West Lothian Council delivers

Parent Councils - General Information

 

The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 was passed to encourage and support more parents to become involved. The Act came into effect in August 2007.

The main aims of the Parental Involvement Act are to:

• help parents become more involved with their child's education and learning;
• welcome parents as active participants in the life of the school;
• provide easier ways for parents to express their views and wishes.

To help achieve these aims, all parents are automatically members of the Parent Forum at their child's school and entitled to have a say in what happens at the school.

Parent Councils

The Parent Forum will decide on the kind of parent representative body, called the Parent Council, that they would like. 

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.

The school and the local authority must listen to what your Parent Council says and give it a proper response.  Every school's Parent Council will be different because it will be parents in each school who decide such things as:

• how their Council will be set up;
• what it should be called;
• what size it should be - eg in a very small primary schoo, all parents could be involved;
• who should be a member of the Parent Council;
• how they should be appointed;
• what the most convenient time is to hold meetings;
• what will be discussed at meetings - these might be topics such as school uniform, parking near the school, the school's anti-bullying policy.

Seventy-four Primary Schools, all eleven Secondary Schools and two Special Education establishments have established Parent Councils.  For further information please contact your school direct - school contact details can be found by selecting the Schools List under 'Online Tools' on the right and searching for the relevant school.

Parent Council Representatives meetings are held 4 times a year.   These are interactive meetings between Parent Councils and the Authority.  Agendas and Meeting papers are published on this site - please click on the Meeting Information tab.

updated: 15/09/11