2018-2019

Getting back on your bike!

Resilience, self-compassion and well-being Parents Evening with Maureen Bowes

WOW! What an amazing evening!  Thank you to all the parents, governors and staff who were able to attend—2/3 of our community came together for this special evening.  But don’t panic, as requested, we have recorded the whole evening so you will be able to get involved and hear the messages too.  The development of our resilience programme into the new aspects we launched last night is such an important part of learning for our children.  I will be really interested to hear parents’ comments on the website and on the tracker over the next few weeks before we launch this with the children after half term.  All adults need thinking time and preparation time so we can best support our children over the coming year. 

As Maureen said last night, our children are remarkable and to shine their light brightly in the world they need a range of skills.  In primary school we are in the exciting and privileged position of having your child in our care for seven years—in my opinion the most fundamental years of childhood– we can make such a difference. 

Spelling Homework - 27th September 2018

This forum was to update parents about the changes to spelling home work going forward from this year. We welcomed any suggestions to perfect this for our families. 

2016-2017

High- Achieving Pupils - Wednesday 1st February 2017

Thank you to everyone who could make it. I hope you found the feedback useful and interesting. Below is the PowerPoint used, so please feel free to contact Mrs. Ayres should you have any queries.

Parent Forum: Spelling & Reading Passports: Wednesday 16th November

In this forum, we shared the new spelling journey we would be taking, and welcoming any feedback to enhance this. We also shared the plans to encourage wider reading, with the use of ‘Reading Passports’.

We would delighted to hear your views.

2015-2016

Parent Forum: Residentials and trips: Thursday 14th July 2016

In this forum, we discussed the current schedule for residentials - Year 3 to East Meon, and Year 4, 5, and 6 to Calshot. We discussed the positives and negatives of going to Calshot 3 years in a row for the children of Lime and Elder.

We also discussed the costings of trips, and whether it would be helpful to have a general overview of potential costs for the year, a one off payment at the start of the year, or continue with as and when payments. 

We would delighted to hear your views using the feedback forms below:

Parent Forum: Monday 27th June 2016

1. Maths pedagogy and school developments (see presentation below)

2. High achievers and School Improvement Plan 

Parent Forum: The New Curriculum and Assessment Changes and Implications for progress, tracking and reporting to parents - January 2016

Thank you to all the parents who could attend this morning- it was the best turnout yet! We really appreciate your time and support on this matter as this will be a developmental approach this year.

Below is the PowerPoint presentation that was used this morning and an example of the possible tracking sheet we could use with the Spring Annual Report to Parents. As the parents this morning observed, it will be a great deal to 'get your head round' if you have not been given the verbal explanations alongside the slides. However, as the term goes on, if parents would like, I am happy to give more sessions to this subject at different times.

I hope that you find this useful and, as ever, please do ask any questions.

Thank you.

Parents Forum: Thursday 17 September 2015 at 9.05 am

Mrs Ayres (Headteacher)

Topics: 

Homework

Newsletter

Parents heard about homework at St Mary's this year.  A new system is in place to allow children time to complete the work set and teachers the time to mark homework effectively.  Parents attending the Forum shared their thoughts and comments were summarised and included in the Newsletter as feedback to all parents.  Revisions to our Homework policy were suggested. 

The opportunity was also taken to ask parents how best to deliver the weekly School Newsletter - electronically (as at present) or return to paper copy taken home.  Those parents at the Forum supported continuing to send electronically and reminding parents to read it for up to date diary dates/calendar information.

A copy of the presentation, feedback to parents and draft Homework policy are linked below.

2014-2015

Parents Forum: Wednesday 6th May 2015 at 7pm

Please see attached slides.

Topics:

Update on assessment and 'Life without Levels'

Parent Promise (Home-school contract- our use of the word 'promise' is so that it is linked to the Pupil Promise)

E-safety

Parents Forum: Thursday 19th March 2015 at 9.05am

Assessment: Life without levels

Mrs Cathy Dumelow

During this forum we discussed the new assessment landscape moving forward into the next academic year and how this is very different to the 'old'. Please see the slideshow below. This is a real shift in thinking about the new national curriculum coupled with a 'life without levels' approach. More information will be available in the Summer term.

Anti-Bullying information and reflection

Mrs. Bridges

Mrs Bridges, our school ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant), presented some situations that pupils could find themselves in and/or have been experienced within a school setting. She asked the parents to put them into categories: Bullying; Poor behaviour; or Questions needed. There were a few very obvious ones for poor behaviour and bullying sections but we found that a huge amount of scenarios needed more investigation to identify the issues and ways forward.

We explored the policy and every parent in the school received an Anti-Bullying booklet, purchased by the PTA.

Feedback from the session was very positive and we look forward to seeing you all next time.

2013-2014

Parents Forum: Our school improvement plan (SIP) - March 2014

This was our first Forum and thank you to all those who could make it. It was so productive to get together and evaluate where we are and look to the future in a positive and open way.

To summarise some of the areas we then went on to talk about…

Q: How can we continue to work with and inform parents about the School Improvement Plan?

Responses: website, newsletter, regular meetings, via PTA and class reps, regular School Improvement emails

Q:Assessments and targets: How can we share these  with parents?

Responses: on-line assessment tool (like swimming classes), shouldn’t over burden or add any homework element, use red books + and—comments– encouraging revision of anything tricky, bring home school books once a month for parent review

Q:Curriculum 2014: What would you like it to look like?

This was a question which has a great deal of material to understand. We concluded that we would do an evening Parents Forum to update parents on the new curriculum and start asking this question then. So a date for your diary…..Wednesday 23rd April  2014 7-8pm! Hope this is useful for everyone. The children will follow-up this with their input too.

If you have any further additions to these comments please do let me know via email, the office or 'good old-fashioned' letter!

So as you can see from the above question about the curriculum, our next Parents Forum is on Wednesday 23rd April 7-8pm. Hopefully, over the Parents Forum we can do them at different times and in different formats so that all parents have a chance to come along. All feedback is welcome- that's how we improve!