Role and Responsibilities of the HSCL Coordinator
The HSCL Coordinator endeavours to:
- Encourage, support and facilitate partnership between parents and teachers in the education of their children.
- Work with staff to develop an understanding of educational disadvantage and promote innovative approaches and methodologies to address it. The Coordinator shall provide information to teachers of students in her care which will help them best support the students’ learning needs. This information will be provided by means of email in which the students’ initials only are used. Such information will be limited to what the teacher needs to do to best provide for the student in the classroom and to guide the teacher on appropriate homework setting.
- Actively develop and promote parental involvement as an integral part of the school development/DEIS planning process and in their work, to support the development, implementation and review of the DEIS Action Plan. The Coordinator shall be a member of one of the DEIS pillars most appropriate to the role of the HSCL and will lead initiatives to improve that area of DEIS.
- Establish structures to identify the needs of parents. The Coordinator shall design, administer and analyse result of online questionnaires for parents around how the school can best support them.
- Work with parents to prepare and support them as a resource to their own children and also to the wider school community.
- Visit the homes of students in order to:
- Build bonds of trust between home and school.
- Encourage parents to become involved in their child’s education.
- Bring information about the school and about services available in the community.
- Seek out potential parent leaders, who are willing to participate in the HSCL Scheme’s
activities and to be a resource to other parents.
- Monitor the effectiveness of interventions, which have been put in place.
- Facilitate the provision of leisure, curricular, parenting and personal development programmes for parents.
- Within the Educational Welfare Services of the Child and Family Agency, work collaboratively with the statutory Educational Welfare Service and the School Completion Programme (SCP) to address issues which impinge on the school attendance, participation and retention of children at risk of educational disadvantage and early school leaving. The Coordinator shall monitor attendance and ring home when students are absent on the second day in a row.
- Participate in, contribute to and support integrated services policy and practice of the Educational Welfare Services within the Child and Family Agency.
- Establish and maintain appropriate structures to facilitate the involvement of parents in their child’s learning in school and in the home in areas such as literacy, numeracy, leisure/curricular courses, personal development, parenting, shared reading etc…
- Facilitate the training of parents as community leaders and as a support to other parents.
- Liaise with voluntary and statutory agencies in the community.
- Establish/maintain/participate in the Local Education Committee which seeks to respond to school- related issues at community level, that impinge on learning and to seek to address these issues, by working collaboratively with parents, students, voluntary and statutory agencies.
- Facilitate partnership with teachers, parents, pupils and community agencies in formulating school policies.
- Plan, monitor and evaluate HSCL interventions and programmes.
- Assist DLP with reporting concerns to TUSLA where the report pertains to target students.
- Meet with the principal regularly to discuss HSCL interventions and programmes and the HSCL budget.
Based on Circular 0058/2013
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