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PARENT GROUPS
Parent Power D O N ’ T B E P U T O F F B Y T H E T H O U G H T O F ‘ G O I N G B A C K T O S C H O O L ’ – G E T T I N G I N V O L V E D C O U L D B E T H E M O S T R E WA R D I N G T H I N G Y O U D O
hen you visit a school, you tend to look at it from your child’s perspective. Will they be happy, fit in, slot into the crowd at playtime and get their fair share of birthday party invitations? But while your child’s wellbeing is paramount, yours matters, too. Schools – primaries in particular – are the places where firm friendships are forged, in some cases lasting a lifetime. Whether you meet up for an occasional chat or end up arranging joint family holidays W
ordinary people who simply want to give back something to the school community. Some are fairly low key, helping to set up Santa’s grotto at the Christmas Fair or arranging face painting at the end-of-year picnic. Others can be incredibly ambitious, organising summer balls, proms, silent auctions and quiz nights that involve months of preparation and raise thousands of pounds. In the past, many parents’ association meetings happened during school hours, penalising working parents. Today, the familiar coffee morning is still alive and kicking but increasingly interspersed with
over the summer, on a day-to-day basis there’s nothing like having a network of like-minded people who can share the conundrums, queries and problems that crop up during those early years at school. So when you’re doing your background research on schools and mugging up on admissions deadlines and the intricacies of after-school clubs or drop-off and collection arrangements, it’s also worth checking who organises parent get-togethers and how they work. Parent associations are often at the heart of the process. Despite their somewhat ferocious reputation, most are run by
SPRING/SUMMER 2020
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