Parent Council Report - September 2011
Our Academy Parent Council met for the first time this academic year and we were really pleased to have new faces join us! Mr Lewis, Assistant Principal: Intervention, gave an informative presentation on Assessment, Progress Reports and Exams, helping to explain the differences between GCSE and BTEC qualifications. Next, there was the opportunity to look more closely at the Academy website and learn about the enrichment opportunities available to students.
Parent feedback is extremely valuable to the Academy; in our July meeting we were asked to investigate alternative school bag options to cope with the demands of student equipment, such as PE kit. It was pleasing to be able to present at this meeting a sample rucksack, which we will use to survey students' preferences across the Academy, and to inform parents that a drawstring PE bag, as requested by parents, is now available to buy from the Academy uniform shop.
The next meeting will take place on 29th February 2012 and will include a presentation on the Academy Behaviour Policy. Please contact Mrs Helen Eastlake if you are interested in hearing more about the Parent Council and how you can get involved in the life of the Academy. We very much hope you will join us.
Note: Once again we are always looking for parents to come along and help support our enrichment programme. Please take some time to take a look at our Autumn Term Enrichment timetable to see if there are any opportunities of interest to you.
Parent Council Report – 4th July 2011
Our second Parent Council meeting proved a big success with increased numbers of parents attending and some very positive discussions. The structure of the Academy was explained by Mrs Eastlake, followed by an informative presentation by two of our Learning Village Leaders, Ms Barnbrook (Communications) and Mrs Bowen-Cassie (Maths & Business) where their role and responsibilities were explained.
It was helpful to hear parental views of their children’s experience moving from their Middle Schools to the Academy and these views are helping to inform our Transition process in the future. Improving communication with parents continues to be a Parent Council theme and it was encouraging to hear that the increasing use of text messaging is favoured by parents as a way to keep them informed. We are, as a direct result of parent suggestions, currently investigating the option for parents to reply by text to the Academy.
Parents requested we consider a choice of school bags, possibly to include a rucksack and a PE kit bag, as it was felt the Academy bag was too small for all the demands of students’ books, lunch boxes and PE kit. We are pleased to report that we have introduced a PE drawstring bag that will be available from September and have also requested rucksack samples from our suppliers that we very much hope will lead to Academy rucksacks available at the start of term.
General discussion points:
• Student lockers: parents were informed that these would form part of the New Build for all students
• Anti-bullying and Attendance emails: parents were alerted to our confidential email address available for all students or parents (antibully@bedfordacademy.co.uk) and our attendance email address for all absence and attendance queries (attendance@bedfordacademy.co.uk). Following consultation with other schools, the use of texts to inform the school of absence will not be adopted due to security limitations. However, the school switchboard does have the option to leave a message at any time of the day and is manned from 8am to 5pm.
• Parents were updated on all forthcoming events and advised that assistance at any Academy event (including our Summer Fayre, Parents Evenings or Enrichment opportunities next term) would be very welcome.
Items planned for our next meeting on 20th September 2011 are:
• Parental views on the Academy website
• Understanding Assessment and Progress Reports
All parent and carers are most welcome to join us at any meeting!
Parent Council Report - 28th April 2011
Thank you to all parents who came along to our first Academy Parent Council meeting earlier this half term. This was an opportunity for parents to come together, share ideas and put forward their views to Academy staff.
Valuable discussions were held on parents’ perceptions of ,and hopes for, the Academy and where improvements have or could be made. It was encouraging to hear that parents like our strict approach to Academy uniform, mobile phones and punctuality and how they feel that our students look smart. They also told us that students feel safe in school, with few incidents of bullying and that there is increased respect between students and teachers.
We were asked to improve our advance notice of events to allow parents more opportunity to attend and to hold more events for parents to come along to; we are working hard to address these. We are increasingly using our website and newsletter as key focal points for information and have also increased our use of text communication for important messages to parents. Hand delivered post by students and traditional post continue to be used but, over time, the use of email systems will undoubtedly be the way forward; if you have an email account that we can use for communicating with you, please inform Main Reception on (01234) 301500.
We were asked to keep parents up-to-date with the varied enrichment programme available for students (which can be found here: http://bedfordacademy.co.uk/enrichment) and to explore whether parental knowledge, skills and expertise could be shared with our students in some of our enrichment activities. We are constantly looking for new opportunities to involve parents in the life of the Academy, thus if you have a skill that you are happy to share with our students we would welcome your involvement. Please take time to browse through the enrichment timetable and if you have any ideas, please contact heastlake@bedfordacademy.co.uk
Parent Council meetings will be at regular intervals throughout the year and all parents/carers of an academy child are welcome. At our next meeting there will be a presentation on the academy organisational structure with a particular focus on Learning Village organisation and pastoral care for students.