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What is the Parent Forum?
The membership of a Parent Forum is made up of parents who
have a child at an
education authority school. Parents are automatically members of the Parent
Forum for
their school. One of the ways parents in the Parent Forum will be able to
express their
views will be through the Parent Council. As a member of the Parent Forum, each
parent can expect to:
Receive information about the school and its activities
Hear more in future about what partnership with parents means in their school
Be invited to be involved in ways and times that suit them
Participate in deciding how the parent representative body, the Parent
Council, is
organised and how it operates
Identify issues they want the Parent Council to work on with the school
Be asked their opinion by the Parent Council on issues relating to the school
and the
education it provides
Work in partnership with staff
Enjoy taking part in the life of the school in whatever way they can.
It is important that all parents know about their membership of the Parent
Forum.
What is the Parent Council?
The Parent Council is a group of parents selected by members of
the Parent Forum to
represent all the parents of children at a school. Parent Councils are very
flexible groups
and the Parent Forum can decide on the type of group it wants to represent their
views. Parents might decide they want a representative from each year group in
the
school. They might want to include pupils, other teachers at the school or
parents from
a feeder primary or secondary school. This flexibility allows parents to choose
a Parent
Council which reflects their school and will encourage parents to get involved.
The type of things a Parent Council could get involved in include:
Supporting the work of the school
Gathering and representing parents views to the headteacher, education
authority
and HMIE
Promoting contact between the school, parents, pupils, providers of nursery
education and the local community
Fundraising
Organising events
Being involved in the appointment of senior staff.
Main features of Parent Councils
The Parent Forum decides on the type of Parent Council and constitution that
is right
for the school
Only parents of children at that school can be members of the Parent Council
The Parent Forum can agree that the Parent Council constitution allows other
people
to be co-opted
The local church or denominational body can nominate someone to be co-opted
onto the Parent Council of a denominational school
The Parent Council chair must be a parent of a child at that school
The headteacher or their representative has a right and a duty to attend
Parent
Council meetings, unless the parents and headteacher decide otherwise
Schools can choose to set up a Combined Parent Council which would cover more
than one school. |
