Sharing of Good Practice
Last updated | 08/03/2011
Many of our Parent Councils are finding different ways to
support the school pupils. Here are some examples of good practice
in Perth and Kinross. If your Parent Council wishes to
share some ideas please contact the Operations Manager at ecsgeneralenquries@pkc.gov.uk
Friends of Stanley Primary School
Friends of Stanley Primary School have discovered an easy
fundraising online shopping website. This is a great and
simple way of raising extra funds for schools. The website is
www.easyfundraising.org.uk
All the school had to do was to get the Treasurer, another member
of the Parent Council, or anyone for that matter, to register their
school and start informing the parents of the website so that they
could begin using it to do their online shopping. If the
school raises over £15 in a quarter then they issue a cheque
to whoever is registered, which is made payable to the
school. If the school doesn't raise £15 in the quarter,
it rolls on to the next quarter until the amount has been
raised. It costs parents absolutely nothing to use and allows
access to over 600 retailers.
This is a very easy way of raising funds with very little
effort. To date, Stanley Primary School has raised £40
and this is with only a few parents actually using it.
Imagine how much could be raised if everyone used it!
Murthly Parent Council
At Murthly we try to update parents at every Parent Council
Meeting on current educational initiatives either through a short
talk or a practical session. For example, over the last few
meetings we have told parents about developments in
Curriculum for Excellence, Active Schools and at the next
meeting we will be having a practical demonstration of Co-operative
Learning and discussing becoming a Rights Respecting School.
The Parent Council is also actively involved in creating the new
vision, values and aims for the school in line with the changing
world.
Murthly Primary School has a dedicated page on the school web site
for the Parent Council on which we have posted the constitution,
along with minutes of the meetings. On the web site we have
also included a page of useful web addresses which parents can go
to for further information on education.
At the last Parent Council meeting, the Headteacher gave a brief
talk on co-operative learning and this led onto using co-operative
learning techniques. The focus of the work was to get each
group to work on what the values of the school should be from the
point of view of the parent. They created 'messy maps' and
then discussed these before deciding on what each group felt
were the main 5 values a school should pursue. Each group
shared their thoughts and then compared their lists with what the
children in the two older classes had come up with using the same
co-operative learning method. To their surprise they found
that the children's views often echoed their own.
Kinnoull Primary School
Curriculum Evenings
Once or twice a year the school hosts curriculum evenings where
teachers present small workshops on how different subjects are
taught at school. For example, maths, reading, IT safety, as
well as showing photos of school outings. We also use the
school hall during these events to put up stands for the School
Council, School Association and Eco Committee to publicise the
work we are doing with parents and how they can become
involved.
Learning Steps Jotters
These booklets come home with the pupils once a term and show a
record of what they have been learning at school. Parents
have to write down comments on the work done which promotes
discussion between pupils and parents, as well as giving a picture
of their progression.
