Sunnybank Parent Voice
Here’s us:
[picture] My name is Bert, I’m currently chairing the Parent Voice and my daughter is in P4 with Mr Packham.
[picture] I’m Carol, I’m the Parent Voice secretary. My daughter is in P5 with Miss Buchan.
[picture] My name is Mahmoud and I’m the Parent Voice’s treasurer. My son is in P1 with Miss Ferguson.
[picture] I’m Angie, the Parent Voice’s vice chair, and also active with the Community Centre. My children are in P3 with Miss Falconer and P7 with Mr McPherson.
[picture] I’m Zuzanna, Parent voice member and also active with the Community Centre. My two daughters are in P4 with Miss Hamilton and in P7 with Mr. McPherson.
[picture] My name is Marie, I’m a Parent Voice member and my daughter is in Nursery with Rachel and Tracey.
Please join, we’d love to have at least one member per class! We meet approximately once per term on in Sunnybank School’s sunshine playroom, and additionally a couple of weeks prior to each fundraising event. This year’s meeting and event dates are (faraway dates subject to change, in which case it will be on here, so check for updates!):
2016
29 September, Thursday 5-7pm (Term 1 Annual General Meeting & WELCOME EVENT at the Open Day)
5 October, Wednesday 5pm (fundraising meeting in preparation for monster bash)
27 October, Thursday 4-6:30pm — MONSTER BASH disco
15 November, Tuesday 5-6pm (Term 2 regular meeting)
2017
10 January, Tuesday 5-6pm
(fundraising meeting in preparation for ceilidh)
28 January, Saturday 2-4pm — FAMILY CEILIDH with live music
7 February, Tuesday 5-6pm (Term 3 regular meeting)
18 April, Tuesday 5-6pm (fundraising meeting in preparation for spring fair)
13 May, Saturday afternoon — SPRING FAIR
23 May, Tuesday 5-6pm (Term 4 regular meeting)
Help! What can I do?
• Join! If Sunnybank Parent Voice has a member for each class,nursery included, we have a sturdy group and you can be sure you have all information relevant to your wee one!
• Be a Friend of Sunnybank Parent Voice – if you don’t feel like joining yet but would like to lend a hand now and then, whenever you can!
• Give your opinion! On the projects, anything you think we could do. There’s an ideas box in the hallway.
• Got a skill, an interest, a passion that you think you could somehow share with the children? Let us know!
• You can talk to us at the school or at any of the events, or leave your details at the school, or otherwise e-mail at any time to
sunnybankparentvoice@gmail.com
What are we about?
We want to helping our children by
• Being a link between school, children and parents & carers: the voice of the parents in the school, but also a voice for the parents, making sure everyone has updated information on what goes on with Sunnybank School
• Coming up with ideas for activities that can help our children’s education, and taking part in such activities in the school and the Sunnybank Community Centre – a chance to be involved on their life “out of the house”!
• Organising informal ways for parents to meet
• Improving the school through fundraising
Can you give some examples?
• The playground! Last year, together with the school, we put in a successful application with Grounds for Learning to help us build an adventurous green space for the kids, the results of which can be seen now
• Together with the school, we kept insisting with the City Council that the 4-year absence of a permanent Head Teacher was unacceptable. Now, finally, we have a permanent HT in Mrs Taylor!
• Each September we will organise an informal meet-up for parents to have a chat, get to know the faces
• We will work together with the Sunnybank Community Centre to expand the offer of after school activities, and organise FUNdraising activities, for example an annual halloween disco, a family ceilidh, and a spring fun fair
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General information about Parent Councils
The Parent Council is a group of parents selected by members of the parent forum (the collective name for every parent, carer or guardian at a school) to represent all the parents of children at the school. Parent Councils have an important role to play in ensuring that children’s education is enriched by parents’ valuable life experience, individual personal skills and unique knowledge of their own child.
What is the role of Parent Councils?
Parent Councils help parents and carers to become more actively and effectively involved in their children’s learning. It is recognised that parents play an important role both in their own child’s learning and in the life of their school. Find out about various ways of getting involved in your child’s school.
Parent Councils are flexible and designed to make sure that they represent their school and its interests effectively. Parent members should decide what is most important for the Parent Council to work on.
Parent Councils can:
• provide a voice for parents, in schools and in their local authority, on issues that are important to them and their children
• help the school to understand how to most effectively involve parents in their children’s learning and in the life of the school
• support the school and headteacher in developing strong home/school partnerships
• support the school in its development and improvement, and in understanding and making links with the wider community
• capture the unique and varied skills, interests, knowledge and experience that parents can offer.
Working in partnership with the school
Your Parent Council helps to create an environment where all parents know that their views matter, and where they feel confident and comfortable putting them forward.
It is important that the Parent Council and the school have a joint commitment to seek parents’ views and ideas and to ensure that these make a real difference to the work and life of the school.
Sharing parents’ views with the head teacher and staff, and making sure those views are listened to and taken into account, will be possible if the Parent Council and the school have a positive working partnership.
Gathering and sharing parents’ views
Each school community is unique and there is a wide range of educational issues on which parents may wish to contribute their views. Areas in which parent views could be sought may include:
• How the school communicates with parents
• Supporting delivery of Curriculum for Excellence by tapping into parents’ skills, experiences and expertise
• The processes involved in preparing children for key transitions, such as from nursery to primary, primary to secondary and leaving school
• Discussing the opportunities available to children during key periods of their school career, such as the Senior Phase (S4-S6)
• Formulating the school’s priorities for improvement (the development of the School Improvement Plan)
• Revising existing school policies and introducing new policies
• Any significant changes (for example, moving to a new school building)
• Developing the School Handbook.
