The group started in 1999 under the guidance of Jean de Rijke from the Devon PTA. The concept was to link the school with the community and to improve the relationship between parents and the school.
We were given the choice of headings to consider, we chose ‘Learning’.
The idea behind it being to increase the involvement of parents and the community in the learning process.
In the first18 months we achieved a great deal, this is due entirely to the dedication and hard work of the team.
We introduced the Home/School contact book to improve communication between parents and teachers. At the same time we purchased plastic wallets to accommodate the contact book and correspondence from school. These innovations have met with approval from all concerned.
We instigated meetings at the beginning of term with teachers and parents on a Friday morning to discuss the year ahead, topics to be covered, assessment tests, expectations of behaviour and standards, and when reading books were to be in school etc. These were well attended.
We have expanded the meeting with new parents of reception children to include meetings with other parents and a tour of the school should they wish. Refreshments have been provided to enable a more informal approach. This has now grown to the extent that we have representatives from the PTA, the Governing Body, the kitchen staff, and the administrative assistants. We hope this will give the new parents more confidence in approaching the school.
A newsletter was drafted and sent to parents along with a questionnaire. We wanted feedback from the parents about the school and events they would like to take part in.
In July 1999 we ran 2 Reading Workshops. Although the staff felt it would be of great benefit we had very few people attend.
In March 2000 we organized a maths evening in the form of a Beetle Drive. This was a joint event with the Swimming Pool committee, so we were able to raise money as well. This was a great success; a good time was had by all.
As a result of the questionnaire we managed to organize a storyteller in Book Week. This was also an evening event combined with the PTA. We had a very lively evening in the company of Roald Dahl’s “Mathilda”.
In conjunction with the Family Education Development Trust and the Family Learning Weekend we were able to put on a computer workshop for parents and children after school. A number of trainers attended either helping with existing problems or allowing parents to try out new equipment.
In addition to this the Family Education Development Trust is overseeing the Bud-Wiser Project which is a joint initiative between Bow School and Queen Elizabeth Community College. There are 3 aspects of this project: -
1. A buddying system between Year 6 and Year 7 students via the internet to ease the transition between primary and secondary school
2. Web-site training for 2 parents, 2 children, and 2 teachers from each school. This is held after school in the computer suite at QECC and is to run for 5 weeks.
3. We have employed a project manager to put together a school web-site that is done out of school time but the students are putting in the information about school activities. We are also putting together a community web-site which will include information about the village, clubs and local businesses etc.
The children have been able to exhibit works of art in the Garden Club shows. This has been a great success both for the children and for the Garden Club to get a younger person involved. Yet another example of integration into the community.
We are currently putting together a booklet for Volunteers in school. This will explain what is expected of them from the staff as well as more mundane information about toilets and where to get a much needed cup of tea!
We have our second annual conference in February and we have a presentation to prepare to provide evidence about the work we have done, and we will be able to learn from other action teams throughout the county.
The Budwiser Project is now complete and the children have helped set up 3 websites. A Bow School website where the pupils update the class projects pages and school activities pages regularly; a Community website for which children have written about organisations they belong to and taken home questionnaires to family and friends about other organisations; and through the buddying system the questions asked by our year 6 pupils and answered by QE Lower School pupils have contributed to the Going to QE website. To visit our sister sites click below
The school website will be regularly maintained and updated by the school. The buddying continued this year with our year 6's and QE and the QE website was updated to include the answers to any questions asked this year. This site will be of use for many years to all those year 6 pupils from the primary schools in our area who will be starting QE in their year 7. It contains a tour of the school; information on the subjects taught; school routines lunchtime and afterschool activities and has a frequently asked questions section.It has been written by pupils for pupils and is a user friendly site.
The Parish Council have agreed to donate some money to help maintain the Community website and some businesses are currently being approached to sponser this site.
The booklet for Volunteers helping in Our School and a Volunteering Policy have been passed on to the Governors who have approved them and copies have been left in the staffroom for teachers and current volunteers to look at and make any comments about.To read a copy of the booklet click here.
During 2002 we have concentrated on Community and arranged meetings with other village organisations to help identify needs and improve the village. As a result of these we have introduced a Village newsletter called the Bow and Arrow. The first two copies of this were sponsered by the Investors in Parents group and now sponsership is being sought from businesses and organisations in the village. It has been well received and many organisations have used it to promote themselves and special events. A new committee called BRAG (Bow Recreation Amenities Group) has been formed to bring together local community groups to work together to achieve a better future for Bow. This steering group is the following projects on its agenda -
Purchase of a new football site which would free existing space for play facilities.
Refurbishment of the Village Centre Entrance, toilets and Kitchen
In the short term a Youth Worker and the Village Newsletter.
Although the initial pilot Investors in Parents was a three year project, we have decided to keep our school group going.
UPDATE 2003
In April 2003 we prepared a portfolio of evidence and gave a presentation of our work which led to us acheiving an award for "Outstanding Work with Families and the Community". This was presented to us at the Conference in April.