Parental involvement placed at the heart of school life

Information about the school

St John Baptist Church in Wales High School is an English-medium, 11 to 18 mixed comprehensive school in Rhondda Cynon Taf.  The school is located in Aberdare.

There are 968 pupils on roll, compared with 1,014 pupils at the time of the last inspection in March 2014.  There are 157 pupils in the sixth form compared with 234 at the time of the last inspection.

Around 12% of pupils are eligible for free school meals.  This is below the national average of 16.4% for secondary schools in Wales.

Around 1% of pupils have a statement of special educational needs compared with 2.2% for Wales as a whole.  Around 22% of pupils have a special educational need.  This is slightly lower than the national average of 22.9%.

Most pupils are from a white British background.  Fewer than 1% of pupils are fluent in Welsh.  Very few pupils speak English as an additional language.

Context and background to the effective or innovative practice

In order to improve pupil outcomes and wellbeing, leaders of St John Baptist Church in Wales school identified the need to review the school’s values and increase levels of parental engagement.

As a Church in Wales school, the whole-school community prioritised the need to maintain the Christian ethos.  This ethos is based on a caring and inclusive vision and the values of ‘faith and belief, care and compassion, respect and tolerance, responsibility and trust, and aspiration and success.’

To realise the school values, leaders recognised the need to carefully involve parents in all aspects of school life.  In particular, staff were keen to ensure that parents were well informed of their child’s progress and wellbeing and that they became active members of the school community. 

Description of nature of strategy or activity

To secure and sustain high levels of parental engagement, work begins during the transition stages in Year 6.  Following the’ ‘Welcome Days’ for pupils, parents are invited to a meeting where they are introduced to the school and the methods used to communicate with them.  During this meeting, parents receive a welcome pack and write a personal letter of support to their child which is shared with pupils at the end of their first term in Year 7.  This successfully supports the school to develop a ‘family’ ethos, build relationships and reduce any concerns that parents or pupils may have.

The school tracks robustly pupils’ academic progress, behaviour and attendance, enabling leaders to identify and respond promptly and effectively to any pupils at risk of underperforming.  Pastoral teams closely monitor attendance and undertake regular home visits to those pupils identified as being at risk of having poor attendance.  In addition, learning managers regularly monitor pupils’ attendance, wellbeing and progress thoroughly.  The frequent and effective contact that staff have with parents has developed strong working relationships and has increased engagement from many parents significantly.  Where pupils’ attendance causes concern, ‘support meetings’ which involve parents, pupils, a governor, the headteacher and members of the pastoral team are used successfully to engage parents and identify any support required.  This, along with a relentless focus on a wide range of interventions and initiatives as part of the ‘Attendance Matters’ programme, has resulted in a strong improvement in attendance rates.

The school seeks regular feedback from parents through questionnaires and parents’ evenings and uses this feedback well to inform self-evaluation and to support curriculum planning.  The school involves parents in all aspects of the process when pupils select their GCSE options in Year 9.   This includes option information evenings, which advise parents on how to support their children with their subject choices and provide useful information about each subject.  Following this, parents, along with their child, attend individual meetings with key staff where detailed discussions take place and useful advice is provided.  This supports pupils and parents effectively to make informed choices about their future study and has contributed well to the outcomes pupils achieve at the end of key stage 4.  When opting for AS subjects, each pupil and their parents have an interview in December and January to discuss their possible options.  There is an ongoing dialogue, with further meetings held on GCSE results day.  In addition, there is a detailed programme of taster days, careers fayres, visits and open evenings to enable pupils to experience a range of careers before making final choices.  Pupils are also interviewed by people from local businesses to help them to prepare for future employment.  Parents get detailed feedback about this process so they can support their children with any areas for development.  This work enables pupils to make extremely well informed decisions about their learning pathways.

The key stage 4 ‘Unlocking Potential Evenings’ are used well to distribute useful revision packs and strategies to enable parents to help their children leading up to external examinations.  In order to encourage and motivate their children, parents of Year 11 pupils write a supportive and motivational letter, which is shared with their child in the final lead up to the examinations.  This has a positive impact on pupil and parental engagement and has contributed well to the school’s holistic approach to pupil wellbeing and progress.

A notable feature is the way in which the school and the wider community work together to support vulnerable pupils and those with special educational needs (SEN).  The regular and timely visits during transition periods and sensitive support enables these pupils to settle quickly in their new school and to progress in their learning successfully.  The school’s working relationship with parents makes a valuable contribution to the wellbeing of these pupils.  Through a regular programme of support meetings, mentoring and detailed communication, the school keeps all parents informed of their child’s progress and wellbeing.  These positive and productive relationships help the school to have a good understanding of the needs of parents, and enable staff to plan and structure individual support programmes effectively.  As a result, the school is able to react swiftly to any concerns that parents may have.  Parents are supported regularly to identify the best ways in which they can support their children at home.  The use of the ‘home/school contact book’, which provides communication between parents and staff of pupils with SEN, enables parents to understand how the school is supporting their child.  As a result, parents are strongly satisfied with the education provided to their children.  The coffee mornings held with parents of vulnerable pupils and key professionals are highly successful in ensuring that all pupils, regardless of ability, are supported to succeed.

The school makes effective use of a wide range of online software to increase parental engagement and to enable pupils to study effectively at home.  These resources have increased the regular communication between parents, pupils and staff and have enabled parents to better support their child’s needs.  The school makes notable use of the software made available through Hwb to support pupils to develop their home learning and independent skills.  It develops high quality digital resources, such as bespoke videos to model calculation processes and to support pupils to develop their reasoning skills.

Parents’ evenings and events are very well attended and more recently the school has introduced innovative training evenings for parents, which have provided useful guidance on how to support children at home.  This has enabled parents to develop their own learning in subjects such as English language and mathematics. 

Through their work with parents, the school has developed successfully an open door policy and their philosophy that every child matters permeates all aspects of their work. 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

This work has contributed to a strong improvement in academic outcomes for pupils and has resulted in nearly all pupils having highly positive attitudes to learning. 

The school’s outcomes in 2019 are above expectations in all indicators and at the end of Year 11 nearly all pupils remain in education, employment or training.  Nearly all pupils demonstrate particularly high standards of behaviour in class and around the school and many pupils make strong progress in developing their knowledge, understanding and skills in lessons. 

Nearly all pupils and parents have a detailed understanding of the range of support and guidance available and this has a highly beneficial impact on pupils’ wellbeing and learning. 

A large number of parents are involved heavily in the life of the school, including the highly successful ‘Friends of St John’s’, which contributes beneficially to school life and to securing improvements.  The purposeful relationships that the school has developed with pupils and parents enable them to feel valued members of a school community that embraces diversity and ensures that pupils feel safe and secure.

How have you shared the good practice?

St John Baptist Church in Wales School has beneficial relationships with the other secondary schools in Rhondda Cynon Taf and their partner primary schools.  It has shared this work with these and other schools through the regional consortia.