Cramlington Learning Village is re-awarded the Leading Parent Partnership Award for a further period of three years.
At Cramlington Learning Village we are committed to establishing and maintaining an effective and purposeful working relationship between the school and home and we recognise how parental engagement can improve student achievement, reduce absenteeism, and restore parents’ confidence in their children’s education.
Schools with engaged parents involve them in school life, communicate regularly and provide opportunities for them to take part in their child’s learning journey. Parents can show this engagement in many ways both at home and in school. For example, at home parents can read with their child and help with or check on homework. Parents’ can also demonstrate engagement by attending events held in school such as information evenings, parent meetings and awards evenings.
All staff at our school take responsibility for parental engagement and understand their role in involving the family in a child’s learning.
On Monday 11th July 2022, Andrea Hamshaw from Optimus carried out a rigorous audit of the evidence gathered to achieve the award. She met with Tony Brown (LPPA Coordinator), staff, parents and pupils as part of the verification process to reassess the KPI’s for the Parent Award first awarded in July 2019. Andrea was very impressed by and complimentary about all aspects of school, but particularly the work that we do in collaboration with our parents and carers to improve the lives and learning of our children.
Andrea added, “Cramlington Learning Village has excelled in embedding the work that it does in relation to parental engagement. This school shows how the LPPA can be done by a secondary phase establishment when leadership and management of the award is given priority to support holistic outcomes for young people, their families and the community they serve.
The information gained through the Reassessment Visit highlighted:
- The continued commitment of ALL staff to work in partnership with parents, and external agency provision where necessary, to support families to achieve positive outcomes for pupils evolves in line with needs. This is also supported by the updating of the staff handbook used as an induction tool for ALL staff so that each and every person knows what is expected when it comes to parental engagement and their respective roles at Cramlington.
Parents – Although these parents were different ones to those spoken to at the Final Verification Visit the message remains the same. There is a partnership of which they are a huge part! Parents are always made to feel welcome at all levels across the setting and the same welcome is provided by each member of staff. Parents definitely expressed the opinion that, in relation to communication, ALL staff were extremely approachable and that they receive information through a variety of media from both the academic and pastoral staff. The school has embraced their comments and continues to provide relevant and timely information across the site. The information parents view on the website is easy to access and comprehensive – this, added to the information from the informative handbook and FROG, enables them to keep up with all aspects of school life including behaviour, celebrations and progress data. Information is still shared on a regular basis and when questions are raised they are answered in a timely manner. The information parents have received may have changed in its media (e.g. some has now been virtual) but the content is still valued immensely. Links with external agencies where necessary to provide guidance including training on e-safety (amongst many others) were again described positively and parents were supported by the school to access support. Again, this provision had been enhanced during the lockdowns in an effort to provide the foundation for staff to signpost on to other services that may be able to support families in a holistic sense.
Staff – Parental engagement is at the heart of everything that happens at Cramlington. Communication with parents is viewed as key by staff and information sharing happens through many forms including e-mails, newsletters, text messages, website and via face to face sessions as well as virtually. The open-door policy continues to operate and, as restrictions lift, the activities programme to support parents to be involved in their children’s learning and development as well as the opportunity to take part in celebrations and performances, will be resurrected. The pastoral provision throughout the school continues to work in partnership with teaching, learning and development to support families holistically and to provide advocacy services when the need arises. Lots of information was shared about transitions throughout the site at Cramlington. It was apparent that relationships with parents and staff commence as early as possible when children are coming into Year 7 to enable effective communication to begin. There was definitely the feel that the staff had put in place additional measures to communicate with home as a result of the covid-19 pandemic which had further improved relationships between pupils, families and school. Measures which have been seen to have a positive impact will continue.
Pupils spoken to at the Reassessment visit were able to provide a significant amount of information in relation to everyday life across Cramlington Learning Village. They shared examples of communication methods in place between home and school including website, newsletters, school visits and the wealth of information that was available on the parent portal.
Students were of the opinion that their parents were made to feel welcome by all staff when they contacted the school, whichever method of communication they felt most comfortable with. Again, each student was asked to provide a word they thought their parents would use to describe Cramlington Learning Village. They replied, “welcoming, supportive, friendly, warm and pleasant.”
Tony would like to thank staff and pupils who were part of the reassessment day.
You can read the report in full on our CLV LPPA website.
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