The School Community council is a forum in which members of the school community can come together to share ideas and put forward their views to the headteacher and the governing body of the school.

As a result, it is hoped that this will get our wider school community such as parents, grandparents and families involved in the active decision making of the school, fostering a culture of ownership and participation.

We set the agenda out in advance so that members have time to think about and talk about their views on the agenda items. The council includes representatives from the school staff, parents, grandparents, local community and governors.

School Community Councils provide a framework for schools to listen to parents. Typically, a group meet, together with the school, on a regular basis, usually termly, to discuss school. It is ideally a representative body of a range of parents, extended family or carers from different year groups or parts of the school community. The headteacher or a member of the school’s leadership team usually attends to represent the school and answer questions. Parents, staff or governors may suggest topics for inclusion on the agenda.

An effective School Community Council should have a link with the governing board (for example through the attendance of a parent governor or a governor attending the School community council meeting) to ensure that parents’ views are taken account of in school decision-making and then reflected in the school improvement plan.

 

Parents, grandparents and eligible family members can volunteer to join the School Community Council, the school can select members or depending on the size of the school, parents can be nominated to represent them on the School Community Council.

What does a School Community Council do?

The School Community Council canvasses the views of the wider parent body in order to advise the school leadership and/or governing board of the parents’ views on different issues. Whilst decisions on matters of policy are made by the governing board, a feature of good governance is to know your school and take account of parents’ views so they are as workable as possible. The school leadership will also find it helpful to listen to parent feedback on operational issues.

A Parent Council can:

•Help the school take the needs of the parents into account when making their decisions.

•Give the school leadership an opportunity to explain decisions to parents.

•Provide parents with a mechanism for asking questions of the school.

•Help the school to access parental expertise which may benefit the school.

•Help parents to understand decisions from the point of view of the school.

•Increase parental involvement in and commitment to the school.

•Improve communication between school and home.

•Support and promote the work of the school.

•Develop a partnership between home and school so that everyone works together for the benefit of the school and all pupils.