Welcome to the St Francis' Parent Council.

We were formed in September 2018 and aim to help the School Senior Management Team improve children's experiences in St Francis' alongside the School Council. 

Our Aims and Values

We value the development of all-round, confident individuals. 

When our children leave St Francis', we want them to:

• Achieve their full potential
• Be confident to speak with a wide range of people in the community
• Understand that home and school work together to ensure they become the best they can be
• Are prepared for transition to KS3
• Are resilient, determined and will approach anything with a positive mind-set
• Are willing to develop new friendships and understand the different levels of friendship
• Have the knowledge to keep themselves safe online

Meeting 9: 16.01.2020

Parental Discussion:

Meeting 8: 14.11.2019

Parental Discussion:

Parents agreed with the decision we had made in each of the areas and were surprised by the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2019 rankings of the school area. Deprivation in the school area is in the highest 10% in the country. It has increased over the last 4 years and income deprivation that affects pupils is now in the highest 1% of the country. We discussed possible reasons for the changes in the levels of deprivation locally. 

Meeting with Taylor Shaw:

We met with Paula Blanchard from Taylor Shaw, who provide the school dinners. We learned about all the food being sourced locally and the potential implications Brexit may have to the school food supplies. Paula had already discussed the possibility of a chicken dinner for Christmas, as turkey's may not be available. 

We shared and discussed the 8 areas of the School Self Evaluation Form: 

1. School Context and Key Features
2. Areas for Whole School Development
3. Progress from Previous School Inspections
4. Effectiveness of Leadership and Management
5. Quality of Education
6. Behaviour and Attitudes
7. Personal Development
8. Overall Effectiveness

Mrs. Lakey and Miss Mason are to bring appropriate information

to the next meeting, as there were no current issues the Parent

Council wished to discuss. 

Meeting 7:  17.09.2019

Parental Discussion:

• We discussed in detail the School Development Plan for 2019/20.
• We discussed the June 2019 Ofsted Report and shared the pleasing findings that were reported. The school continues to be good and the work of the Parent Council was praised during the inspection. 

Meeting 6: Annual Review

Parental Discussion:

• We went through all the content below and agreed that we have had an incredibly positive impact on the management of the school over the academic year. 
• Two parents have agreed to remain on the Parent Council next academic year even though their children are moving on. 
• The school thanked the members of the Parent Council for their support and ideas over the year and awarded them certificates in the end of year Achievement Assembly. 

Meeting 5: 14.05.2019

Parental Discussion:

After School Club Attendance: 

We have had to cancel Summer 1 after-school clubs due to a lack of interest. Miss Fahey came to speak with the parent council to see if there were any possible reasons for this. Next half-term there will be a Makaton club on offer. There was no reason that the parents could think about. Parents said that there are a lot of children attending clubs outside of school. A lot of the girls go dancing and gymnastics. Parents wondered if art club could be on and include parents. Could parents be part of the sign language one? Miss Fahey explained that it would need to be limited for children if it is as popular as we anticipate. We can look for parents being included too.  

Summer Fayre / 50-year Anniversary Celebration: 

The Senior Management Team would like to consult with parents about the upcoming 50 Year Anniversary and Summer Fayre.   Parents would like a celebration of children’s talents – maybe a 'St Francis has got talent.' They thought that children making stalls would again work well, we discussed inviting staff that have left the school. The possibility of a burger / ice cream van was discussed. 

Autumn Term Weekly Assemblies / Achievement / Outstanding Pupils:

The children have enjoyed the House Team Challenge assemblies this year but these have failed to bring in members of the community. We would like your ideas about the best way forward next academic year.    

Parents thought that a weekly assembly with one of the awards and Star Pupil would be best, then one assembly per half term for outstanding pupils and once a term attendance (including the raffle). 

New Starter Parent / Teacher Appointments:

Do you have any suggestions for improving these sessions? 

The Parent Council will host a ‘drink, snack and chat’ in the hall. They will bring their own children’s homework / reading books so they can discuss these with parents. It was felt that due to the change in expectations this would be useful for new parents.  

Other business:

• Autism coffee afternoon with Miss Mason – Parent Council think this would be a good idea.  
• Peer pressure KS3 – Katie brought Body Image resource ideas; Recovery College Online; Rollercoaster – Parent Support Group; Investing in children – young peoples page. 
• Parent craft groups – There used to be a lady who ran a 10 week course – some had to pay and some didn’t. There was also one with handouts where parents did parenting skills and it was really good. It was a Family Learning course. (One point)  Could this be a session offered again?
• Prom – Some parents are concerned that the children are focusing on having a date / special outfit. Mrs Lakey will pass the information on to Mrs Pickett. Our school view of Prom is that it is a celebration of the year group. We do not promote special cars / clothing etc.

Meeting 4: 21.03.2019

Parental Discussion:

Curriculum:

We looked at the new curriculum Structure on the Year Group Curriculum Maps. Parents like the progression through the school and the themes used for termly topics.

Parents suggested other Educational Visits we could use and suggested that children go on educational experiences as opposed to the experiences being brought into school. 

Parents preferred the Termly Web and felt this would be useful to have at home before the topic begins, so they can start to discuss the content with their child(ren). Then parents who would like further information can look on the website at the Year Group Curriculum Map. Parents agreed with the school intent of the curriculum. 

