The Standards Site: Consult parents draft

Once a draft agreement has been produced, it should be shown or sent to parents and carers for further comment.

This will help to:

make sure that it is a fair reflection of the earlier consultation
give the opportunity for those parents who were unable or unwilling to be involved in the earlier consultation exercise to express their views
provide an opportunity for further improvements to be made to the agreement.

The options below might be considered:

Rather than simply send parents a letter requesting comments, it might prove helpful to attach a questionnaire to it prompting specific responses requesting a range of issues. Once again, though, care should be taken not to appear to be dictating the terms of the consultation. Click here to download (in PDF format) an example of a questionnaire which accompanied a draft agreement.
Pupils could assist with this exercise:
- A draft agreement could be taken home by pupils along with specific questions to be discussed with their parents or carers. This could then be fed back to class teachers/form tutors.
It might prove helpful to contact parents in person to gauge their reaction to the draft agreement. This could be done by various people:
- pupils (as outlined earlier)
- staff (in the yard, by telephone or home visiting)
- non-teaching staff - through their network of contacts in the local community. Could administrative staff telephone some parents?
- governors, through their range of personal contacts
- external agency workers, when undertaking their home visits.

This exercise could add to the credibility and value families attach to the agreement.