Notes from HLS Parent Forum 3.11.23

Nine parents attended the parent forum on 3^rd November 2023. Miss Paulding and Mrs Edmonds shared the child-friendly school development plan for the year and the school priorities. This is available at download.asp (harlingtonlower.co.uk)

The school priorities are:

• Using Pathways to Write for our English lessons. This is a bookbased scheme.
• Using PIXL – This is a tool for tracking that children are on track for achieving their age-related expectation at the end of the school year.
• Making sure that we look after each other’s wellbeing – children and staff
• Planning opportunities for families to be involved in our school community

Miss Paulding then asked the parents present, what support they would like the school to give to families and what parental engagement could look like. The following suggestions were shared:

• Reception stay and plays each half-term
• Phonics workshops to teach parents/carers how phonics is taught, or parents to come into a phonics session with their child.
• Shared links to curriculum progression documents on the website Harlington Lower School Curriculum
• Resources to support parents with reading, such as story sacks.
• Videos of how to teach Maths concepts/procedures

A discussion was had about sharing the remit of the parent forum with all parents through the newsletter. It was agreed that this would be done prior to the next meeting.

It was also agreed to have a parent forum page on the website to share notes from each meeting. A link to this would be circulated in the newsletter after each meeting.

Miss Paulding then asked the parents present what they could offer the school. There was a desire from some parents to better support staff wellbeing. It was agreed that further discussions would be had on what this could look like.