Slam poetry at Paganel

Workshops ran all day with every class exploring language.  Event at 2:00 presented the work of pupils and had a competitive poetry 'face off' between a parent/child and teacher/child teams.

Also much fun with the dressing up - teachers (at least two headteachers), characters from poems, and rap artists all present.

Spoz demonstrates power of poetry with his own 'H2O'

The PIP Award

We created our own perfect teacher, and discussed values of what makes a good teacher with PIPs and school council (see pictures below).  Initially I think a couple of the student council wanted to vote for actual teachers, but wasn't possible to do in an hour, and besides, it was more useful to consider what makes a good teacher, not who is a good teacher.  Also if there is any way we can include the whole school in  a 'hustings' of sorts, got to be better than a few members of the council with our PIPs representatives.

So we focused on what we think makes a good teacher.  A tie helps, as does glitter.  The 'stick' is a walking stick - being old is definitely not seen as a disadvantage to these pupils.  An 'old' teacher was more likely to be 'experienced'.  I didn't ask what age they thought old was!  We considered a whole load of possible values of a good teacher, and narrowed down to three most important values:

A perfect teacher should be:

• Understanding
• Smart
• Fun

The sub-group initially came up with 'clever' rather than 'smart', but after discussion with all, we changed that to 'smart', as smart was seen to include aspects of applying 'cleverness'.

There wasn't enough time to debate what we will do on 18th July with the student council, but brief meeting with PIPs after we decided:

• Hosted by Spoz, parents support
• Marcus to prepare publicity
• Competitive event for teachers, teaching assistants, and all staff, based on the values of a perfect teacher (see above)
• A Trophy and certificate for our 'PIP Award'
• Donations at the end for school
• Review for next year, PIPs with School Council ideally

21st June

Discussion with Mrs Osman and Mr Philp to set dates for 'Teacher of the Year Award 2011'- Parents in Paganel working with School Council:

• 5th July will review what makes a good teacher and set categories for our award
• 5th July plan project, prepare forms and promotional material 
• 12 awards in total
• 5th July to 18th July is time to vote for your teachers in classrooms
• 18th July following award of each category, balloon hustings/debate/final vote for teacher of the year?  Maybe teachers could pitch why they think their award is most important, i.e. I think it's most important to be best dressed because...I would argue being the kindest is...

School Heroes project - to start in September

Family Day - Still to be discussed

14th June

Following on from last meeting, uniform sale took place Wednesday 25th May - we raised £65, to go to school fund, and the next Friday we ran a non-uniform day which made a further £176!  There are still items unsold which will remain available to view/buy for a few more weeks outside main school office area - please add any other clean, folded items we can sell.

For 'teacher of the year' awards, following discussion with staff, we would like to run a number of more fun awards, and try to encourage positive comments about staff from children, parents.  I will arrange a box, and next wee, we will decide what the categories will be (children can't vote for own teacher, can comment on own teacher, one award per teacher), e.g.:

Stictest teacher

Kindest teacher

Creative teacher

Smartest teacher

Best Dressed teacher

For 'Local Heroes' project in September, we are starting to put together a plan with staff, so all children will take part across the school.  Project could also link to 'Faces and Places' workshop.  Will discuss further next time.

Family day visit - I will see if possible to have a 'family day' next term, possibly to take place families who sign up to a local venue (like local Park or Martineau Gardens?) to have some fun and short chat about our school.

17th May

Present: 6 parents, Marcus

Discussion on 'Strategies and Tactics' led to actions to do, and clarity and more detail for our purpose.

• Marcus to compile notes on our strategy, prepare summary
• Marcus to chase school on large display board in playground
• Sam to arrange date for Uniform trade day
• Elaine, Claire, Nicky to arrange temporary display with Sam
• Marcus to discuss 'teacher of the year' fundraiser
• Marcus to arrange local hero project to start September

 

Meeting 10th May

Present: Sam, Marcus Nikki

• Discussed where working with parents good - very positive about parents evenings and assemblies.  Teachers good at giving time to listening to parents, and Mr Shufflebottom great at 'hyping them up'

• Texting seen as excellent - is there a way to reply to the school via text?

• Parent Questionnaire discussed - could we add to existing questionnaire?  What questions would we like to ask parents?  If we had a big pot of money what should we spend it on?  If there was something you'd like to change?

