Anteros and the World Café Event at Ashbrook School

Analysis of the annual parent questionnaire and teacher feedback indicated that there was a need to bring parents and teachers/teaching assistants together to talk about the way forward in relation to parental engagement and involvement.

There were two options: a traditional open forum meeting by teaching staff or a World Café Event.

The advantage of holding a World Café is that the principles promote truly collaborative participation, where everyone`s views are shared, regardless of status.

Following discussion with the Headteacher, it was agreed that if the school was fully committed to working in partnership with parents, then a core principle should be to involve them in key school developments and a shared approach to learning. The methodology of the World Café met this brief.

The initial step for Jacqui and Dave at Anteros was to decide with the Headteacher the focus area for exploration, plan the actions and expected outcomes in preparation for the World Café event. In this instance, the focus area for exploration and key questions to be shared at the World Café related to phonics (the teaching of letters and sounds). Indeed, reviewing the teaching of phonics was a key school initiative as identified in the School Improvement Plan.

The focus area for exploration for a World Café could however be any area identified by a school. The methodology of the World Café is structured, yet sufficiently flexible to meet the brief as identified by the need of the school.

The event was extremely well attended and the hall full to capacity with stakeholders committed to children at Ashbrook School. These included parents, teachers, teaching assistants, governors, headteacher, administrative staff, mid-day meal supervisors.

The feedback received was extremely positive and several parents wanted to know when the next World Café would take place as they felt the conversations had been really valuable. Even at this point the ideas/tips shared had made a change to how parents could support the teaching of phonics and the way in which school could be more supportive.

The output from the World Café was shared with the Headteacher, staff, parent governor and a group of parents who had expressed an interest in being actively involved in supporting the initiative, to identify key themes.

This resulted in 4 working parties being established which included a cross-section of the school community (teaching, support/administrative staff and parents) with a project manager to oversee the development and make links with the key ideas.

The outcome has been a renewed energy and impetus to implement a range of ideas in a short space of time, where there is a feeling of shared responsibility and ownership.