What is a Parent Council?

Parents decide the priorities for the Parent Council and how it will work within the four broad areas of responsibility laid down by the Parental Involvement Act. These require each Parent Council to:

§  support the school in its work with pupils

§  represent the views of all parents

§  encourage links between the school, parents, pupils, pre-school groups and the wider community

§  report back to the Parent Forum.

Parent Councils can also have a role in the appointment of head teachers and depute head teachers.

Every school’s Parent Council is different because the parents in each school decide such things as:

§  how their Council will be set up

§  what it should be called

§  what size it should be – e.g. in a very small primary school, all parents could be involved

§  who should be a member of the Parent Council

§  how they should be appointed

§  what’s the most convenient time to hold meetings

§  what will be discussed at meetings – these might be topics such as school uniform, parking near the school, the school’s anti-bullying policy, etc.

Members of the Parent Council must be parents of children who attend the school and the chairperson must have a child in the school. However, the Parent Council can decide to co-opt other members from teachers and the community who will have knowledge and skills to help them.

Further guidance can be found in the Scottish Governments Guidance on the Parental Involvement act Scotland 2006.

Cardonald Primary Parent Council

Cardonald is lucky to have a very strong parent council.  We have a membership which many schools would rival and an attendance that on average is greater than even many of the secondary schools within the city. This helps the parent council to gain more support from the entire parent forum and ensures that we do listen to a diverse group of our parents regularly.

We meet on the first Tuesday of every month during the school term and at present this is via Zoom until the school is able to allow meetings from organisations.  We are very fortunate to have such great support from the vast majority of the parent forum and it is only through this support that we are able to undertake the work that we do. We always encourage parents or carers to get involved with the Parent Council as it is your children that will benefit whilst supporting the school, staff and the local community.