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Considering options for a constitution
Topic 1: NAME What do we call ourselves?
The Parent Forum decides the name for the Parent Council. It is not necessary to call it a Parent Council; you could call it Friends of the School. The name you choose tells people what the Council stands for and what it is trying to achieve.
What your constitution might say
This is the constitution for Anytown School Parent Council (or alternative name).
Topic 2: Aims- purposes. What is the Parent Council for?
What a Parent Council does falls broadly into four areas:
- Supporting the school in its work with pupils
- Representing the views of parents
- Promoting contact between the school, parents, pupils, providers of nursery education and the community
- Reporting to the Parent Forum.
In writing the aims/objectives for your Parent Council, you should keep them similarly broad, not focused on particular issues and ideas, so that they do not limit the Council's ability to act in the future if a different issue comes up.
The formal functions of the Parent Council are described in the Act and the guidance which accompanies this toolkit. You do not have to include these in your constitution but parents might decide to reflect them in the constitution, provided they are consistent with the Act itself.
When drawing up the aims and objectives, you should think about the range of issues that are currently important for your school, what you might want the Parent Council to do and whether such activities would be possible under this set of aims.
For example:
- Do your objectives allow the Parent Council to run fundraising activities?
- Do your objectives allow the Parent Council to campaign against plans to close the school?
What your constitution might say
The OBJECTIVES of the Parent Council are:
1. To work in partnership with the school to create a welcoming school which is inclusive for all parents
2. To promote partnership between the school, its pupils and all its parents
3. To develop and engage in activities which support the education and welfare of the pupils
4. To identify and represent the views of parents on the education provided by the school and other matters affecting the education and welfare of the pupils.
Topic 3: The number of members
The size of the Parent Council is not prescribed and it can be as large/small as parents think it needs to be in order to fulfil the Parent Council's role. The size might also vary according to the size, nature and diversity of parents of pupils at the school. It is for the Parent Forum to decide the number of members on the Parent Council.
It is a good idea to allow for a range rather than a fixed number i.e. to set a minimum and maximum number of say 5 and 20 members, rather deciding on a fixed membership of 12.
If you have a small Parent Council, there may not be enough people to do all the work; if you have a large Parent Council, it may be difficult to run the meetings. However, it is worth remembering that it is unlikely that Parent Council members will be able to attend every meeting, so whatever size the Council is, most meetings will have fewer people than this attending. If you only have a small number of parents involved at any time, use this as a platform to build on.
What your constitution might say
The membership will be a minimum of three parents of children attending the school. The maximum size is [insert a figure according to the size of the school and as agreed by members of the Parent Forum].
Topic 4: Who should/could be the members and how should they be selected?
Parents
The starting point is that members of the Parent Council should be drawn from the parents, carers and guardians of pupils at the school.
The headteacher
The headteacher of the school has a right and a duty to attend meetings of the Parent Council, or to be represented. The headteacher can play an important role in advising the Parent Council on all issues relating to the work of the school and what it does to involve parents, as well as general education matters of interest to the Parent Council.
Church representatives
If your school is a denominational school, then you must invite the church or denominational body to nominate a representative to be co-opted onto the Parent Council. This will need to be provided for in the constitution.
Some questions to think about in selecting parents:
- How do you identify parents who want to join the Parent Council? For example, they could volunteer or be nominated by another parent.
- Who are the parents of the school and what are their particular needs? How can they be included in the Parent Council?
- Do you want to have a representative of each year group at the school?
- Do you want to have more than one representative per year group?
- Do you want to appoint substitutes, to ensure each year group is always represented at Parent Council meetings even if one member is unable to attend?
- If there is a nursery in the school, should there be a parent from this group?
Once you have made decisions about these questions, you then have to decide how the members should be selected.
The process of selecting the Parent Council members:
- What methods for selecting the Parent Council would make it easy for all parents to take part in the selection process?
- Once the volunteers for the Parent Council have been identified, what happens if you get more volunteers than there are places available?
Some questions to think about:
- How do you make a decision about which parents join the Parent Council?
- Do you want to run an election?
