Parent Partnership

We believe that a genuine partnership between parents and the school is central to pupils achieving their best.

We encourage dialogue through homework, Reading Record Books and informal discussion between teachers and parents.

There are lots of opportunities for communication and also a range of events on the school calendar where families and staff get together socially e.g. DSA organised summer and winter fairs, discos, cake sales, drop in coffee mornings and school concerts.

Our home school agreement promotes a positive and productive partnership, helping parents to support their children and enabling the children to achieve more.

The agreement states:
• the school’s responsibilities to pupils
• the parents’ responsibilities to school
• the school’s expectations of our pupils

Parents and children are invited to sign the document.

Parent Support

We welcome and value parents’ help in school, whether they have a specific talent or skill or can assist with more general activities. Parent involvement can include listening to children read, helping with cooking, gardening and DT, library and computer skills, or accompanying educational visits. If parents wish to help in school, they must hold a current DBS clearance, which is simple to organise and can be applied for via the school office.

All parents and guardians of children at Derwentwater school, members of staff and governors, automatically become members of the Parent, Teacher and Association (DSA).

For more details visit our DSA page.

Home School Communications

We communicate with parents in a variety of different ways:

• Email – for general administrative information including educational visits, curriculum workshops, special events and weekly newsletters.
• Text messages – for urgent short messages
• School website – for insight into school life and practical information such as our annual calendar and term dates.
• Meet the Teacher evening – at the start of the school year.
• Parent consultations – biannually in the Autumn and Spring terms.
• Annual School Report – sent out in the Summer term.
• Coffee mornings – we hold informal drop in coffee mornings for different groups within the school body – e.g. parents of new pupils, parents of children with special needs.

Parents can leave messages for class teachers with the office staff in person or by phone. Teachers are also happy to arrange ad-hoc meetings after school if necessary.