2. Year 7 Introductory Evening Forging Successful Home-School Partnerships Mrs Hubbard and Mrs Mowatt

3. A Warm Welcome to our staff Mrs L. Smith- SENCO Mrs J. Greenwood – Head of Year Mrs Ghinai- Learning Mentor Miss Brodowski- Behaviour Coordinator Form Tutors

4. Successes

5. The Context More families where both parents work; More anxiety amongst parents generally; More information and Performance Data about schools; More unsupportive pulls on a child than supportive- peer pressure, cyber bullying etc.; Less control over what shapes your daughter’s values.

6. “ Willing but not sure how able…” At Selly Park we want you to be “ Willing and able”

7. When parents are involved at home, their children do better in school. When parents are involved in school, children go further in the school — and the schools they go to become better. A home environment that encourages learning is more important to student achievement than…

8. INCOME ETHNIC GROUP THE EDUCATION OF THE PARENTS THEMSELVES!!!

9. Actively organizing and monitoring a child's time; Helping with homework and discussing school matters; Giving the school feedback and listening to our feedback; Listening to your child read and other Literacy activities. What can a parent do to help?

10. How we Give You feedback Levels on work and effort grades in books, Monitoring reports, Parents’ Evenings, School Reports, Phone calls home, Feedback on website, Praise letters, Information letters home, Special Evenings, Messages in the planner.

11. How you can give us feedback Filling in questionnaires and evaluations; Telephoning the school with comments/queries/concerns; Telling the school what you are doing at home and asking for advice; Telling us what we do well and how we can improve;

12. Parent Curriculum Booklets At back of the hall; Tell you what your child is studying and what you can do to help; Give details of assessments and Literacy work undertaken this term.

13. Government’s View of Literacy ‘When young people compete for jobs and enter the workplace, they will be expected to communicate precisely and effectively.’ (Para. 4.50) There is a clear expectation, when taken with the response to the Wolf Report quoted above, that young people leaving the education system at 16, or more likely 19, will have the requisite literacy and communication skills to be employable and to be effective in that employment.’

15. How Parents can Support Literacy Reading aloud to children/listening to children read is the most important activity that parents can do to increase their child's chance of success; Leaflet with further details available at back of the hall; Peer mentors to support readers at lunchtimes; Letters out next week to parents with Reading Ages on and support strategies; Join reading clubs available and use the library- see the sheet about what is available; Make sure your child has a book on the go –if they do not support them in finding the right book.

16. Book Buzz Bookbuzz is a new reading programme from Booktrust which supports schools to encourage reading for independent choice and develop a whole school reading culture. Participating schools give their students the opportunity to choose their own book to keep from a list of 17 titles suitable for 11-year-olds and selected by a panel of experts. The programme is aimed primarily at Year 7 students but can be extended to children of other ages. FORMS AVAILABLE AT BACK OF HALL RETURN THEM TO LIBRARIAN

17. Literacy at Selly Park Summer school to promote a wide range of Literacy and other skills-journals on display ; Library clubs; Designated reading lessons for year 7; Marking for Literacy – see example in journals; Book Buzz; Reading Interventions-PEER READING SCHEME; Students taught how to read for meaning; Library Introduction delivered in PSHEE; Clubs for all abilities and years.

18. Finally Read through their homework; Ask what it is about; Get them to look carefully for mistakes themselves! Be involved- if they need extra information help them find it. Praise them if they do well If they don’t suggest what they can do next time.