- Do you want to put all the names in a hat and have a draw for the successful candidates?
- Can you still involve those people who volunteered but were not chosen for the Parent Council - for example on sub groups?
- How long should someone be a member for?
- Will you have methods for parents becoming members of the Parent Council at any point during the year if numbers fall away or if parents express an interest in getting involved?
What your constitution might say
The Parent Council will be selected for a period of [insert one/two/three year(s)], after which they may put themselves forward for re-selection if they wish.
All the parents of children at the school can take part in the selection by post, text or email. Parents will have [insert figure agreed by Parent Forum] weeks to select their representatives.
or
Any parents of a child at the school can volunteer to be a member of the Parent Council. In the event that the number of volunteers exceeds the number of places set out in the constitution, members will be selected by [insert chosen method of selection]. Anyone not selected to be a member of the Parent Council may be offered the opportunity to be part of any sub-groups set up by the Council.
or
The Parent Council will be made up of two representatives from each year group who will be chosen by the parents of children in those year groups.
Topic 5: Are there other people you would like to include in your Parent Council?
In addition to parent members, the Parent Forum can decide to co-opt other members onto the Parent Council.
School staff - teaching and support staff
If the Parent Forum wishes, and the school staff are willing, it can invite school staff (both teaching and support staff) to join the Parent Council. This picks up on the 'whole school partnership' idea. However, you will want to ensure that parents remain in overall majority on the Parent Council. A Parent Forum could decide, for example, that they want their Parent Council to be made up of two thirds parent members and one third co-opted teacher members to strengthen partnership within the school.
If school staff agree to participate in the Parent Council, they may decide they simply want to nominate representatives. Alternatively, there could be an agreed rotation among staff.
Pupils
Parent Forums, in taking account of pupils' views, may wish to do so in the following ways:
- There could be liaison, formally and informally, between the Parent Council and the Pupil Council
- There could be pupil members on the Parent Council
- The Pupil Council and the Parent Council might have the chance to send representatives to each others' meetings as and when it is appropriate.
Further ideas for involving pupils are provided in Section 4.
Other co-optees
The Parents' Forum can decide to co-opt others in addition to teachers, pupils and support staff onto the Parent Council. There might be people who could bring a particular area of expertise and skills or someone might help develop strong links with the local community. Under School Board arrangements, co-optees were invited to join by the board. The Parent Forum can decide if this is still the best system.
You don't always have to co-opt someone onto the Parent Council to benefit from their experience. The Parent Forum or Parent Council can decide to invite people with particular expertise to attend meetings as and when it is necessary.
If the Parent Forum decides to invite co-opted members to join the Parent Council, the arrangements for their involvement should be set out in the Parent Council constitution.
The Parent Forum will also need to think about how many co-opted places they want to provide and for how long co-optees will serve. Once again it will be important to consider the impact co-optees will have on the overall size of the Parent Council and on the balance of membership.
What your constitution might say
The Parent Council may co-opt up to [insert figure as agreed by members of the Parent Forum*] to assist it with carrying out its functions.
*If your school is a denominational school add: "of which at least one must be a member of the church or denominational body in whose interest the school is conducted".
or
Two-thirds of the Parent Council will be made up of Parent Forum members and one-third of the membership will be reserved for other co-opted members including teaching and support staff in the school.
The number of parent members on the Parent Council must always be greater than co-opted members.
Co-opted members will be invited to serve for a period of [insert one/two/three year(s)], after which time the Parent Council will review and consider requirements for co-opted membership.
Running the parent council
Topic 6: Do we need to have office bearers?
There is no requirement for Parent Councils to have office bearers although there are clear tasks that have to be done. For example meetings have to be chaired, agendas set, minutes taken and the finances managed so you might find it helpful to have some clear roles within the Parent Council. It is good practice to have office bearers in a group.
The Parent Forum can decide to have a Chair and the person who chairs any meeting must be a parent of a child at the school. There is scope for flexibility about how the role of the chair operates. The Parent Forum could decide to share the role of the Chair with each parent member taking a turn at chairing meetings of the Parent Council.
