A guide to setting up a Parent Association

How to Start

A group of parents could come together as a first step. They could do some initial planning with the support of the Principal/Board of Management.

The Principal might ask for volunteers.

The Chairperson of the Board of Management or the Parents Representatives on the Board might invite all parents to a meeting.

What next?

Choose a Chairperson for this meeting; this could be the Chairperson of the Board of Management, one of the Parents Representatives on the Board, the Principal teacher or any parent.

A committee is elected, by asking for nominations from the floor, which should be representative of all parents in the school, for example by class level, by district, by estate etc.

The committee at its first meeting will elect its officers.

One of the functions of the new committee will be to draw up a Constitution under which the Parent Association will operate. Every organisation needs to have some simple ground rules to guide them, these rules usually form the constitution.

When a draft Constitution is drawn up, this must be circulated to all the parents of children in the school, parents views on this draft can be collected at a meeting or in writing. The constitution is then revised and must be passed by a majority of parents at the following meeting/AGM.

For a sample constitution see “Working Effectively as a Parent Association”, guidelines which are available to download here under Useful Downloads or from National Parents Council Primary, if you would like to order a copy please send in your name and address to info@npc.ie