ABOUT AREA4PARENTS
The Area 4 Parents website has been developed as part on an Extended Schools Project that has included Bay House Cluster schools in Gosport.

Who are the Schools involved in the project?
There are 10 schools involved in the Extended Schools Project:

The schools have been commited to developing communications between parents and themselves. Home School Link Workers have made significant contributions to the role they play in working with pupils and their families.

The schools have also created 'Parent Information Points' using plasma screens with digital signage or power point displays in receptions areas for parents to catch up on the latest news and events.

The website seemed a natural progression to another area of communication; the Internet. Improving 'users' or 'traffic' into school or supportive websites which contain a huge amount of resources for parents has been the real motivation behind this project.

The next phase
Now that the website is up and running the most important job is to keep it up to date and current. It will be promoted through the schools, through information points in Gosport and by holding or supporting events for families in the local and wider community.

Sustainability
There is a big committment from the schools to maintain the website. Sponsorship is and will be used for promotional opportunities, for example, the launch evening.

Parent's Information Points
Many schools are providing Parent's Information Points, places where you can come into the school and have access to a computer and the Internet. To compliment this and make sure that all families benefit from the information on the website, Area4Parents will also produce regular '4News' Newsletters.

Bay House IT & Design Services (BHITDS)
http://www.bhitds.co.uk
Bay House IT & Design Services was formed in the interests of our cluster schools. It has provided a bespoked and assessible, well designed website with room for development.

"Websites are organic. They grow and evolve if cared for and I see Area4Parents in that light. What started as a simple directional tool to signpost the schools has taken on a life of its own and, because we are so involved with education on a daily basis, promises to develop into a productive, well rounded resource." Cindy Wishart, Web Developer BHITDS