Evolve helping parents with systems switch

Damon Fox, Nottinghamshire’s Evolve Regional Manager, has been engaging with and supporting parents over the switch from national curriculum levels to the new grading system.

Damon, who is also a governor at Southwark Primary School (pictured above), says shifting to a new system was always going to be a big change to the way that children are assessed and therefore the way their progress is communicated to parents.

“At Southwark Primary School we decided that we needed to come up with a transparent way of sharing progress with parents and that the best way to do that was to hear what they thought,” Damon explained.

“It started from being involved in #behaviourchat on Twitter, where I have been networking and spreading the message of Evolve and Health Mentors’ work with children.

“The theme was around engaging parents with pupils’ behaviour at school, where Southwark Primary have done well, using the creation of six ‘behaviours for learning’ words with SuperHero characters that were selected by parents during a consultation.”

The behavioural characteristics are: teamwork, focussed; curious; determined; reflective and creative.

Parents receive updates from class teachers every day about how their child is doing, using the same agreed language.

The behaviour for learning characteristics are displayed around classrooms and are used consistently across the whole school, setting constantly high expectations of the learners.

“The aim was for the new system to transform conversations at home,” Damon added.

“The language that has been picked by the parents means that it is easier for them to understand how their child is doing, and therefore enables more discussion to happen at home about learning and learning behaviours. It also means that both home and school now have a common language.

“Feedback from teachers and parents alike has been really positive.”