« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Developing a Parent Council
Section 7 sets out the detail about what Parent Forums and Parent Councils are all about. The Parent Forum, which is made up of all parents, carers and/or guardians of pupils at the school, will decide on the type of Parent Council parents think will suit the school. This section sets out questions and suggested wording for the Parent Council constitution.
By working through the questions, the answers will give you suggestions for the type of Parent Council which will suit your school. A model of what a completed constitution might look like is provided at the end of the section. The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 sets out arrangements for the membership and functions of Parent Councils. Whilst there is no need to repeat them in the constitution, they will remain legal requirements. The same point applies to any other piece of relevant legislation. This section should be studied closely alongside the guidance on the Act.
Parent Councils can be very informal groups - this informality should make it easier for more parents to take part.
Points to think about
How your Parent Council works is determined by what is set down in its constitution. The main function of a constitution is to describe the Parent Council, what its objectives are and how it will carry these out. Some of the things to think about include:
- Name: what do we call ourselves?
- Aims/Objectives: what is the Parent Council here for?
- Members: how many people will the Parent Council need to help carry out these tasks?
- Appointment system: how do we want members of the Parent Council to be chosen/selected?
- How can we ensure that the Parent Council represents the full range of parents at the school?
- Would it be useful to co-opt additional members to the Parent Council?
- How will members of the Parent Council hear the views of all parents and give them feedback?
- How should the Parent Council carry out its work?
- Do we want to have sub groups?
Combined Parent Council
If parents decide they would like to set up a Parent Council which includes more than one school they can set up a Combined Parent Council. This might cover, for example, two neighbouring schools, two schools who share the same headteacher or perhaps a secondary school and its feeder primary school(s). The questions set out here are generally based on setting up a single Parent Council, but can be adapted to setting up a Combined Parent Council for which similar issues will arise.
« Previous | Contents | Next »