Parent and Community Advisory Forum

Working closely with parents and local communities

 

The Trust and its schools work closely with parents and local communities to support children’s learning, health and wellbeing. As part of our governance structure, every school has an established Parent and Community Advisory Forum.

This ensures that the voice of both parents and communities are represented and heard and that trustees are connected to and understand the unique context of every school. The Forum is advisory and does not hold any statutory responsibilities.

The information below provides more detail of how the school Forums work and how they fit into the Trust’s overall governance framework.

Purpose of the Forum

As both a philosophical stance and a school-improvement strategy, the concept of parent voice in education has grown and is important for the Trust in terms of living its values. The Trust sees parent voice as critically important to the golden thread of governance. Parent voice is also predicated on the belief that our schools will be more successful i.e. that teachers will be more effective and professionally fulfilled, that pupils will learn and achieve more, and that parents will feel more confidence in their school and more involved in their child’s education—if trustees and school leaders both consider and act upon the values, opinions, beliefs and perspectives of parent, families and local in  their school community representatives. To achieve this every Trust school has a Parent and Community Advisory Forum.

Membership

All parents of children attending a Trust school will automatically be a member of the Forum and will be invited to every meeting.

Responsibilities of Forum Planning Team

Each Trust school has a planning team to plan the structure and content of the agenda for the Forum sessions, analyse the parental feedback received and act on the agreed actions.

Membership of Forum Planning Team

For individual schools to determine depending on size and context of the school. However, membership will include:

  • Member of senior leadership team.
  • Two parents (EYFS/KS1 and KS2).
  • Representative of local community.
  • Representative of Trust (observer at Forum meetings).

Advisory Forum Meeting Schedule

  • At least 3 scheduled meetings per school year.