Working together for improvement
Direct feedback highlighted that parents and families appreciated opportunities to be actively and meaningfully involved in the wider life of the school. To enable them to do so, communication with families should be multifaceted, clear and concise and include regular feedback on how their views are represented within school policy and planning.
Improvement planning works best when consideration is given to specific strands and perspectives. These included hearing from parents, pupils, staff and considering the priorities for the school.
Calendar opportunities
Provide regular opportunities for families to join in and have their say and make these clear on school calendars/documents.
Show the impact
Rather than families thinking so what? Share the impact that their input has had on the school and decision-making processes.
Be open to feedback
Feedback from families can be wide ranging so be receptive to all feedback and use it as an opportunity to reflect on what’s happening in your school.
Embed into improvement plans
Incorporate elements of family feedback and ensure this just becomes part of the thinking across all areas.
Calendar
- utilise your school calendar to integrate Parent Council meetings and family focus groups to build opportunities to contribute to improvement openly and honestly.
Impact
- Show the impact families have by making visible through 'You said, we did' noticeboards and online platforms.
Improvement plans
- Consider how to use family focus groups or questionnaires as part of the review process across each priority.
'It is clear that the school values what we have to say. The fact we get so many opportunities to feed into such a variety of topics is brilliant.' (S4 Family)
'Families seem to appreciate what we do to bring them into the life of the school, we can't wait to plan even more opportunities for them to do so.' (Teaching staff)
'We really appreciate the school taking our views into account when deciding what the priorities are to be next year.' (Families)