The Parent Council can decide to appoint a Clerk to provide administrative support and look after the Parent Council's financial accounts.
Questions for parents to think about
- Do we need office bearers?
- If so, which office bearers do we need?
- Do we want to have one chair of the Parent Council or do we want to share chairing meetings around parent members?
- Do we want the office bearers to be agreed by the Parent Council, or by the Parent Forum?
Depending on the way you choose to select your Parent Council members, the office bearers can be agreed at the same time. Alternatively, the members selected to the Parent Council could choose from among themselves who should be the office bearers until the next selection takes place. If the office bearers are to be chosen by the Parent Council members, you may wish to ask the headteacher, or an independent person, to chair that part of the meeting at which this is done to make sure it is fair.
You will want to think about what you would do if the child of a parent who chairs meetings no longer attends the school. If you have a vice-chair, he or she could act as chair for the time being, provided they were a member of the Parent Forum. Alternatively you could share the role of the chair amongst the parent members of the Parent Council until the annual general meeting.
What your constitution might say
If the Parent Forum decides to have office bearers:
The Chair, Secretary and Treasurer of the Parent Council will be appointed by the Parent Council members immediately following its formation.
or
Office bearers will be re-selected by the Parent Council on an annual basis (at the annual meeting of the Parent Forum).
If the Parent Forum decides to have a Chair:
The Parent Council will be chaired by a parent of a child attending Anytown School. If the child ceases to be a pupil, a new chair will be agreed at the next meeting.
or
If the child ceases to be a pupil, the role of the chair will be rotated around the parent members of the Parent Council until a new chair is appointed at the annual meeting.
Topic 7:- General Meetings and Annual General Meetings
The Parent Council acts as the collective voice of all parents within the wider Parent Forum. It is important that the Council has flexible arrangements in place for hearing the views of parents, representing these to the school, or the local authority, or other body, and providing feedback to the Parent Forum.
The Parent Council has to report back at least once a year to the Parent Forum but it will also be important to have good ongoing communication between both the Forum and Parent Council members. These arrangements do not need to be set out in the constitution. However, the constitution should set out how a special general meeting can be called.
What your constitution might say
The Parent Council is accountable to the Parent Forum for Anytown School and will make a report to it at least once each year on its activities on behalf of all the parents.
If [x] number [or %] of members of the Parent Forum request a special general meeting to discuss issues falling within the Parent Council's remit, the Parent Council shall arrange this. The Parent Council shall give all members of the Forum at least [2 weeks] notice of the meeting and, at the same time, circulate notice of the matter, or matters, to be discussed at the meeting.
Topic 8: Annual meeting
It is good practice for the Parent Council to hold an annual meeting - the Parent Forum would decide this at the time it agrees the constitution. The annual meeting would be when the parents selected new members for the Parent Council and when the Parent Council reported back formally to the Parent Forum. If the Parent Forum decides it wants to have an annual meeting, a new Parent Council will need to hold its first Annual Meeting within 12 months of starting up. After the first annual meeting, there should be 12 months between future annual meetings. It is important that people know in good time about the meeting, and feel that they are truly welcome.
What your constitution might say
The Annual Meeting will be held in April of each year. A notice of the meeting including date, time, and place will be sent to all members of the Parent Forum at least two weeks in advance. The meeting will include:
- A report on the work of the Parent Council and its committee(s)
- Selection of the new Parent Council
- Discussion of issues that members of the Parent Forum may wish to raise
- Approval of the accounts and appointment of the auditor.
Topic 9: How should the Parent Council carry out its work?
Clear arrangements about how the Parent Council organises and runs meetings can help the Council to operate effectively. Some key areas to cover are suggested in the draft wording for your constitution.
Questions for parents to think about
- How often the Parent Council is going to meet, and how often any working groups are going to meet, and how decisions are going to be made.
- What happens if an important matter needs to be discussed and the next planned meeting is not for some weeks?
- What would the group do if a parent member of the Parent Council acted in a way that is not in keeping with the aims and objectives of the Council? Inviting a member to leave the Parent Council should be used as a very last resort and would happen in situations where, for example, a member was using the Council in order to promote an individual issue to do with their child or if the member's behaviour at meetings was disruptive or abusive.
