At Cramlington Learning Village we are committed to establishing and maintaining an effective and purposeful working relationship between the school and home and we recognise how parental engagement can improve student achievement, reduce absenteeism, and restore parents' confidence in their children's education.
Schools with engaged parents involve them in school life, communicate regularly and provide opportunities to take part in their child’s learning journey. Parents can show this engagement in many ways both at home and in school. For example, at home parents can read with their child and help with or check on homework. Parents can also demonstrate engagement by attending events held in school such as information evenings, meetings, showcases and concerts.
All staff at our school take responsibility for parental engagement and understand their role in involving the family in a child’s learning.
In 2022 Ofsted commented positively on how “parents and carers praised the supportive approach to remote education. They also appreciated the focus leaders have placed on pupils’ mental health since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Parents and pupils agree that bullying is dealt with effectively. Pupils feel safe in school and trust adults to support them”.
The LPPA has helped us achieve these long-term benefits:
Improved pupil attendance, punctuality, behaviour and progress.
Increased parent participation and involvement.
Enhanced parents’ support of their children’s learning.
Improved communication between home and school.
It has allowed us to enhance parent partnership through:
Working with key partners.
Effective leadership and management.
A welcoming and accessible environment.
Consultation and communication.
Information and guidance to support learning.
Developing parent-friendly policies.
Promoting lifelong learning activities.
Joint parent and child learning opportunities.
High quality induction and transition support for families.
Monitoring and evaluation of progress.
Parent voice is valuable and is used as a vehicle for change at the school. We listen, value and act on parents’ views on a range of topics, using a variety of methods to obtain feedback. The LPPA has highlighted our commitment to quality assure the parents’ views on the education we offer and forensically evaluate our performance to ensure fundamental change.
Evaluating our parental engagement work is crucial to our success and we make every effort to respond appropriately to all parent concerns and to communicate our subsequent actions. These responses can be one-to-one or using our usual communication channels – letters, email, website, parent newsletter or meetings.
We believe parents should have opportunities to develop their own knowledge and skills and therefore have run many adult learning workshops facilitated by internal practitioners and external providers as we recognise how valuable the acquisition of knowledge will be in supporting their children’s learning and development.
There is a designated lead for parental engagement and a working partnership group responsible for sustaining a positive relationship with parents, carers and families. Their vision is to develop a number of approaches towards improving the school’s relationship with parents and ensure there is a whole-school approach towards parental engagement.
Moving forward, parental engagement remains one of the key priorities of our School Improvement Plan.
Governors are provided with information on parental engagement and also outcomes of consultation activities. They believe that the school is good at providing a variety of opportunities to engage parents, some of which are formal or targeted and others more open. Parental support and engagement are viewed as fundamental and sit within School Improvement Planning.
In July 2025, we were reassessed by Andrea Wilkinson-Quinn and again awarded the Leading Parent Partnership Award (LPPA) to recognise our school’s partnership with parents. LPPA is a national award that will provide us with a valuable school improvement tool and also give us recognition for our commitment to working with parents. Taking part in the LPPA process has enabled the school to recognise good practice and raised awareness of areas for development.
Andrea commented, “Cramlington Learning Village has excelled in embedding the work that it does in relation to parental engagement. This school shows how the LPPA can be done by a secondary phase establishment when leadership and management of the award is given priority to support holistic outcomes for young people, their families and the community they serve.
The action plan and page profile to show all the necessary links shows why the most recent Ofsted report praises the work undertaken on parental engagement. This is obviously not a “bolt on” at this school and it is a golden thread running through out every day practice where the question “what about parents?” is echoed throughout the site.”
The information gained through the Reassessment Visit highlighted:
How parental support is delivered across the School taking into account the needs of young people and their families. Every parent has the opportunity to “have their say” in the life of the school and this was echoed in the evidence and stakeholder conversations.
The continued commitment of ALL staff to work in partnership with parents, and external agency provision where necessary, to support families to achieve positive outcomes for pupils evolves in line with needs. This is also supported by the updating of the staff handbook used as an induction tool for ALL staff so that each and every person knows what is expected when it comes to parental engagement and their respective roles at Cramlington.
The ever-evolving range of information and communication provision for parents and the school to engage in mutually beneficial conversations in relation to pupil learning and holistic development. Throughout the lockdown period information sharing has morphed to enable parents to continue to be well informed and also be able to raise any issues (whether these be concerns or positive outcomes) with staff across the school through relevant media for their needs. The use of Google Classrooms has meant that there is consistent information provision across the site.
The way in which enrichment opportunities for parents and families to support their children’s learning and develop their own learning have continued through relevant media and how these will start to come back into the school as restrictions lift. The extensive programme of adult learning opportunities continues to develop holistically across the site including both academic and pastoral provision together with a back catalogue of recorded activities to ensure nothing is missed. Mental health support plays a key part of this information provision.
Transitions on the whole into the school, throughout and on exit onto the next stage of development. Starting conversations early helps to develop relationships with families to gain the best outcomes for all. The year 6 noticeboard has been a key addition to the transition process enabling new parents to interact before their children actually start their secondary journey and gain knowledge from each other and share concerns.
Consultation happens across the school in a regular, relevant and appropriate manner. This again will continue as parents appreciate changes that are made and see the value of their voice and their contributions to school life. Whether it is information gathered through School Cloud, workshop feedback or Parents in Partnership meetings, the elements of consultation and feedback continue as a key priority across Cramlington.
