Parent-School Communications

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Partnership with Parents

One of the pillars of our DEIS Plan is Partnership with parents.

The targets for our 2020-23 Plan were as follows:

1. To increase the number of journals being signed every day/week by parents 3 times a week by 58% to 75% over 3 years
2. Increase the number of senior cycle parents attending PTM from 47.6% to 60% over 3 years
3. Increase the number of junior cycle parents attending PTM from 65% to 70% over 3 years
4. Increase the number of parents attending information evenings from 31% to 50% over 3 years

The measures we used to address these targets were as follows:

• Class Tutor contacts home after two days absence
• Introduction of a new parent friendly booking system for Parent Teacher Meetings
• Parents get a call from the Office to remind or the help parents book in for PTMs
• Promotion of information evenings on social media
• New school app and website
• Home School Community Liaison teacher organises potholing activities for parents
• Working with the Parents Assocation to greater more links with parents

Parent Teacher Meetings

We hold a Parent/Guardian Teacher Meeting each year for every year group. These PTMs are the highlight of our year as we get to meet our families and share with you how the students are doing. It’s really important to attend the meeting.

Meetings are scheduled at appropriate times of the year to suit the year group. Meetings are highlighted in the School Calendar which is available on the school app and also in the student journal. Students are invited to attend the meeting with the parent(s)/guardian(s) to discuss their progress and how they can improve their learning.

We use an app called Parent Teacher Organiser. PTOrganiser provides timed appointments for parent(s)/guardian(s) and teachers so that teachers are aware of which parent(s)/guardian(s) they will be meeting and can prepare appropriately for the meeting. This means that parents are only at the school for the period when they have appointments, do not have to queue and appointments are timed.

It is not possible for all parents to meet all teachers in some cases so PTOrganiser allows parents to enter their own preferences and then print their own rota.

Appointments are allocated in order of preference so that as far as possible all parents will receive an equal number of appointments depending on the number of preferences they entered and the demand for a particular teacher. If a teacher is oversubscribed, appointments will be allocated in order of preference until all appointment slots are used.