Parents as Partners
At St Chad's, are fully committed to working in close partnership with all of our parents and carers. Home-School partnerships are of vital importance:
- Parents know their children best
- To help the child to feel safe and secure while in the school if they see that their parents feel comfortable there.
- To create a shared level of expectation
- To information share about new levels of development, any concerns and any new likes or dislikes
- To keep up to date with what is happening outside of school, especially if the home situation may be causing problems for the child
- Parents can feel secure to seek advice, help and support should they need it
- To make transitions throughout the school smooth
- Improve practice and outcomes for the children, ensuring every child has their full individual needs met.
Communication is essential so all parents and carers are encouraged to discuss briefly any matter with the staff members at the beginning or end of the school day. If you need more time to discuss a matter, an appointment can be made with the class teacher, the Headteacher or a member of Inclusion Team . We value this information as we are only able to take action if we know about something.
We pride ourselves on keeping parents informed as soon as possible and wherever possible. Class Dojo is our main channel of communication and hosts a wealth of information about school life. We post daily on the app and encourage all parents to 'check in' as regularly as possible. Information about the school and forthcoming events can be found in our half-termly newsletters and on our school calendar.
Parents are kept informed of their child's progress through regular meetings with the class teacher throughout the academic year. During the consultation the class teacher will inform the parents of their child's progress towards their targets and there is an opportunity for parents to view their child's work. Towards the end of the academic year a written report is produced by the class teacher and outlines progress in all areas of school life and sets targets for further progress.
Parents are also invited to join their children at various times of year for special events such as Open Morning, Collective Worships, Sports Day, religious festivals/celebrations, curriculum workshops, Stay and Learn sessions and whole school celebrations.
We want all of our parents to be a helping hand in their child's educational journey and travel with them with true confidence and inspiration. Mrs Sohanpal works in school as our Family Support Worker, working alongside our parents to support them in playing an active role in all aspects of their child's learning. Throughout the year, we run numerous parent workshops and classes in school. The majority of these sessions take place on a Wednesday morning in our school hall and a Friday afternoon in our Rainbow Room. We are also proud to host weekly ESOL classes in school with the support of Derby City Council's Adult Learning. Further information about our parent workshops, including key dates, will be regularly shared via Class Dojo.
We are always looking for ways to improve our school and we welcome and value parents' feedback. We run parent questionnaires and 'parent voice' surveys on our school gate and through organised 'drop-in' sessions in school.