Pixmore Junior School

Barriers to Parental Engagement and Attendance:

It was really interesting to hear some of your views and suggestions around what potential barriers to parental engagement and attendance were.

Parental views on barriers to attendance:

• Worry about passing on germs
• Sicknesses that are more common in some children due to gaps in their immunity as a result of lockdowns
• A lot of bugs going around all the time as a result of being in lockdown.
• No barrier, no problem attending
• No control over SEND or medical appointments
• Impact of child illnesses on a parent/family member with low immune system (anxiety around this)
• Early mornings
• Kids not sleeping well
• Disabilities in parents.
• Child’s mental health stopping them from entering the school
• Living far away is also a huge problem
• Educational and affordable holidays (unauthorised)

Parental views on barriers to Parental Engagement:

• For parents working full time, it would help if events could be timed as close as possible to school start and end times.
• Have children with SEND needs at home restricts ability to attend events
• Please coordinate with Hillshott as we have missed more than one event at Pixmore now due to clashing with events already scheduled at Hillshott
• The length of notice given for events has a direct relationship to whether I can go or not. As much notice with details around timings would help
• Sometimes the online seminars are at difficult times of the day (e.g. 6pm when we're trying to feed children, get them to bed etc)
• I would like to support the school more, but I work full time and there are probably a lot of parents in this situation.

Parent Survey - March 24

Following our annual parent survey, we had some really positive responses about our curriculum offer, behaviour and attitudes and parents' views on barriers to engagement and attendance. Thank you so much to those who completed the survey!

Parent Suggestions for further support for parents and events the school could run:

• Homework help with maths/Writing skills help
• Daily Breakfast clubs (from 8am) and daily afterschool clubs (Until 6pm) every day
• Friendship groups particularly when settling in from other schools 
• We struggle to complete homework so possibly homework in school/Homework clubs.
• More practical learning - After school baking club would be good/Cooking/Life skills - cooking, knitting, sewing, using of basic tools (hammer, screwdriver etc.).
• Advise of any apps to help with additional home learning
• Cultures around the world 
• Bring the MP to tell the kids about Parliament.
• Bullying awareness
• Sharing your approach to maths would be useful. Including any sayings you use to help the kids remember (the same is true for sayings or terms used for literacy).
• Cost of living support
• Clear overview of what the children will be learning for example some more information about what history the children are learning each term. They seem to jump around a bit in the curriculum.
• Parent involvement on sports day
• I think the school is wonderful, I find the school to be supportive also understanding of family struggles
• Compiling various updates into one email per day would be more effective than sending multiple emails and ME messages
• Confirming the dates for the school holiday camps at the start of the school year or at least at the start of the term would allow to plan better for child care during school holidays
• More music and dance activities/links with Hertfordshire Music Service
• Timings with Hillshott and Pixmore should be reconsidered as it's difficult to pick kids up from school on time when you have a child at each school.
• Encourage children taking up age-appropriate research projects across various streams and share the learning with class.
• The sports award ceremony was lovely for parents and children, maybe do similar things for other subjects or end of year celebrations.

"I think personally the evening was a great success"

"All the teachers were so enthusiastic and engaging. Thoroughly lovely event!"

"Thank you so much to all of the staff involved, it was a fantastic event and we all enjoyed it."

"Well done and thank you for a fun evening!"

"It was a great event, really fun and well organised. Thank you for organising it."

"Could we have more family events like this would be amazing?"

Crystal Maze STEM Evening

We had lots of extremely positive feedback from those parents and children who were able to attend our Crystal Maze STEM event! Here is just a few...

"We loved how all the children came together and helped each other"

"We loved the mix of mini games to try a variety of activities. The raffle tickets were a fun incentive for the children."

"I felt the event & activities were great & thought it worked really well having different themes for the different spaces."

"There was a fascinating range of different activities for different interests and preferences"

"This was a great experience. Both me and my son had so much fun. Doing activities together was the best part."

"It was a lovely chance to be inside school and see the teachers, classrooms etc in an informal way. And encouraging that it was so well attended. Fab to see science being promoted. My kids were very motivated by the raffle tickets so that was a great idea."

"It was really well organised and great to see/chat to all the staff outside the normal parent/teacher consultations."

 "Very communal. Getting children to fill in raffle tickets and then announcing winners was great idea to motivate and keep everyone for whole 2 hours."

Recent comments by parents to our School Effectiveness Advisor:

‘Staff set out clearly how pupils should behave,’

‘The children have respect for the teachers and adults.’

‘Pixmore has a very friendly atmosphere.’

In praising the work of teachers and their support of the children, one parent said that, for her child, the class teacher ‘was like her second mum’.