What's in a name? Plenty, according to families at Beckford Primary School in South Lanarkshire. Determined that their Parent Council would be accessible and appealing to all families associated with the school, Beckford decided to give it a more friendly title and open up more routes to getting parents involved. And so ‘Friends of Beckford’ was born.
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Friends of Beckford is a great example of how a more inclusive and less formal approach can pay dividends when it comes to harnessing the support of local families. Parent Arlene is chair of Friends of Beckford and says the whole ethos of the Parent Council is grounded in a desire to encourage more parents to feel welcome to join in: 'It’s important for the voice of a parent to be heard. Education is such a big part in a child’s life and the main teacher in a child’s life is their parent, so it’s good to bring the two together.'
Working together on the school website
It was while working with Beckford’s home-school partnership worker on an adult computer course that parents and carers noticed the primary school didn’t have its own website. Parents raised this with Beckford’s headteacher, Mrs Gibson, and a new and exciting opportunity was identified, as Arlene explains: 'Mrs Gibson asked us if we would like to take responsibility for developing a school website and we were delighted to do that.'
The new website soon began to gather pace. Working together, the Friends of Beckford supported each other in learning new skills and discovering how useful the website could be, not just to other parents or prospective Parent Council members, but also in terms of their own personal development and learning. 'I didn’t even know how to turn a computer on,' laughs Arlene as she describes the new skills she has acquired thanks to her involvement with Friends of Beckford. Arlene says her own child, who attends the school, also feels really proud of what his mum has achieved!
Building relationships between parents and teachers
The website is proving a particularly useful resource for parents and carers who, due to work commitments, find it difficult to be physically involved with the Parent Council or to come into the school to find out what’s going on. The Friends of Beckford felt it was important to include a ‘guest room’ on the website which would allow parents to ask the Parent Council questions remotely and gather whatever information they need. This awareness of the importance of alternative means of communication and opening up access is integral to the success of the Parent Council at Beckford.
While the new website has helped families support each other, it has also boosted the relationship between the Parent Council and teachers, thus avoiding any sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’. Mrs Gibson agrees: 'The Friends of Beckford have proved themselves to be wonderful ambassadors for the school and they are truly taking the school into the heart of the community. They are also involved in the daily life of the school and are actively involved in their children’s learning.'
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