Pioneering approaches to harnessing parent input at Dunoon Grammar School
“Hi it’s me!” is often the first thing a parent will hear when their child returns home from school and now parents will be hearing it a lot more from their child attending the Faculty of Business and Computing at Dunoon Grammar School.
Pupils working in Business & Computing classes will be encouraged to send parents regular ‘me-mails’ – emails containing information on their progress in class, highlighting skills being developed and including samples of their work. Parents will be encouraged to reply with comments and praise.
‘Me-mails’ are part of a wider parental engagement and involvement initiative titled ‘Successful together’ being undertaken by the Faculty of Business and Computing. A parental survey conducted earlier this year highlighted parent communication and collaboration as an area for improvement for the faculty. This coupled with the wealth of research evidence showing the direct correlation between parental involvement and pupil academic success has led to the development of the nine point plan contained within ‘Successful together’.
Other ‘Successful together’ initiatives, discussed and developed with parents, include combined parent-pupil homework tasks, parent visits to observe their child working in class or extra-curricular projects, parent training sessions on the technologies being used by pupils in class and pre-formal assessment information and training evenings.
Parents will also receive regular e-newsletters from the faculty – outlining course progress and milestones and methods parents can use to assist child learning. The e-newsletter will also be a key vehicle for celebrating pupils’ successes and showcasing their talents and will include parent invites to attend sessions to assist with course planning, implementation and review.

Paul Gallanagh, Principal Teacher of Business & Computing at Dunoon Grammar School commented:
“We hope the creative and innovative approaches outlined in ‘Successful together’ will help us enhance partnership working with parents. Our aim is to strengthen communication and collaboration with our parents. We recognise parents have an enormous and critical role in their child’s learning and we wish to help maximise their impact.”

Amanda Noble, Chair of the Dunoon Grammar School Parent Council added:
“This is a tremendous opportunity for parents to be involved in their children’s learning and it is a refreshing and novel way to do so. I know how important it is to involve parents in their child’s education and this is an excellent example of how we can all work together and hopefully we can learn something too! The Business and Computing staff have worked very hard at this initiative so I hope it will be well supported to benefit the pupils and parents alike”.

On the news of hearing his parents will be invited into lessons, S6 pupils Jamie Convery commented:
“I would be happy for my parents to come into see me in class. It will be motivating for me and I’m sure they will be impressed with how things have moved on from their day. As long as they don’t embarrass me when they are in!”

For further details – Please contact Paul Gallanagh, Dunoon Grammar School, Tel: 01369 705010