Following up a previous OnTheWight article on Parental engagement and the Meeting for parents following the Ofsted report, Parent Council member Dave Miller offers feedback and welcomes further parental input, in his own words. Ed
Following two recent meetings of the Cowes Enterprise College (CEC) Parent Forum (the informal bit), and the first two meetings of the newly formed Parent Council (the more formal bit), outcomes are beginning to be seen.
At last week’s Parent Forum meeting, in response to previously highlighted concerns, parents were advised of revisions to the routing and handling of incoming phone calls, the anticipated launch of a weekly newsletter for a trial period after half-term, and heard about the recently implemented ‘Vivo’ student reward programme. Attendees heard of favourable feedback from the College with respect to the contracted Kent-based improvement team, and noted that an action plan had been submitted to the DfE. Also discussed was a new homework policy, endeavouring to ensure consistency of setting, and provision of feedback.
The Forum noted that the minutes from the Parent Council (meetings of 21 January and 30 January) were now available on the Parent Council section of the CEC Website.
New Building update
The minutes provide further detail on the reasons for not moving into the new building, and note specific omissions in the design, such as emergency stop circuits in practical design rooms, and security screening. The subject of concerns with the roof were also discussed and minuted, together with discussion of a 6-week transition plan for the move.
The delay in the IT roll-out of tablet devices was noted, as the current building cannot apparently fully support them. The minutes relating to the Ofsted inspection have predominantly been superseded by the material conveyed at the public meeting on 24 January, as previously reported.
The published draft minutes from the second meeting cover numerous operational aspects in addition to referencing the planning for College transfer to Academy status, and sought enhancement to the website.
Local Authority support
It will be recalled that at the post-Ofsted meeting, it was advised that the LA would ‘back-up’ and ‘top-up’ support to the College. At the Children & Young People Scrutiny Panel meeting on 5 February, the Chief Executive quantified this as a provision for £50k to support the College out of special measures. At the same meeting it was advised that for the purposes of budgeting, conversion to academy status was provisioned for the next academic year. It was also noted that the Kent-based improvement team were contracted to the college, and as such the arrangement was separate to the cessation of talks with an unnamed local authority with respect to provision of school improvement services.
Have your say – Input sought
Future Parent council meeting dates are 25/02/13, 17/04/13, 05/06/13 & 08/07/13, whilst the next open Parent Forum meeting is scheduled for 25/03/13. Next Monday’s (member only) meeting has items on the agenda relating to the new build, and school improvement, and the draft minutes should be published on the website, within a couple of weeks, for parents to read. Input to the Parent Council can be provided via the clerk (contact details on the Parent Council section of the CEC website), and I am happy to receive any input at [email protected]. (No personal matters please.)
By way of background, parental engagement with schools is promoted by the Department for Education (DfE). In one of its guides, it discusses benefits to children, parents, and schools, starting with:
Benefits for children
- Children behave better and achieve more when their parents are involved in their education.
- Their parents will receive advice and information about how to support their learning.
- Their concerns can be resolved more quickly when their parents have a positive relationship with school staff.
Dave Miller (CEC Parent Council member & co-opted Educational representative on Scrutiny Panel)
An indicative view of the relationship between the Parent Council and Parent Forum is offered below for context:
Image: Orin Zebest under CC BY 2.0
