Parent Council

What is the Parent Council?

The Parent Council is a very different and separate parent group from a PTA and the Governing Body. The committee is made up of 12 parent volunteers who provide a voice for our parents at our half termly Parent Council meetings. Meeting with our senior leadership team on a half termly basis, the Parent Council put forward all of your suggestions, concerns and queries regarding our school that arise throughout the year. Our aim is to discuss whole school improvement areas and work in partnership with the council to achieve the best possible outcomes for our pupils. This is different from a PTA, whose main function is to support the school through fundraising.

How does it work?

The Parent Council comprises of one representative from each class who meet each half term with Mrs Williams and Ms Kelleher and any other relevant members of staff to address topics that have been brought to each class representative’s attention. These sessions are solution-focused and the purpose of them is to work on prioritising issues and concerns, together with SLT - in order to better our school. At these half termly meetings, suggestions are put forward by our reps, they are given careful consideration and a plan of action is then devised. Where appropriate, items for discussion will also be added to the agenda for the following Parent Council meeting. Topics discussed at the meeting will then be collated by each representative and passed onto all parents via email.

Objectives of the Parent Council:

To strengthen the partnership between parents and staff
To support the children’s learning
To facilitate parental understanding of the curriculum of the school
To share and celebrate the successes of our community
To provide clarification over any issues in order to avoid confusion
To involve parents in the decision-making process for various improvements and changes within the school
To act as a forum for feedback and a voice for suggestions

Who are our Class Representatives?

Here at St. Francis, we like to think of all our parents as valuable members of our council and the wider school. However, we do have a representative from each class - elected by you - to act as the parent voice at our half termly meetings.

What impact has the Parent Council had so far?

We believe our Parent Council to have been a success in strengthening our school community so far. Simply by providing our parents with a voice to talk directly to staff on important matters, we have seen improvement in effective communication between school and home.

We take all of the concerns that your class representatives put to us very seriously and as a result of suggestions raised during council meetings, we have made some exciting changes and improvements to our school.

If you have a comment, suggestion, query or question to put to our Parent Council, please liaise with your class representative.