How to build a thriving and engaged school community

The kids are off for the summer and there’s a new Education Secretary in town – it’s the perfect time to make a few changes in your school. For instance, are you satisfied with how well you engaged parents this past year? How involved are they in school life? Or is it just the small number of proactive parents organising fundraising events and volunteering in class? Imagine the difference it would make to your school if more parents felt able to make a contribution to the success of the school...

Building a thriving and active school community is no easy task. How do you galvanise the parents in your school to join together for the good of the school? Encouraging parents to increase their own skills, or those of the children is something schools now strive for, through courses for adults, classroom volunteering or home learning arrangements.

If your school has a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), have you ever considered asking them to partner with you in achieving these goals? They are the ideal champions to promote parental engagement, a bridge between staff, parents and pupils who can further your cause and stir up some enthusiasm. Aside from the significant amount of money they raise, they can be instrumental in supporting home school learning.

But how can your school successfully engage with parents and encourage them to take an active role in volunteering their time for helping their kids, or other kids in class or even improving their own skills?

Our top tips are to make sure that your volunteering opportunities are:

1. Transparent
Publish the volunteering opportunities online for all to see, don’t exclude all the parents who are unable to attend meetings.

2. Accessible and convenient
The astronomic rise of smartphone usage means parents are used to accessing information on the move, so you’ll need to make sure your volunteer rotas are mobile ­friendly.

3. Manageable and specific
Put out a call for general volunteers, and you can practically see the tumbleweed rolling by in some schools. Fear of the unknown often keeps people away, in case they unwittingly overcommit their time. People are busy, but they want to ­­ and will ­­ help, if you let them pick what suits them.

4. Inclusive
It’s natural for the organisers to approach people they already know to help, but this can be a slippery slope to a “cliquey” PTA! Make sure your school welcomes new volunteers all the time by continuously leaving the door firmly open.

5. Tailored and relevant communications
Make sure the right messages get to the right people rather than sending out blanket messages, expecting everyone to read through each long message to find one line relevant to them.

6. Easy to volunteer for!
If you are expecting parents to sign up on a noticeboard, you are immediately excluding a whole bunch of people who will never make it that far. Even emailing a rota slip to be printed and returned to the school office is pushing it. Make it almost impossible to say no.

Follow these guidelines and you’ll soon find parents and carers feeling so good about making a difference, that they’ll even be coming back for more!

Tes Macpherson is Founder of www.ptasocial.com, a private social network and volunteer management platform, galvanising school communities to help them fundraise and flourish. 

       

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