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On Friday we had the latest of our Coffee mornings for parents.  Yet again it was a constructive session with teenagers and their behaviours at the top of the agenda for the parents who attended.  I fed back that I had taken their thoughts to the senior management and, as a result, the parents evening policy had not been changed. Communication was again an issue and we discussed mailing staff directly with questions.The big question was how to convince all parents that the morning was for them.  All I can do is assure you that I attend without any agenda except meeting parents on an informal basis.  We do not discuss individual issues for students but we do talk about how to improve the school, it would be lovely to see you!

Last Friday we had the first parent's coffee morning.  Although not exactly packed out it was extremely useful.  The major point of the meeting was how do we reach the parents who do not think the meeting is for them.  There is not much I can say other than give it a go, you might like it!  How often do you get a chance to have access to a senior member of staff with no agenda?

So what did we talk about?  Well the first request was that the school run a session on how to deal with teenagers, I am currently looking into this but we would hope to provide an instruction book of some sort, because let’s face it they do not come with one. We also discussed that we should not send too many texts, something I will be feeding back to the Extended Leadership group.  It was suggested that the text should reinforce what is on the website.

I showed the group FROG, our new VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) which we will be rolling out in the very near future.  The group commented that the school had become a lot more of a friendly place to visit but it is important for all staff to realise they have a role to play in that.

Finally we discussed parent's evenings, this was an item I raised.  We are interested in how to improve the attendance to parent's evenings.  After all we send a text, a letter, we put it on Twitter you may even get a phone call and yet we still do not get everyone in.  Are you one of the people who does not attend?  I would be really grateful if you would let me know why, I will not judge you or attempt to ‘turn you round’ I just would like some ideas as to why they are not appropriate.

Thanks for reading, I hope to see you next Friday.

Russ Sauntry