Parent's forum meet to discuss school issues

In September we held one of our regular Parent's forums, and a group of 8 parents joined us to share questions and comments about school issues.Topics included reading in school, new homework appproaches, changes in Harlequin, and progress on the new catering facilities which will enable us to freshly prepare all our school meals on site. If you have any further questions or comments on these or any of the other issues discussed, please speak to Mrs Dennis on the playground, or drop us a line at admin3047@welearn365.com.   

Frequency of supervised reading in school and feedback to parents

You told us that you wanted more information about reading in school, and reassurance that children were benefitting from plenty of opportunities to read with an adult. We found that some parents weren't aware that in addition to one-to-one reading sessions recorded in their Reading diaries, children also participate in one or more guided reading sessions per week. During guided reading, children of a similar reading ability share a book together with a teacher or trained teaching assistant. Time is spent reading the book, identifying strategies used for decoding the text and ensuring the children have a good level of understanding about the texts they are reading. This approach is proven to improve reading skills rapidly and gives all children a detailed and lengthy amount of time focussed on reading skills.

We agreed to record in Reading diaries when children have taken part in guided reading sessions, so that the Reading diary provides a more complete picture of children's reading activity in school. We clarified that children should participate in one-to-one or guided reading sessions a minimum of twice a week.

New homework approaches in King Eider

We had excellent feedback on the new homework approach in King Eider, which provides children with a chart of homework activities at the start of each term, rather than assigning a specific activity each week, providing more scope for creativity and flexibility. You told us that children were really enjoying the variety of activities and the opportunity to choose for themselves which piece of homework they submitted each week. 

Some parents found that children did not always bring their homework sheet or marked homework home each week, and felt that felt they did not always know how well their children had got on with homework, particularly for mixed media pieces where there was no written homework on which the teacher's comments could be recorded.

We agreed to ensure that children bring homework and feedback home regularly, and explore provision of a marking sheet to enable comments to be recorded for non-paper-based homework submissions, such as models, artwork and presentations.

Help for parents on new maths techniques

You told us that you find it much more difficult to help children with maths homework than literacy or topic work, because the maths methods children are learning in school are so different from the methods you are familiar with from your own school days.

We agreed to explore options for providing handouts and briefings to explain more about how the children are being taught maths at school. The Heartwood Trust are now planning an information evening for parents in November. Please check Diary dates to find out when this will take place.

New class structure and organisation in Harlequin

You wanted to know more about how lessons are structured in Harlequin now that the class has been reorganised.

We confirmed that a briefing session would take place in the Spring term for all Harlequin parents, to explain how learning activities are being organised now, and give an insight into the children's day to day lessons.

School meals

You asked about progress on the kitchen refitting which will enable us to begin preparing fresh school meals on site.

We explained that problems with the original contractor had unfortunately led to a delay in the project, and that we would know more about the timescale once a replacement contractor has been appointed.

We'll be scheduling another Parents forum in due course and as always it will be open to all parents and carers.