What your constitution might say
The Parent Council will meet at least once in every school term.
Should a vote be necessary to make a decision, each parent member at the meeting will have one vote, with the Chair having a casting vote in the event of a tie.
Any two parent members of the Parent Council can request that an additional meeting be held, and all members of the Parent Council will be given at least one week's notice of date, time and place of the meeting.
If a Parent Council member acts in a way that is considered by other members to undermine the objectives of the Parent Council, their membership of the Parent Council shall be terminated if the majority of parent members agree. Termination of membership would be confirmed in writing to the member.
Topic 10: Notes of meetings
You can help to keep all members of the Parent Forum informed by making copies of Parent Council meetings available.
What your constitution might say
Copies of the minutes of all meetings will be available to all parents of children at Anytown School and to all teachers at the school. Copies will be available from the Secretary of the Parent Council/Clerk to the Parent Council and from the school office.
Topic 11: Confidentiality
Your Parent Council will wish to work in a way which is open and transparent. In general, all meetings of the Parent Council are open to the public.
However, the Parent Council, (including the Headteacher) also has the right to meet in private during discussion of any matter which the Council considers should be dealt with on a confidential basis. These would normally be matters that were confidential to a named individual.
Individual cases relating to pupils, teachers or parents at the school are not matters for direct Parent Council involvement. For example, if there is a case of bullying at the school the Parent Council may discuss the general bullying policy but will wish to leave any individual case of bullying to be addressed by the school and others as appropriate. There might be other situations where the Parent Council wants to support a pupil who is suffering from serious illness. In this case the Parent Council should not discuss the individual case, or act on behalf of the pupil, but could write to the parents of the child asking for permission to provide support, for example, through fundraising.
What your constitution might say
Meetings of the Parent Council shall be open to the public, unless the Parent Council is discussing an issue which it considers should be dealt with on a confidential basis. In such circumstances, only members of the Parent Council and the headteacher, or his or her representative, can attend.
Topic 12: How do we look after the finances of the Parent Council?
If you do not have a Clerk for your Parent Council, you will need to ensure that someone in the Parent Council has the job of looking after the accounts. Even if you do have a Clerk, reports about the accounts should be provided at each meeting and an annual report provided at the Annual Meeting.
A further option is for the Parent Council funds to be managed by the education authority. This would mean that the Parent Council would not need to open a bank account. However, an account would be needed if the Parent Council did any fundraising.
The accounts should be audited and presented to the Annual Meeting. The auditor does not need to be an accountant - simply someone who is used to working with figures, who is known to and trusted by the Parent Council, and who is independent of the Parent Council.
What your constitution might say
The Treasurer will open a bank or building society account in the name of the Parent Council for all Parent Council funds. Withdrawals will require the signature of the Treasurer and one other Parent Council member.
The Treasurer will keep an accurate record of all income and expenditure, and will provide a summary of this for each Parent Council meeting and a full account for the Annual Meeting. The Parent Council accounts will be audited by the auditor appointed at the previous Annual Meeting.
The Parent Council shall be responsible for ensuring that all monies are used in accordance with the objectives of the Parent Council.
Topic 13: Changing the constitution
A majority of the Parent Forum can change the constitution of the Parent Council at any time. The constitution should be reviewed from time to time and the Parent Council can ask the Parent Forum to make changes. Changes can only be made by a majority of the Parent Forum - voting would be a good method of identifying the majority view. In practice, it is a good idea for such changes to take place at the Annual Meeting.
What your constitution might say
The Parent Council may change its constitution after obtaining consent from members of the Parent Forum. Members of the Parent Forum will be sent a copy of any proposed amendment and given reasonable time to respond to the proposal.
Topic 14: Dissolution of the Parent Council
If your Parent Council ceases to exist, the Act requires that any funds unused at the time the Parent Council ends be used for the benefit of the school.
What your constitution might say
Should the Parent Council cease to exist, any remaining funds will be passed to the education authority to be used for the benefit of the school (or schools), where this continues.
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