Atwood Class Reps

Class Reps – What do they do?

Every class has one or more ‘Class Reps’, parents or carers who have volunteered to act as a point of contact between the school and parents and carers.

Being a class rep is an important and rewarding role. Class reps help build a sense of community among the class parents and it is they who provide the link between the parents and the Friends of Atwood as well as the Head Teacher/Senior Leadership team. Class reps are invited to attend the ‘Friends of Atwood’ committee meetings to gain a broader understanding of what the group does for the school, and to lend their expertise and time if they choose. Below is a summary of what a class rep does.

Attendance at class rep meetings

• Class rep meetings are held half termly with the Headteacher. Reps would be asked to feed into the agenda any generic point (i.e not just specific to one child) regarding the school that their class parents have raised.

Parental help in class

• Reps liaise closely with the class teacher to organise parental help in class.

Communication

• Some teachers appreciate help with communication to parents to make sure all are included.
• Class reps provide feedback to parents/carers on matters/issues raised.

Maintaining Class Lists

• Keeping (and circulating) an up to date list of all the children in the class and their contact details. It is very important to get everyone’s permission to be added to the list. This is a very handy list for everyone in the class to have, for everything from play dates to emergency pick-up help!

Organising socials for parents

• Class coffee mornings and parents’ evenings are always good fun and the most effective way of generating a good team spirit in your class – which makes enlisting volunteers for school fairs much simpler and easier when the time comes.
• It is totally at your discretion how often to organise them, although as a general rule, drinks are usually held at Christmas and at the end of the school year, and coffee mornings a minimum of once a term.

Christmas fair and summer fair

• Every year group is allocated stalls, and class reps are responsible for co-ordinating the preparation, rota and clearing up. This is a vital role – without this help the event would not take place.
• Once the fair is over, you are the asked to gather feedback (positive or negative) and summarise it in a written or verbal report.

Other bits

• Sometimes, if children leave Atwood, the class reps co-ordinate gift and cards for them. Again this is at your discretion.
• Sometimes parents prefer to get together and pool money to buy presents for the teacher at Christmas and end of year and if so, the class reps co-ordinate this. Class reps also generally co-ordinate a card or similar for the teachers with messages from the children at Christmas and end of year.