Building strong Home-school relationships
St John the Baptist’s College (SJBC) opened as a Key Stage 3 co-educational all-ability school on 1st September 2017. It is located in the heart of the Portadown community but welcomes students from an array of neighbouring towns and villages and has an intake of 100 pupils in each year group. They introduced Google classroom very soon after the school was established. The school has an active PTA who get involved through many events in school life.
Brenda Leathem is a member of the Senior Leadership Team with responsibility for Safe-guarding and Nurture
Key learning
Think about the school environment from a parent's point of view. Is it welcoming?
Develop trust
Always start with something positive
Emphasise partnership working
Build a range of opportunities to involve parents in school life
Develop a range of two way methods to communicate with parents
Questions to consider when building positive relationships with parents:
How do we currently communicate with parents? Could we do it better?
In what other ways could we communicate with parents?
How easy is it for parents to make contact with us? How do we know?
Is our school welcoming to parents?
Do we cater for the needs of parents and siblings when they arrive?
How could be better engage our parents in the life of the school?
How can we support parents to engage more with their child's learning?
How can we build trust in our relationships with parents?