Last week I had an excellent conversation with the group of parents who attended our termly Forum meeting.  We were able to unpick one or two matters, strengthening our assessment of where we are as a school and what we need to focus upon to move even further forward in our quest to become outstanding.

Firstly, the conversation centred around after school clubs.  It was good to hear that the provision we offer has improved over the past three years.  However, the feeling was that we could do more.  Parents came up with a wide array of clubs that they would like to see running that children would be interested in.  They also wanted a broader opportunity for a range of children across the year groups, with less limits placed upon numbers.

We then talked about the barriers to this type of provision.  Unsurprisingly the matter came down to having people to run the clubs.  Given a finite number of staff, the conversation turned to external paid providers and parental volunteers.  Both sound a reasonable way forward, although each ask for decisions to be made by parents.  External providers will clearly bring costs.  We thought at the Forum that up to £5 per session was a reasonable price.  With regard to parental volunteers, potentially running a club, we needed to know how parents would feel about this.  Clearly as a school we would in both of the above scenarios carry out the appropriate safety and quality checks prior to starting.  However, for both matters I would ask that parents use the online discussion forum to share thoughts and opinions on the matter before we proceed.

We also talked about transition points at Y3 and Y6 and some ways that we could aid the process further and the communication of children’s progress.  Both of which I’m sure will appear in the upcoming Improvement Plan for 2012-13.

My many thanks to those parents attending the forum and using the blog.  Following the meeting my opinions are changing about the processes we use.  Having a small group of parents to consider key issues with certainly creates a good discussion base, especially if this is informed by the broader community through the blog.  Therefore I am carefully considering moving more to a parents council approach, being informed by the discussion forum, next term.  Again this is a good point for the discussion forum to consider also.  

Have a good weekend!  

Mark

NUT ALLERGIES
We have several children in school with severe nut allergies. Please help us to keep them safe by being viglant when sending food products, suncreams or modeling boxes into school. Please take care to ensure that, wherever possible, these are nut free. Individual classes will be made aware of classmates' needs. Thank You