Meeting 3: 14.01.2019

Parental Discussion:

Curriculum:

We have re-written our Curriculum to allow for children being in single year group classes now and copies are on the website. After further work in the staff meeting this will be sent out, as a paper copy, to all parents.  

Playtime Equipment:

The parent council would like to raise money to try and get the total to £200 from the £150 raised by the Choir. It has been suggested that there will be a House Team playtime equipment money trail. Parents will be asked to send in change, like we did for Jeans for Genes and the House Teams will try and make: a skipping rope, football, foot and hoop with their change.  

Parent Progress Meetings:

These are working well to find out how children are getting on both academically and socially and emotionally. The sessions serve their purpose and further discussions needed with teachers can be booked. The Young Saver staff were engaging and talked with a lot of the parents. All parents were unaware that the School Nurses were present.  

School will continue to see if outside providers can be present to speak with parents during the sessions.  

Online Safety:

The main Apps being used are TicTok, Instagram and Snapchat. 

We discussed issues with children bypassing security on Xbox and using parent payment cards to make purchases, how parents check children’s devices and usage to ensure they’re safe.  

The discussion then went onto the ‘in things’ for children growing up now and how intervention by medical practitioners, counsellors and agencies are worn as a badge by older children and children are aspiring to need this help. Vocabulary use of mental health related issues is commonplace between children outside of school and there are concerns that children want to experience these issues for acceptance by their peers.  Mrs Lakey will see if there is a professional who will be able to come to our next meeting to discuss this with parents.  

DfE Activity Booklet:

We looked at the DfE activity booklet and felt it was not relevant for school to be checking and providing the activities. Guidance on the DfE website was that these were activities children could do at home. However, we agreed to look at the activities and see what was relevant for our community. School will send a copy of this, with the Year group curriculum, to parents.  

Meeting 2: 05.11.2018

Parental Discussion:

Firstly, we wrote our shared values and aims as a Parent Council. 

Actions from previous meeting (10.09.2018)

Parents Councillors 

• To advise parents finding communication an issue to get in touch with school so we can work an effective method out.  

• To find out people's views about parents meetings and how they could be improved. 

• To support the school in setting up a Facebook page by discussing with parents the appropriate channels to communicate concerns.  

• To gather ideas for fund raising money to buy more playground equipment. 

• To advise parents with specific concerns over school dinners to contact Miss Pounder. 

• Parents to gather information on keeping children safe online that are happening for Primary and leading into Secondary so we have a clearer picture of the areas of concern in the community when developing lessons.  

• Precious to meet with Lisa Lakey to discuss the School Website 

• Children’s Council to meet to cost the ‘dream’ playground equipment

Craig Brown

• to recruit Parent Council Representatives. 

Lisa Lakey

• to update the Parent Council page on the school website 

• to set up Facebook for St Francis

School Office

• to ensure the Newsletter dates are also updated on the Website so Parents have a clear picture of what is happening when changes are made. 

• Challenge Assembly to be explained on the Newsletter to address confusion. 

• Swimming Pool cleanliness to be investigated 

Outcomes from previous meeting (10.09.2018)

Homework - A positive impact on engagement and willingness to complete homework was fed back to school. Christmas Holiday Optional Homework - There was not a great uptake on the optional holiday task so this was broadened for the Christmas holidays.

School Dinners - Miss Pounder has developed systems for school and these worked well last week. There has been an increase in the number of children having school dinners and less waste than on the previous menu arrangement.

Communication Discussion

The feedback from the communication survey was very positive with 95% of parents happy with the ways that school communicates with them. 

The App is not working for all parents so we are going to try using Facebook as well to communicate messages with parents. This will be developed over the coming months. 

It was recognised that the main ways of communication may not work for every parent - if our current systems are not working for you please speak with school staff so they can ensure you receive the information you need. 

Other Business

Parents were unsure about the Thursday Challenge Assemblies and who is invited. All parents are invited to help their child's House Team with the challenge. The Star Pupil Award continues to be given out this week. Mrs Harrison will ensure this is more explicit on our weekly Headteacher Newsletter. A parents asked if we could use the school BLOG again. This is in the process of being reinstated. A parent asked if we could investigate the cleanliness of the swimming pool.

Meeting 1: 10.09.2018

Parental Discussion:

We established a shared Code of Conduct and spoke about homework.

Homework

Research shows that Homework does not add value to a child's education at KS2 and we were concerned about the conflict Homework can cause in the home. Mrs Lakey proposed that children are only given spellings, times tables and weekly reading for Homework as staff have seen how all of these help children achieve better.

After a lot of discussion, parents decided that they would prefer the children to continue with the weekly lesson based task, but staff could provide a broader range of subjects. Parents value the opportunity for children to be more creative so also thought that we could keep the 'grid based tasks' but set an open task as a holiday homework that can be displayed on the school website gallery. 

Follow-Up Actions:

• Mrs Lakey spoke with the Senior Management Team and staff. Homework is to be changed based on Parent Council proposals from 18.01.2018.
• Mrs Lakey will ensure optional holiday tasks are displayed on the school website.

School Dinners

Parents asked if we could run a choice dinner option so that children were always able to have the meal they preferred each day of the week.  

Follow-up Actions

• Mrs Lakey spoke with Taylor Shaw and Miss Pounder (Healthy Schools Leader). 
• Miss Pounder discussed current systems with Horndale Infants.
• Taylor Shaw provided a taster menu at Initial Concerns Parents Appointments
• Miss Pounder organised and implemented the choice options for dinners from 29.11.2018