• 'Local hero' project discussed - a means of valuing the contribution to a range of different people to the school (including parents and carers).  Children write/film a short piece about their heros.  We talked about incentives or prizes.  Trip out might not be best for some - a laptop or camcorder might be good, but then began to discuss if competitive thing with only one prize may not fit with school.  An award ceremony, where children give medals, or badges to their heros may work - attendance badges were seen as success and important to children.  Is this something best arranged for 

• Board display - it is taking time to arrange through school, so decided best to begin with board in entrance - suggested holiday info, local childminders other useful info could be checked out at library.  Nicky offered to be one of the parents responsible to keep board up-to-date.

• Web page/blog or PIP facebook page linked to official site.  Could add info from display to facebook too.

Meeting 3rd May

Present: Marcus, Elaine, Claire

Sam printed off some flyers for PIP and Elaine and Nikki distributed this morning - disappointing not to attract more parents.

Discussed uniform day, and how display board will be split - to include a trading chunk, local events, school events, and some kind of general interest bit.

We had a brief chat about how to engage more parents.  I will discuss with Sam, particularly to identify where we are successfully engaging with parents and how we might support and develop from those points.

We cut meeting short as the display board hasn't arrived yet - hope to put together next week, as planned last term.

Agreed to meet again next week.

3rd Meeting

Present: Marcus, Nikki, Elaine, Claire, Tony (from yrs 5, 1 and nursery)


Actions from last week:

• Changed name quickly to PIP, as POP for Princethorpe parents
• We tried our new computers in parents room
• Uniform day agreed for next term, 
• Large noticeboard to be installed in playground next week
• Texting - letter went out to all parents yesterday
• Sports day - waiting for news from school.  Cannot have competitive tournament.
• Friday afternoon waiting on school plans

Discussion about how technology has changed, whether people use it and why.

Searched Google for our names - started discussion about what information is public and what is private, what is available on web, if we are comfortable with what is out there, who is representing us, Weoley Castle and our school, and how we can use info technology to improve parent voice at Paganel, alongside noticeboard and other means.

 'Why hadn't I heard about...' came up - how we can make sure more parents know what is happening, and eventually how we can make sure parents can take a more active role, i.e. if parents and school know more about each other, can better support children in school.

Next meeting we will start on our noticeboard.  Newsletter also discussed as a possibility in future.  Date of next meeting: Tuesday 3rd May 2011

Second POP meeting

Present:  Sam, Marcus, Nikki, Nikki's Dad, Elaine, Claire, Tony (from yrs 5, 1 and nursery)

• POP

Agreed didn't want to be a 'Friends of' group, so we've decided to call ourselves POP - Parents Of Paganel. 

• Laptops

All agreed it would be really useful to have one o two laptops available for parents to use within school in parents room.  Sam to follow up and hope to have something for next Tuesday

• Noticeboard

All agreed noticeboard would be useful for range of updates for parents, and also for buy and sell between parents.  Sam to arrange for next week.  Marcus to create a blog and facebook page to keep minutes for now, with intention to develop more in the future. Recognition by the group that we need to make sure noticeboard and all communications need to be kept updated.

• Texting

All agreed texting would work well for contacting parents (alongside existing communications).  Texting already being introduced, and Sam to look into its use for POPs

• Uniform Day

An afternoon organised by the parents, mid summer term to sell and buy school uniforms and other school related stuff.  Sam to discuss with staff

• Sports Day and Football tournament

We want more parent involvement on sports day, and interest in a football tournament.  Both ideas need more thought and planning.  Need to met with teaching staff responsible who we could discuss ideas with.

• Friday afternoons and possibilities for parents to work with their children

Sam to find out what plans are and to keep informed.  Den-making, science experiments, local history, visit to Weoley Castle, film making may be areas where parents would be interested in working with their children.  Also discussed reading support and Homework clubs.  All possibilities on Friday afternoon? 

Paganel Primary seen by parents as a 'child-centred' school - positive about Martin and all the staff in their approach to working with children.

Suggestions for next week (meeting Tuesday 9:15 to 10:15):

• Sam's feedback - See above
• Start on noticeboard - how do we organise?
• Create google accounts for parents who want them
• Look at blogs and what they offer (I have links to interesting examples - school and communty ones we could visit quickly, or they could find their own)
• Google our names - what can we find?  Who controls info about us?
• Drawing a line between private and public - in a school setting, using web, important issue
• Our Blog

Useful links:

podnosh.com 

http://talkaboutlocal.org.uk

Also:

Sample of Me and My Web Shadow

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