Getting Involved with Your Child’s School
Your relationship with the school
Positive and effective partnerships between parents/carers and schools are crucial to ensuring the best possible outcome for young people in relation to their learning.
By getting involved and working with your child’s school, you can help to ensure that your child gets the very best out of their education, both in terms of secondary school and for progressing onto vocational qualifications, college or university.
Parents evenings
Going to parents evenings will allow you to speak to teachers about how your child is getting on in each class and how you can support their learning. Before going to a parents evening, ask your child if there is anything they would like you to discuss with the teacher.
Parent/carer representation
The views of parents/carers are important to any school and are normally represented through the school’s Parent Council. Parent/carers are normally represented by:
- National Parent Forum Scotland: Every parent/carer of a school pupil in Scotland is automatically a member of the Parent Forum. This means that parents/carers are entitled to information on their child’s education, can be involved in the school and can have their views represented by the school’s Parent Council (more information about the National Parent Forum is available on the Parentzone website).
- Parent Council: Each school has a Parent Council made of a group of parents/carers from that school. The members of the Parent Council can also choose to include staff and relevant members of the community to help them with their duties. They discuss issues relating to the school, and promote communication between parents/carers and staff. They are there to represent the views of all parents and often have to carry out consultation exercises with all parents/carers in order to gather the wider view of the Parent Forum. They support the school and promote links between pupils, parents, staff and the community and provide them with information. They also assist in the selection of head teachers and depute head teachers.
Parent Councils can also assist in fundraising for the school; and in some schools a separate Parent Teacher Association works with the school to organise the fundraising activity.
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