Our school achieved the re-accreditation of the Leading Parent Partnership Award (LPPA) in 2017. Below is an explanation from the LPPA website about what the aims and benefits of achieving the award are.

The Aims of the LPPA

The LPPA aims to support schools and settings in addressing the areas they find most challenging in terms of parent partnership. Here are some of the most common ones:

  • Knowing what you want to achieve through parent partnership.
  • How to make your school or setting genuinely welcoming to parents and carers.
  • How to communicate really effectively with parents and carers.
  • How to get all parents and carers involved with the school – particularly the ‘harder to reach’.
  • How to engage all staff in working effectively with parents and carers.
  • How to support parents and carers so they can really help with their children’s learning.
  • Finding time to plan and organise events and activities to engage parents.
  • Coping with limited physical space and resources.
  • How to best use information and communications technology to enhance parent partnership.
  • Increasing parental engagement in the context of the safeguarding agenda.
  • Knowing how well you are doing and the impact parent partnership is having on pupils’ and students’ achievement.

Developing parent partnership through the LPPA Objectives can help schools and settings to meet a number of longer-term success criteria including:

  • Improved punctuality, attendance and behaviour
  • Improved pupil or student progress
  • Increased parental involvement in consultation events and learning activities
  • Increased number and range of parents actively involved with the school

After consultation with parents, we have created a Parent Partnership Policy to enhance and promote our commitment to LPPA.

Parent Partnership Policy

Introduction

Both home and school want the best for children in our care. Parents want them to have the best opportunities so that they can become successful and happy members of the community. Devonshire Road School wants to provide pupils with the environment and support they need to achieve all their ambitions. Effective partnership between home and school is key to these aspirations. Parents and carers are the most important influence in a child’s life, and the school needs to listen to and communicate with parents effectively to build the trust and understanding needed for pupils to achieve their best. Any educational initiative can only be fully effective if there is partnership between parents, children and school.

At Devonshire Road Primary School we recognise the importance of and value parental involvement in the everyday life of the school. We want to develop a close relationship with parents that supports and encourages their children to be the best that they can be. We believe that education is a collaborative enterprise involving amongst others, parents, staff and children. We are therefore committed to establishing and maintaining an effective and purposeful working relationship between the school and home.

Aims of the Policy

  1. To support pupils to achieve the highest standards through closer partnerships between home and school.
  2. To involve parents fully in school life and the school community.
  3. To ensure that all staff, governors and parents are able to support the pupils’ development effectively at all stages of their school life at Devonshire Road Primary school.
  4. To develop good communication with parents by operating an ‘Open Door’ policy that encourages the fullest possible two way communication between staff and parents.
  5. To provide an environment inclusive of all parents and their children, regardless of need, background or culture.

To develop good communication and fully inform parents about what is happening in school we will:

  • Hold a range of induction events for parents of children starting their school life at Devonshire Road Primary.
  • Make letters, school website and key policies “user friendly”, useful and informative.
  • Provide a regular and up-to-date information service through the weekly school newsletter, text messages, emails and school website.
  • To hold meetings to discuss evaluate and update Individual Educational Plans/ individual language plans for children with additional needs.
  • Provide weekly newsletters to inform parents of upcoming events and celebrate achievements.
  • Regularly updated class information informing parents of their child’s curriculum on the school website.
  • Hold a parents’ consultation meeting in the Autumn Term and in the Spring Term.
  • Provide parents with advance notice of all school events and dates, with up-dates as appropriate.
  • To actively involving parents in the celebration of pupil success.
  • Promote systems of active communication between home and school.
  • To regularly reviewing the Home-School Agreement to take account of parental views, and communicate it regularly and clearly.

To actively involve parents in the education and progress of their child we will:

  • Offer two formal parents’ consultations for each class each year.
  • Send annual reports at the end of each year.
  • Provide regular opportunities to extend pupils’ learning at home.
  • Operate a reading record book between home and school.
  • Invite parents into school to share and celebrate achievements.
  • Provide a weekly ‘drop in’ for parents to discuss their child’s progress and any concerns they may have.
  • EYFS/ KS1 hold termly stay and play sessions.
  • Celebration events held at the end of topics to share work and celebrate success.
  • To set home/ school homework tasks to involve parents fully in their child’s learning.
  • To hold individual meetings held with a range of staff.
  • A written summary of attainment and next steps is given at Parents evenings.

To make good use of parents’ expertise and willingness to enhance their own learning and that of their child and other children and to actively involve them in school life we will encourage parents to:

  • Volunteer to support within classrooms and/or become parent governors.
  • Attend Open Classroom/ stay and play / celebration events
  • To attend a variety of school led events eg: coffee mornings.
  • Attend school performances, events, assemblies and celebrations.
  • Become involved in school projects.
  • Participate in Family Learning events organised by the school.
  • Join or support the school’s Parents’, Teachers’, and Friends’ Association. (PTFA)
  • Use opportunities to have informal discussions with staff members.
  • Play an active role in parent partnership group.
  • Take part in Parents workshops/ Adult learning courses / EAL support groups
  • Support parents and carers with attendance issues.

To establish the views and opinions of parents we will:

  • Conduct an annual parental questionnaire and inform parents of the results
  • Ask parents to evaluate key events in school.
  • Seek parental consultation on key issues in school.
  • Encourage parents to review key policies

The school will regularly seek parental views on a range of topics affecting pupils’ education through questionnaires, surveys and verbal discussion. Feedback is valued, and responses will be seriously considered and actioned where appropriate and in pupils’ best interests. We want to create a ‘ you said, we did’ ethos at Devonshire Road.