Engaging Parents and Carers to Create Better Lives and Futures for Families

At the age of seven parental influence on children’s learning is six times that of the school, and by the age of eleven it is still a third greater. Working effectively with parents and carers to help them to support their children’s learning and development is crucial, right through from Nursery to Year 6.

What are we doing and why?

All staff warmly welcome opportunities to meet with parents and carers to share celebrations, discuss strategies to support emotional well being and to enable children to make the best progress possible and develop a life long love of learning.

We have our staff in the office who are our first welcome and immediate support. Miss Robinson, Mrs Jackson, Mrs Gibbs and Mrs Baldwin are available in the office to advise and ensure visitors, parents, carers and children have a friendly, informative welcome on entering the school.

Mrs Oldfield our Head Teacher, Mr Hewlett our Deputy Head Teacher and Ms Ward our Assistant Head Teacher are always happy to arrange a time to meet with families.

Mrs Slater our SENDCo is always happy to offer support and advice regarding special educational needs, accessibility, behaviour, and can sign post you to other members of the SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) Team.

All members of staff have had up to date safeguarding training and are willing to offer support and guidance on request. Our Designated Safeguarding Lead (DSL) is Mrs Oldfield. 

At Arnold Mill we aim to:

• Encourage the use of a wide range of communication strategies, from the traditional newsletter to the use of texting, email and the school’s website. We try to give simple but creative ways of providing curriculum information and practical advice that will enable parents and carers to support their children’s learning.
• Develop effective management strategies to build a sustainable approach to parent partnership across the school - particularly the use of structured conversations.
• From the moment parents/carers and children join our school community they are welcomed to our family approach to supporting the emotional well being of all members to ensure we can all achieve the best outcomes possible. 
• Parents and carers are the experts in supporting staff at Arnold Mill to ensure that we truly meet the needs of the children. Termly Parent Forums and Annual Parent Satisfaction Questionnaire are formal ways to share ideas. However, where parents/carer have a concern, idea, suggestion we always appreciate immediate feedback and discussions. This enables us to take the necessary action to ensure we are doing the best job possible. It is through this feedback that we secure further whole school improvement.