Links with external agencies and community provision to provide holistic support to pupils and their families is an area that continues to flourish enabling reputable partnerships to enhance the provision on offer.
All documentation provided for parents is written in a clear and accessible way and continues to develop in considering feedback from parents.
Cramlington LV’s induction and transition is still meeting the needs of parents further enhanced by “Cramlington on Tour”.
Monitoring, evaluation and feedback is recognised as fundamental to meaningful development across the school and has become further embedded into every day practice and into the school improvement and development planning processes.
Cramlington Learning Village values the opinions of parents and actively seeks their views to inform and implement meaningful change through regular parent consultations. The most recent consultation focused on current policies and procedures surrounding Relationships and Sex Education (RSE). As a school committed to preparing students for success in adult life, they believe it is essential that young people are equipped to make informed decisions about their wellbeing, health, and relationships, and to develop strong self-efficacy. The schools RSE curriculum is designed to support students in building resilience, understanding how and when to ask for help, and knowing where to access support when needed. High-quality, evidence-based, and age-appropriate teaching in these areas helps prepare students for the opportunities, responsibilities, and experiences of adulthood. In addition, the school signposts parents to a range of mental health support services, which many families have found to be a valued part of the support they offer.
Parents – Although these parents were different ones to those spoken to at the Final Verification Visit the message remains the same. There is a partnership of which they are a huge part! Parents are always made to feel welcome at all levels across the setting and the same welcome is provided by each member of staff. Parents definitely expressed the opinion that, in relation to communication, ALL staff were extremely approachable and that they receive information through a variety of media from both the academic and pastoral staff. The school has embraced their comments and continues to provide relevant and timely information across the site. The information parents view on the website is easy to access and comprehensive – this, added to the information from the informative handbook and FROG, enables them to keep up with all aspects of school life including behaviour, celebrations and progress data. Information is still shared on a regular basis and when questions are raised they are answered in a timely manner. The information parents have received may have changed in its media (e.g. some has now been virtual) but the content is still valued immensely. Links with external agencies where necessary to provide guidance including training on e-safety (amongst many others) were again described positively and parents were supported by the school to access support.
Parents are still proud to be part of their children’s learning at Cramlington. Information was shared in relation to the fantastic examination and revision support that had been provided at relevant points. Parents valued the time taken by Senior Management Team to engage with pupils in relation to interviews and also mentioned Subject Leaders and how they had enabled parents to be involved. “Above and Beyond” – this term is still used strongly by parents to describe staff contribution. Learning guides, tutors and class teachers were viewed by parents as providing “great” motivational information adding to the phone calls and post cards home to celebrate achievements. The focus on celebration and achievement in whatever form was immensely valued by parents. The mix of face to face and virtual activity for parents to engage during their children’s time at the school was again seen as another plus for Cramlington. When parents were asked to provide one word each to describe Cramlington Learning Village they said: “Community, welcoming, inspiring, helpful and family.”
Staff – Parental engagement is at the heart of everything that happens at Cramlington. Communication with parents is viewed as key by staff and information sharing happens through many forms including e-mails, newsletters, text messages, website and via face to face sessions as well as virtually. The open-door policy continues to operate and, as restrictions lift, the activities programme to support parents to be involved in their children’s learning and development as well as the opportunity to take part in celebrations and performances, will be resurrected. The pastoral provision throughout the school continues to work in partnership with teaching, learning and development to support families holistically and to provide advocacy services when the need arises. Lots of information was shared about transitions throughout the site at Cramlington. It was apparent that relationships with parents and staff commence as early as possible when children are coming into Year 7 to enable effective communication to begin. There was definitely feeling the staff had put in place additional measures to communicate with home as a result of the covid-19 pandemic which had further improved relationships between pupils, families and school. Measures which have been seen to have a positive impact will continue.
The parents of SEND pupils have additional contact to ensure holistic needs are met and stakeholders involved in relevant provision. SEND parents are contacted daily with additional adhoc meetings are required alongside review meetings including those relating to EHCPs. The Open-door policy continues in operation and has also been enhanced by Cramlington on Tour – taking activities out into the community to further support pupil premium parents. Working in partnership with external agencies continues to develop and this has enabled an enhanced menu of activity to support parental engagement in learning and development.
Pupils spoken to at the Reassessment Visit were able to provide a significant amount of information in relation to everyday life across Cramlington Learning Village. They shared examples of communication methods in place between home and school including website, newsletters, school visits and the wealth of information that was available on the Parent Portal.
Google Classroom enables their parents to take part in conversations whilst being provided with data in the form of reports and termly updates as well as information expected grades and homework help data.
Homework communication methods in place between home and school including website, newsletters, coming into school and the wealth of information that was available on the parent portal continued to provide links between home and school. Community Week was spoken about by all of the students and information from this was also shared on the website.
Students were of the opinion that their parents were made to feel welcome by all staff when they contacted the school, whichever method of communication they felt most comfortable with. Again, each student was asked to provide a word they thought their parents would use to describe Cramlington Learning Village. They replied, “welcoming, supportive, friendly, warm and pleasant.”
Cramlington Learning Village continues to excel in embedding the work that it does in relation to parental engagement. “Parents are part of the vehicle continually moving the school forward.”
Our commitment:
We are committed to working with parents, carers and families to strengthen the links between school, home and the community. If you would like to get involved, please contact Tony Brown (LPPA Coordinator) at tbrown@cramlingtonlv.co.uk.
Reassessment 2028:
The reassessment of the LPPA will take place in July 2028.