1. Supporting parents and pupils
Building Bridges
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2. Hollymount School Context
Hollymount School, formerly Gorse Hill Community Primary School, is close to the city centre of Worcester. The school part of the The Black Pear Trust. Currently the school has 396 on roll including nursery.
Currently, 43% of children are eligible for pupil premium from Reception to Year 6. 36% of the school is EAL, with 24 different languages being spoken across the school. Pupil mobility is significantly high, placing the school in the bottom 20th percentile for mobility (Raise, 2016).
Our school curriculum and policies promote the health and wellbeing of our pupils and it reflects and addresses the needs of the most recent school health profile.
The school has a strong leadership team as the SLT divides into four leadership teams which drive different whole school aspects – Academic -Achievement and Attainment, Pastoral, Curriculum and Administration. We decided to join the AfA program due to the nature of our children. The ethos ‘Achievement for All’ fits in securely with our own vision for all children, from all walks of life to succeed.

3. Structured conversations
We first started using ‘structured conversations’ when joining with AfA to promote the triad of relationships between pupil, parents and teachers.
Structured conversations are used to promote the key principles of AfA:
To provide opportunities for pupils and parents to be listened to.
To help establish positive relationships between parents, pupils and professionals to ensure that each pupil is challenged and supported to achieve his or her best.
To: ‘‘ignite aspirations, increase access and raise achievements by engaging pupils further in their learning and put them on the path to success’’ (Katrina Barton, school lead for AfA at Hollymount)

4. Original Structured Conversation Booklet
‘‘The original template looked quite clinical which I think put me off a little when speaking with parents and I think that showed in their attitudes too.’’
‘I found it difficult to maintain a fluid conversation with parents...’

5. ‘Building Bridges’ Hollymount School’s Adapted Template
‘The roles of the adults are given as much significance as the roles of the pupils.’
‘[The Building Bridges template] has facilitated a much more open and real discussion.’

6. Building Bridges
‘‘Both my nan and my teachers have worked incredibly hard to help me. This makes me feel happy and inspired to work.’’
‘‘I decide my targets by looking at what is realistically achievable with my teacher and my nan.’’

7. Front Page
‘‘It’s very helpful meeting with his teachers because you get their input too.’’
‘‘My mum is proud of me! I’m proud too!’’

8. Clear discussion prompts and record of conversation
‘It’s much easier to jot down notes without seeming purely focussed on my own agenda.’
‘It demonstrates that all the opinions are equally valuable as they are displayed together on one page.’

9. Successes
Parental engagement has greatly improved and structured conversations have enabled us to connect with our harder to reach parents and children.
Children have made huge leaps of progress in their own confidence and have a greater understanding of their own learning journeys.
Attendance has steadily improved since the school’s introduction of structured conversations.
The progress over time is better than national expectations for 100% of our AfA children since starting the programme.
Our parent body have become more involved in their children’s learning.

10. Wider Outcomes
Our aim is to now extend the principles of the structured conversation to all pupils and parents at Hollymount School. We have started this process by reformatting our parents meetings, providing discussion prompts rather than simply transferring data. This page is left blank until the discussion has taken place so that ‘next steps’ are jointly decided by the pupil, parent and school. This encourages a unified responsibility to work towards them. We are already witnessing a change in school relationships with parents/guardians and are benefitting from the time spent getting to know each child better.