progress and growth as part of the community.

Pre-School - Bright Beginnings Stay & Play and Tuneful Stars (for children birth to three)

Parents can give their child a great start to their learning by attending our Bright Beginnings sessions.

Click here to find out more about our Bright Beginnings

Nursery & Reception

Children attend our Early Years provisions and learn predominantly through play in both indoor and outdoor settings. There are lots of opportunities to learn together with your child at school and gain ways to support their learning and development at home. This is highly encouraged and will benefit your child throughout their school life.

Recent research has shown that:

Playing with letters and numbers at home improves a child’s attainment in school.
Drawing a child’s attention to sounds and letters helps develop their literacy skills, early number skills and non-verbal attainment.
Where parents help their children with reading at home, those children show increased enthusiasm for learning.
Children who practise at home show a highly significant improvement in reading.
Some children who read to their parents who cannot themselves read English still show improvement in their reading.
Children achieve more when parents and school work together.
Very high parental interest is associated with better exam results than for children whose parents show no interest.
The benefits of parents engaging with children go beyond academic success. Studies show that children of involved parents have better social skills, are less vulnerable to stress and enjoy better health.
Children’s progress can be hindered by lack of parental involvement. If you have any queries please see our Family Worker or speak to your child’s Class Teacher.

We encourage parents to support their children’s learning at home in a variety of ways, including:

Jointly signing the Home/School agreement and explaining to your child their responsibilities.
Supporting our rules and expectations.
Reading with children as often as possible.
Checking and signing their Reading Records on a regular basis and as a means of contacting teachers.
Visiting the library together.
Encouraging children to complete and return promptly any homework they have been given including learning their spellings and helping them learn scripts for plays and performances.
Talking with the teacher if parents have any concerns regarding their children’s learning or behaviour at school or at home.

Get involved!

There are many ways in getting involved in school life including:

Attend parent workshops, school performances, events and celebrations
Attend parent consultations, reviews and information meetings
Speaking to the children about your job to support lessons/assemblies e.g. vets, nurses, doctors, dentists etc.
Become involved in school projects
Get involved with fundraising
Volunteer to support in school
Use opportunities to have informal discussions with staff members
Become a parent governor
Become a Parent Champion
Check the school website for updates and information on what’s happening in school
Check your ParentMail regularly for news and letters
Complete parent surveys and questionnaires
Share new ideas and suggestions with staff

Further Information

If you require more information on Parental Involvement please speak to our Family Team and don’t forget to look out for lots of opportunities to join your child in school life!