Meet the Parents is a pioneering scheme to give primary school parents the inside story on their local secondary schools. We arrange for families from the local comprehensives to come into feeder primaries and talk frankly about their experience at school. It fills a gap between slick open days and age-old rumours in the playground.
In the seven years that we’ve been running the scheme in Camden in North London, we have won over scores of parents to staying local rather than sending their children to schools outside the area. Each child brings a boost to the secondary schools’ budgets and strengthens the local community.
We are now moving into the primary school sector in response to a fall in nursery and reception rolls across London. We have been asked to work with Camden council, helping some brilliant primaries in areas where the number of primary age children is declining.
There are many reasons for this fall: not enough social housing for families; not enough rental properties as landlords switch to AirBnB in tourist areas of London; and a fall in the birthrate that is now kicking in at nursery and reception. But we have a solution: get EVERYONE in the community to send their children to the local state primary.
We have been making films for three fabulous schools, arranging talks and tours by their headteachers, and getting the word out there through traditional and social media. Then there’s good old leafleting door to door!
Check out our films:
