The Scottish Executive has published a Welcome Pack for members of new Parent Councils. The leaflets in this pack are designed to answer some of the questions members may have about Parent Councils and help them make their Parent Council work well. The pack contains information and ideas to help Parent Councils be effective. This includes:

– Welcome to the Parent Council – an introduction to Parent Councils and the difference parents make.
– What do you want to achieve? – developing a plan of activities that will make a difference in the school.
– Getting started – ideas for making a success of that all-important first meeting of the Parent Council.
– Getting the most from your Parent Council – making the most of the skills, interests, knowledge and experiences of the Parent Council and other parents.
– Help and support – what help and support you can expect from the school, headteacher, local authority and co-opted members.
– Helping more parents get involved – the importance of communicating with parents and gaining their views in a range of different ways and making it possible for everyone to contribute in the way that suits them best.
– Working together – making sure that your meetings are effective and developing good partnership working.
– Roles of office bearers – some common roles and tasks.
– Finding out more – useful information.

At the end of each leaflet there is a list of areas of the ‘Parents as Partners in their Children’s Learning Toolkit’ which might be useful to look at. The online toolkit provides ideas of ways to get parents involved in their child’s learning.

To download this pack, click here.

20th August 2007