I recently spoke at SPTC's annual conference about the Executive's proposals for improving the way parents can be involved in schools. In particular I spoke about how The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Bill will help this process. I now welcome this opportunity to explain more widely exactly what our thinking is.

We all know that children do better when parents support their education. Moreover, this support should not be seen just in terms of "representation", whether on a PTA committee or school board; it is also important that parents support their children directly, for example by helping with homework or through out-of-school activities. This is exactly what is recognised in the legislation because the Bill places new duties on Ministers and education authorities to promote parental involvement in the widest sense. It also requires authorities to respond directly to individual parents' requests for advice and information about their child's education.

This focus on all parents is further reflected in the Bill's proposals for Parent Forums, which will consist of all the parents at the school. The Forums will be responsible for establishing Parent Councils whose main purpose will be to act on behalf of all the parents in supporting the “endeavours of those managing the school”. In order to do this, the Parent Council will have to listen to the views of all parents, set agendas that reflect parents' concerns, and report back to parents.

The legislation makes it clear that the Parent Forum will decide the constitution of the Parent Council in terms of the number of members, how they are appointed/elected and how long they will serve. Moreover, the Parent Forums will be able to change the constitution if they wish or need to in the future.

The Bill consultation process identified concerns about membership of Parent Councils. Schools work best when parents, teachers and pupils work in partnership and have strong links with both the local community and education authority. The Bill creates the conditions for such partnerships to develop organically, and moves away from the prescriptive approach currently taken to the membership of School Boards.

Headteachers will have a right and a duty to attend Parent Council meetings although, if both the Parent Council and the headteacher agree, then s/he need not attend. Parents will be able to co-opt other members - perhaps a pupil or member of the local community. To help parents make decisions about the membership etc. of the Parent Council, we intend to provide a clear, straightforward, model constitution which parents can use or adjust as they see fit. In developing this we will build on current good practice and work with the SPTC and others with experience in this area.

In many ways these arrangements will be very familiar to you. Indeed, just as PTA committees can be quite different in different schools, the Bill offers flexibility and allows Parent Forums to establish Parent Councils suited to their particular school.

You may be concerned about what the Bill will mean for PTAs. We value the role that PTAs have played in our schools and I can assure you that PTAs will not be abolished by this legislation. It will be for the parents at your school to decide whether they want a separate PTA or whether they want to operate with a single committee and have the Parent Council assume current PTA functions.

I recognise that much excellent practice exists around the country and congratulate PTAs in the vital role they play in Scotland 's schools. I welcome the chance we now have to work together, to build on the very best and take parental involvement to a new, broader level.

Our Annual conference in November was held on the Parental Involvement Bill . This is the proposal to abolish school boards and put in place more flexible parent councils. All the parents at a school will form the parent forum and through this they will have certain rights and responsibilities. For example, the parent forums will set up parent councils to run matters on their behalf. In turn, the parent councils will be responsible to all the parents in the parent forum, they will have to take account of their views and they will have to report back to them. This is very similar to the link between the PTA committee and all the parents in the school. (With this Backchat we enclose a summary of main points of the legislation. It is also available on our website www.sptc.info )

This is an important issue for all parents and PTAs will be actively involved in the process. We therefore invited Peter Peacock, the Minister for Education and Young People, along to our conference to explain his thinking. He started by saying how important it is for all parents to be involved in their children's school, because youngsters get on better where the parents and school work closely together. However, he recognised the need to make the system for parental involvement flexible and easy for parents. This is the reason for change.

During the course of the day some key themes came up time and again. The first was the importance of communication between the school and all parents. If parents are to get involved, they need to be told what's happening. Various suggestions were made about how communication could be improved – from websites, dedicated notice-boards to more use of emails.

The second theme was on the crucial role of the headteacher. Where the headteacher wanted to involve parents, you had good schemes without all the hassle of legislation. However, if the headteacher wanted to keep parents out, there was not much parents or legislation could do to overcome his/her opposition.

The Minister was taken to task for not having written directly to PTAs about his proposals. To be fair, he took this criticism on board and this is one reason why he has written an article specifically for Backchat and our PTA readership.

