School communities are built up of the pupils that attend, the staff that work in the school and the families that are linked to the pupils. In order for the students to get the most out of their time at school, it is essential that their families feel like they are a part of the wider school community. There are a number of ways that schools can help engage this entire community in school life.
Website – Websites for schools like the ones that can be created by www.fsedesign.co.uk/websites-for-schools/ are a great way to engage a school community as they give you the option of sharing information about the school curriculum as well as notifying parents of events that are going to be taking place. In some cases, schools might also like to share blogs about what the students are getting up to.
School events – where possible, schools should encourage parents and families to come along to events that are taking part in the school. This could be open days and parents’ evenings or more significant events such as school plays and end-of-year fetes.
Feedback – giving parents the opportunity to feedback on how they feel the school is supporting their children is a good way to get them engaged with the school. This could be done by asking them to respond to their children’s reports or by asking parents to fill in a short survey at the end of the year.