Rush Common School - Parent's Surgeries

Rush Common primary school, in Oxfordshire, has developed a system of 'surgeries' to improve parents' degree of contact and involvement with the school. These involve teachers making themselves available for a certain amount of time outside of school hours to talk to parents about their child's progress.

Surgery times and dates are posted on class notice boards in the school, on sheets that parents fill in to book their appointments. They then have time to spend talking one on one with their child's teacher, and the opportunity to discuss progress, strengths, and weaknesses.

Based on this discussion, parents are asked to help support their children outside of school time, and given suggestions by the teacher of what they can do, making a reality of the school's belief that educating children is a shared responsibility. Ultimately, this system is beneficial for the school, the parents, and the children, with increased mutual understanding helping home and school to work together constructively to make children's education better and easier for all involved.

Whole Class Meetings

As well as running parents' surgeries, Rush Common also makes parents feel welcome and involved in other ways. At the start of the year, all parents are invited to meet their new class teachers, who outline what is to be covered during the year so that help can be offered by and to parents. Parents are also supplied with a summary of the major topics and pieces of work to be covered during the year, to help them to become more involved, and to work with the school in improving their children's education.