St Mary Magdalene Catholic Primary School
Hastings Road, Bexhill-on-Sea
East Sussex, TN40 2ND
Tel.: 01424 735810
Fax: 01424 733664
office@stmarymagsbex.e-sussex.sch.uk
Headteacher: Miss Véronique Vanderschelden
PARENT FORUM – New Initiative
Thank you to all who attended our first Parent Forum meeting on 15/01/15 at 2.15pm.
The meeting was a good opportunity for the school community to express views and
discuss how the school can continue to improve.
MINUTES
Attendees:
Miss Vanderschelden, Headteacher
13 parents, two of them members of the PTFA and another one a
member of the Governing Body
1. Welcome and thanks from the Headteacher, Miss Vanderschelden.
St Mary Magdalene is a happy school where we are all striving to do our best
and deal with any issues we feel must be dealt with. Children are our focus
and priority. Success works best when parents and school work together.
Better communication, new ideas and working together are our goals.
2. The Principles guiding the Forum will make it:
 Collaborative – working together for the benefit of the school
community
 Constructive – helping to identify effective solutions
 Transparent – keeping everyone informed of meetings and their
outcomes (with help from parents)
 Encouraging and respectful – welcoming new ideas and initiatives and
following the school’s positive ethos
3. Who can be part of the Forum?
Everyone in our school community: parents and carers of children attending St
Mary Magdalene are all welcome to be part of the Forum. In addition, a
representative from the Governors and from the Leadership Team will attend
each meeting.
4. What the Parent Forum is not
The Parent Forum is not a decision-making body but a body which can feed in
views and represent the parents and carers of issues surrounding the school.
The Parent Forum is also not the place to discuss concerns or complaints
involving individual children, families or members of staff as there are other
procedures in place for this.
The Arundel and Brighton Diocesan Trust is a Registered Charity No 252878
5. What format should the Parent Forum adopt?
The format would depend on the number of parents/carers attending. As a
large group, we could split up into small groups. As a small group, we could
work together. We could include other ways to communicate, e.g. message
box.
6. Links with PTFA
We need to agree the difference between the Parent Forum and the PTFA.
We could use a PTFA box and a Parent Forum box. Parents would be very
welcome to leave their contributions in either box if they cannot attend the
meetings.
There will be six meetings per year.
7. Advertising
We must ensure that the Parents Forum meeting is advertised two weeks in
advance. This will be done through the school newsletter, school website,
Parent boards, classroom doors, school gate, etc.
The PTFA may find a new notice board.
8. Potential issues, ideas, initiatives
Examples of issues or ideas that could be discussed were raised, such as
communication, school path (access difficult for parents with buggies), ground
rules, website (display school dinner menu, create a school uniform order link
so that parents could place orders online).
9. Ideas for discussion next time
 Communication
 Access issues – paths
 School uniform – ties
 North Field – equipment
 Parent support – skills audit
 Website
Next Parent Forum meeting
Thursday 12th March 2015
(put it in your diary now)