Three mornings a week in all weathers, family support teacher Tracey Berry welcomes parents and children to Forthview Primary, in Edinburgh. “I sit on the bollards, greet them all by name and tell them what’s on today.” she says.
“Parents talk to me at the gate about wee concerns with their kids and I follow them up before they grow bigger.
“We do home visits to every Primary 1 child.
“We have activity afternoons, one class at a time, for parents to come in with their little ones and work with the pupils.
“We run a creche.
“We run groups for parents in computing, crafts, health and well-being, parents and toddlers, cookery, ceilidhs ...”
“Basically,” says Sheila Laing, the headteacher, “we will do anything we can think of to encourage parents to come into the school.”
“And it works,” two parents say at the same time.
