Newsletter 8 Nov 2004

Annual Partnership Meeting Feedback

In this first newsletter of the new half term I am presenting feedback from the Annual Partnership evening on October 21st just before half term.

Approximately 45% of families were represented on the evening, which is a low turn out compared to recent years. Possibly parents making an early start on a half term holiday might account for this relatively low number.

The theme of the evening was: Parenting and the Home/School Partnership

For the first part of the evening we watched the CARE resource 'The Sixty Minute Parent'

We then broke into groups of about 12 and discussed further one or two of the pertinent points raised, but with a focus on the home/school partnership.

The groups discussed:

• Parents' Values
• Society's Values

The point was made that society's values are changing rapidly and that prevailing values, picked up most often through the media, were often in conflict with the values many parents were trying to instill in the home.

• Parents discussed what they saw as the big issues facing them in their parenting task (and facing their children of course).

These were the issues most often mentioned:

• Establishing a personal faith
• Money Management
• Sexuality Issues
• Materialism
• Decision Making
• Media & advertising
• Drugs
• Fashion
• Alcohol
• Music
• Peer pressure
• Friendships

Parents were asked if there was anything that the school could bear in mind or should be aware of, or addressed from parents' point of view.

The feedback was as follows:

Comments were generally positive and supportive of the school and felt that the school supported their values in the home.

Points were made concerning:

• Could the school make more of its needs known to parents, as has been the case in previous years. This applies to prayer needs, small items, which need to be purchased, or any maintenance tasks which need to be undertaken.
• Parents valued communication via the newsletter and the website and appreciated hearing different perspectives and contributions in the newsletter.
• Could the school make sure it receives more personal details about children's backgrounds, which would help teachers, understand the needs of pupils. A suggestion was made to redesign the application form to accommodate this information.
• Could the school be more sensitive to the individual pupils. Some parents thought that some instances of discipline had been too harsh.
• Parents asked that good behaviour be not over looked or taken for granted and that effort be rewarded as well as achievement on the award scheme.
• Parents feel that Primary classrooms are open for parents to informally drop in for a chat about issues but there wasn't the same sense that parents of Secondary children could do this with their children's teachers.

The following general points were made in the context of their discussions

• Parents support of the school is so valuable to the health of the school
• Teachers would value Prayer to be able to wisely make use of the opportunities they have to address all the 'Life' issues identified in these sessions, as well as provide academic teaching.
• For parents to remember where the school has come from and to acknowledge and thank God for His providence.

Headteacher comment

Members of the governing board, the teaching staff, as well as myself were glad to receive the comments.

We will look closely and consider carefully the comments that have been made, as well as receive the encouragement from the many positive comments made on the evening.

We do spend a lot of time with students over issues that have moral consequences and try to avoid 'over the top' judgements. However, from experience in running a Christian school, we have seen previous consequences of leaving unaddressed issues of a serious moral nature. One of the ways to maintain a positive ethos is to act decisively on public moral issues within the school community. We do spend a great deal of time considering any disciplinary sanctions and seek to be in consultation with parents over matters beyond the everyday issues encountered in the school.

Secondary teachers are available after school as much as Primary teachers and are very open to seeing parents on an informal basis. It maybe helpful to drop a note to teachers at the start of the day or on a previous day stating that you would like to meet with them. This would obviously help the senior management team who teach and who usually have a number of issues to deal with at the end of each day.

Finally

We do appreciate very much the fact that we are in partnership in the educating of the children of the school. We are open to your comments and observations and will feed your points into our practice where they will benefit the school.

For those parents unable to attend the Partnership evening. A report handed out on the evening is available on the schools website: www.bradfordchristianschool.com Also, we are happy to send you a copy of the report on request.

• Those parents who signed up for the CARE Parentalk Course.

The course will run in January and details will be supplied so as to who will facilitate the course, where and when.

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Praise & Worship Evening

We invite everyone to join us on Wednesday 10th November 6 till 7pm for this half-term's Praise And Worship Evening. We will be joined by Christian Life Church, Shipley's Youth Band and some of our students will be taking part.

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Good As New School Uniform Sale

Monday 15th November 3.15pm Good as new school uniform sale in the hall.

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Open Day

On Thursday 25th November we will be having an Open Day and evening meeting where we share our vision and explain the workings of the school. The Open Day will be from 9:30am - 2:00pm and the evening meeting will be from 7:30 - 9:00pm. Please inform anyone you feel may be interested in viewing the school or interested in Christian education.

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Audio Books Wanted

The Special Needs Unit would like to build up a 'listening library' and would be grateful of any donations of books / stories on cassettes or CD's.

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Class Photographs

The class group photos will be returned to the supplier at the end of the week. If you would like one please ensure you purchase it before Friday 12th. They are £7 each.

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Email Communication

If you would like to receive your newsletters by email (currently 50% of you are) and have not returned the contacts form sent out on 17th September with your email address on please fill in the slip at the bottom of this page and return it to the office or email office@bradfordchristianschool.com. Due to a technical problem we have lost our list of email addresses and are therefore, having to compile it again.

Yours sincerely

Mr PJ Moon
Headmaster

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Category: Newsletters

Author: Mr Moon