VILLIERS HIGH SCHOOL
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Mrs Elmi being assisted by Joel Grant, head of ICT
Parents go
back to school
A
t Villiers High School we
have been working really
hard over the last year to
develop opportunities for
parents to become much more involved
in the day-to-day life of the school.
A huge part of this work has been
our ‘VHSEngage’ programme for
parents. Jennifer Lewis, the programme
co-ordinator, has described the main aim
of these sessions as being to: “Create an
opportunity for parents to understand
more about how they can learn new skills
and, as a result, influence their child’s
education;” and also, of course, “to
simply give our parents an opportunity
to talk to each other, share concerns and
celebrate successes.”
This is something parents of our
students have welcomed, because they
20
around ealing
Autumn 2014
have not always felt confident to come
into secondary schools, feeling that
they are sometimes ‘less welcoming’
than primary schools.
Jennifer, who is one of our team of
positive behaviour mentors, has been
supported by the headteacher, Remo
Iafrate, and the governing body to
introduce VHSEngage. It involves a
programme of activities and workshops
for parents about the things that matter
most to them when their child is at
secondary school.
Saeda Elmi, a regular VHSEngage
participant who has recently also
become a volunteer at the school,
commented recently: “I’ve really
enjoyed getting to know what
happens at school and it’s been a
great way to get conversations going
about school at home with my child.”
All of the sessions so far have proved
to be extremely popular, with many
being fully booked within 24 hours.
Those parents who have already
attended said that they were really happy
when they heard that they could get the
support that they wanted at the school
and they also felt that spending time in
the school meant that it was easy to find
out about all of the other opportunities
that were available to them.
Parents have also commented that
they have found the programme content
to be a really interesting, relevant and
invaluable way of developing the skills
that they need in an exciting but rapidly
changing world.
The range of exciting opportunities
that have already taken place this year
have included:
■ ‘Strengthening families,
strengthening communities’,delivered
by Munaza Zaman and Nadra Raja
■ Parents employability workshops,
delivered by Priya Bedi
■ Somali parents’ group,
co-coordinated by the Somali Advice
and Community Centre
■ Parents’ breakfa 7B