Parent Focus Group
In "Parents"
“Fantastic school – definitely recommended.”
“I’m very happy with the school and teachers. It meets all educational expectations and I’m pleased I’m a part of it.”
Comments from Year 7 Parent Survey, March 2024
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We welcome your involvement in improving the college with you and are actively recruiting more parents to join us.
Please note that the Parent Focus Group is a forum for consulting parents and to gain feedback on agenda matters related to identified college priorities as a whole. If you need to discuss individual matters relating to your son or daughter then please contact your child’s tutor or Leader of Learning for this reason.
Any interested parents and carers for the Parent Focus Group are asked to email the college on: contact@stmichaelscollege.org.uk to make expressions of interest in joining. Should we receive an overwhelming response, we will take those on a first come, first served basis and retain a waiting list.
Meeting dates 2024-25
- Thu 5th Dec 2024 at 4.45-5.45pm (at St Michael’s Catholic College)
- Thu 13th Mar 2025 at 4.45-5.45pm (via MS Teams)
- Thu 19th Jun 2025 at 4.45-5.45pm (via MS Teams)
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The Parent Focus Group aims to:
- Support the work of St Michael’s for our students and parents/carers
- Ensure the voices of parents/carers are listened to and acted upon
- Promote informed communications between the college and its stakeholders through using our website, social media links, newsletters and attending events hosted in our college
- Encourage the growth of the group with other parents/carers and the community
St Michael’s Catholic College sees parental engagement as an integral part of working with families to enhance all we do within the college and to develop the parent and student experience. For parents or carers, it provides an excellent opportunity to get involved in school life.
Our Parent Focus Group meets each term with the Principal and member of the senior leadership team to discuss and focus upon whole school priorities including regular updates in the Catholic Life of the college. In addition, the following improvements have been made in consultation with the group:
- Parents have found the introduction of the EduLink One parent app an excellent improvement. They asked for prompts or reminders for events to be available and this now regularly happens with the app.
- Parents requested the parent evening survey and for booking appointments to be available online. “Booking system was a lot, lot better for parents.”
- Parents have contributed to the college’s commitment to technology for learning project. Students have access to our existing network to ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD), use our laptop programmes or we have made Chromebooks available to students with the greatest need.
- The college makes laptop deposits optional to be donated to other students in need at the end of Y11/13 when devices are returned. A communication is sent via EduLink to inform parents/carers so amount can be refunded/donated as appropriate.
- St Michael’s set up an Eco-Committee. They collected old, clean uniforms from students and have made them available for students in families who need them.
- Parents with transferable skills have been added to the parent survey. The college is keeping a list of volunteers and contacted them to take part in the recent Parent Showcase event.
- The music department created a virtual event with students and a short music recital through a YouTube video via EduLink. Please watch this wonderful performance here.
Within the last academic year, St Michael’s has responded to parent feedback with examples such as:
- Revising our Parent Evening events to include onsite and virtual meetings.
- The introduction of the Friends of St Michael’s group who are fundraising for school projects.
- Parents contributing online safety information as published on our website.
- Showing how Google Classroom notifications work to support homework.
- Running a Parent Showcase event for our families to see the talents of our students.
Most recent meeting minutes
Parent-focus-group-minutes-05-12-24
Parent-focus-group-minutes-19-06-24
Parent-focus-group-minutes-13-03-24
Parent-focus-group-minutes-06-12-23
Parent-focus-group-minutes-21-06-23
Parent-focus-group-minutes-22-03-23
Parent-focus-group-minutes-07-12-22
Parent-focus-group-minutes-30-06-22
