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Home School Liaison

Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) started in B.C.S. in January 1997 and since then it has become an important vehicle for the inclusion and active partnership of parents in education. HSCL is one of the avenues of communication between home, school and local community. Home School Liaison models a way of working out effective partnership in education.

The HSCL policy formulated by teachers and parents in 1998 states:
"Our Home School Policy in B.C.S. aims to create mutual trust and co-operation between home and school by understanding our complementary roles. This requires that we show a willingness to communicate as we strive towards our common purpose - the development of our children/students as responsible members of the wider community."

We strive to achieve this by:
1. Providing a warm comfortable Parent's Room - one parent has christened it "the Haven"!!
In the Parents room:

Parents meet each other for a "cuppa and a chat"
Participate in one of the many free courses for on-going parent education
Participate in class meetings where parent, student and teacher voice are heard, listened to and where possible acted upon
Attend short talks on Anti-bullying, enneagrm, relaxation and stress etc.

There are also free child minding/creche facilities available to make it easy for parents to attend activities.

2. Home visits by the HSCL co-ordinator to as many homes as possible.

3. Developing a parent core/advisory group to work with the co-ordinator to ensure relevance of HSCL activities, to address parents at meetings, work on policy groups and provide supportive parent to parent information mornings about the school.

4. HSCL co-ordinator works with local community in developing after school projects, drugs awareness programmes and adding school voice to local issues.

5. HSCL co-ordinator works with staff in encouraging the development of anti-bullying programmes and student mentor programmes.

6. HSCL co-ordinator networks and facilitates Youth project initiatives within school and after school.

7. HSCL co-ordinator networks with relevant statutory agencies to the benefit of parents, students and teachers.

The presence of HSCL and parent involvement can be summed up in this comment: "After my involvement in the parents' room and my experience of being the parent of a child in the school, I know that I am sending my child to a school where if I gave support and show an interest it will benefit not only my child but me as well! Now I know what being "partners in education" is really about.

The following courses have been run for parents :
Introduction to Windows 95 (beginner/intermediate)
Basic First Aid
Cookery
Flower Arranging
Assertiveness Training
Yoga
Stress
Parenting
Personal Development (1&2)
Gardening