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)