Partnership with Parents

At St Mary’s, we are committed to working in close partnership with parents to ensure they are happy with their child's education and progress. We believe it is important that parents are involved in their child's education and we actively encourage parental involvement in the school, wherever possible. We communicate with parents through a regular text alert system, informing parents of upcoming events and assemblies at the school. We also send home regular newsletters and have established a Parent Forum which meets regularly to discuss and share ideas, views and suggestions for improvements. Our regular Twitter feeds are also a valuable source of information for parents and carers.

We work in partnership with parents to ensure  that our pupils have every opportunity to enjoy,  achieve and learn together.  We promote positive partnerships with parent, founded on effective, honest and open communication,  on mutual respect and the shared aspirations that each child reaches their potential whilst at the school.

We acknowledge that parents are as individual as their children and that their needs, hopes and priorities will vary over time and from one set of parents to another.

We hope that parents will want to be actively involved in their child’s school life, spiritually, educationally and socially and that they will feel able to contact the school to discuss any worries, concerns or uncertainties that they might have. We encourage parents to actively participate in their child’s education by following up and extending the work carried out in school. We hope that school and home will work together to achieve consistent results across all areas of development by sharing each other’s skills and knowledge. We also hope that parents will want to let us know about significant events that happen outside of school which relate to their child.

Parental involvement with the school includes the following:

Parent/carer Conferences 

These take place each Autumn and Spring and give parents the chance to discuss with the class teacher their child’s progress, attainment and review their next targets.

Parents/carer Workshops

Workshops and seminars for parents are arranged on a regular basis and may cover a wide range of issues such as reading, writing, number, behaviour, communication, etc.

Social Events and class activities

Parents/carers and families are regularly invited to visit classes throughout the year and for whole school events such as Christmas and Easter celebrations, Sports Day, class assembly, leavers’ assembly, celebration of learning afternoon, class Mass etc where their support and participation are much appreciated.

Website

This contains a variety of factual information about the school, prospectus, term dates etc as well as news from classes, special events and useful links. It is continuously being added to and updated, each half term.  Each class has a class page on the website which contains curriculum information for that half term and suggestions for parents to support learning at home.

Leading Parent Partnership Award (LPPA)

As part of the LPPA scheme, we aim to continue to develop and improve communication with parents and the community, by supporting parents and children to extend their learning through parents’ courses etc and to encourage a greater input and more involvement of parents in school life. The school first achieved the LPPA in 2017 and successfully retained the award in May 2021. 

We have set up a Parent’s Forum which meets every term.  We welcome your views, ideas and opinions.  If you have any suggestions you would like to be discussed during the meeting then feel free to pop your ideas into our suggestion box in the main reception area.

Parent's Forum

At St Mary’s Primary School we are committed to listening and responding to the views and opinions of our parents. We now hold regular Parent Forum meetings which take place every  term. The Parent Forum is a platform for parents to express their suggestions and ideas for improvements. We are committed to working closely with parents to ensure they are completely satisfied with their child's education and feel that their views and opinions are listened to and acted upon. You will receive an invitation 2 weeks before the Parent Forum.