Parent Councils help parents to become more actively and effectively involved in their children’s learning. They were established under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 in recognition of the important role that parents can play, both in their own children’s learning and in the life of a school.

The Parent Forum is the collective name for every parent at a school. The Act gives each school’s Parent Forum the right to set up a Parent Council. More information can be found on the Scottish Government website: www.scotland.gov.uk/Parents.

The role of the Parent Council is 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 (all parents are members of the Parent Forum).

Parent Councils are designed to be flexible – ensuring they can effectively represent their own school community and interests. It is for parents to decide what is most important for their Parent Council to work on.

Parent Councils can:

¨ Provide a voice for parents in schools and in their local authority on issues that are important to them and their children

¨ Help the school to understand how to most effectively involve parents in their children’s learning and in the life of the school

¨ Support the school and Head Teacher in developing strong home/school partnerships

¨ Support the school in its development and improvement, and in understanding and making links with the wider community

¨ Capture the unique and varied skills, interests, knowledge and experience that parents can offer.