Membership of Parent Council

Membership of Parent Council

The Act requires that members of the Parent Council must be members of the school’s Parent Forum. That is, they must have a child attending the school. It also provides that only a member of the Parent Forum may chair a Parent Council for that school. Beyond this, the Act allows considerable flexibility for parents to decide the composition of the Parent Council for their school. Parents may choose to frame their Parent Council constitution to allow others to be co-opted if they wish to draw on wider experience, such as that offered by school staff, local councillors or the school’s community. Where a Parent Council is established in respect of a denominational school (see glossary), its constitution must allow for at least one of its members to be co-opted. The Parent Council must invite the relevant church or denominational body to nominate a representative to be part of its membership.

Members of the Parent Council will bring to discussions of the Council knowledge from their own experience and personal views. However, as parent representatives, they must also consider how they can ensure that the Parent Council presents a co-ordinated, collective voice through consultation with other members of the Parent Forum. The Council should consider how it can ensure that the views of all parents can be taken into account and what it can do to remove any barriers to wider parental involvement. The headteacher can advise on this in terms of the education authority strategy to promote parental involvement. There are also activities and practical advice aimed at involving all parents in Section 2 of the toolkit.