A number of people raised concerns about what would happen to PTAs. The answer is that it will be up to the parents in each school to decide. If parents want to carry on with the two committee structure, they can do. They will have a parent council and a PTA. Alternatively, if they think a single committee makes sense, they can agree to dissolve the PTA and have everyone come together in a new, more flexible parent council.

A key part in the change will be the duty on local authorities to help parents set up parent councils, particularly in drawing up constitutions. We have already started lobbying to ensure that these constitutions are written in straightforward parent-friendly language. Indeed, we've even been so bold as to promote our own Model Constitution!

The new parent councils will be free to take on the social and fundraising activities normally carried out by a PTA. Being a PTA conference, someone very sensibly asked what would happen to the PTA's money if it were wound up. The answer should lie in the existing constitution. Normally it will be possible to pass this money over to the new parent council to help it get started. However, the Minister made it clear that the parent councils would enjoy financial support and have enough money to employ someone to look after the paperwork – signal for all PTA secretaries to opt for the new parent council!

There was concern that a lot of parents would still not get involved, even under the new system. But then parents lead busy lives and it only needs something to go wrong at home for a parent not to be able to manage to a school event.

The timetable of change is that the Bill is currently going through Parliament. The general principles of the legislation are being considered by the Education Committee. Indeed, Judith Gillespie, Development Manager of SPTC gave evidence to the committee on 7 th December and the Minister gave evidence on 11 th January. (You can see full reports of both on the parliament website: www.scottish.parliament.uk then go to the Committees page.) The Education Committee will write a report on the principles of the Bill for discussion by the whole Parliament before taking charge of the Bill again and considering detailed amendments. The expected timetable is that the Bill will become law towards the summer of 2006 and then the new system will start operating in the spring of 2007.

With this Backchat, we are sending the consultation document on the proposals to change to the way headteachers are appointed. It would be really good if your committee would discuss these proposals and respond. You can either feed your comments back to us and we will include them in our response or you can reply directly to the Executive. The details on how to do this are given on page 10 and the key proposals and consultation questions are on pages 6-9. You don't have to read anything else!

At present parents make up half of the appointment panel for headteachers. These parents are drawn from the school board and where there is no school board local authorities sometimes invite PTA committee members to sit on appointment panels. Parents are not officially involved in the appointment process until this final stage. Obviously, whilst some parents are used to making appointments, many are not and find the process quite difficult.

The current system has not been totally successful. HMIe reports show that nearly 20% of headteachers (i.e. 1 in 5) are deemed only fair or unsatisfactory. There is, therefore, a general agreement that change is needed. The process needs to be more rigorous. However, it is also agreed that parents should still have a role.

One of the Head-teacher candidates decided to go for the “impress the parents” approach

SPTC supports these proposals as we feel they offer parents a chance to comment at the right stage in the proceedings but will ensure that the actual appointment is based on professional judgement. The one proposal that we do not agree with is the suggestion that there should be a local authority panel of “expert” parents who will be able to offer advice and even sit alongside local parents on individual school appointment panels.

This project has been set up by the Scottish Executive to help local authorities and schools to find children who have disappeared from view. If a local search is unsuccessful, then this team will follow up with a wider search across Scotland and the UK . When a child is found, relevant information will be shared to allow appropriate contact and support to be set up for them.

If you know children who are not known to the authorities or you would like more information on this project contact CME ( Scotland ) as follows:

Telephone: 0131 260 5352 Email: cmescotland@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

In the last few weeks before Christmas a teacher asked her pupils to draw their favourite Bible character. Wayne 's picture included four people in an aeroplane.

She asked him what story it depicted. “The flight to Egypt ,” he said. Pointing to each of the passengers the teacher said: “That must be Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus. Who's the other person?” “That's Pontius – the pilot.”

We always start the January Backchat by wishing you all a very Happy New Year and then we get down to business by reminding you to pay your 2006 membership/insurance fee. Forms were sent out in November and well done to all those who got them back on time. Now for the rest of you that haven't renewed, here is your checklist:

• The insurance ran out on December 31 st 2005 and if you pay late, the rules of the policy mean that you still have to pay the full fee.

• If you have lost the forms, then contact the office and we'll send out replacements.

• If you've paid but haven't received a receipt, please phone/email us in case it has got lost in the post.

• Has this newsletter been delivered to the right person? Are you still involved with the PTA/PA? If not, please contact us or pass this newsletter on to the school.