School working party

Role of a working party

The school can establish a school working party to assist in the process of setting up a Parent Council. The school will convene an open meeting of parents to set up a school working party.

The role of the working party could include:

• Identify issues that are important to parents.
• Consider the options for setting up a Parent Council which would support working on these issues.
• Develop a draft constitution based on the various options for the Parent Council.
• Communicate regularly with the Parent Forum to gather the views and approval of the options the working party suggests for the Parent Council and the constitution.
• Communicate regularly with the school and involve the headteacher and other school staff to help consider the options.
• Report back to the education authority with suggested arrangements for the Parent Council and the constitution.
• The education authority could then use this feedback to prepare the scheme to establish a Parent Council.
• The education authority could formally report back to the Parent Forum on the scheme which would contain the options to set up a Parent Council.  The Parent Forum would then reach agreement about its preferred option.

The working party is supported by the local authority and should use the Toolkit materials to explore the options available for a Parent Council and its constitution.

Once the options have been considered the working party engages with the Parent Forum.