Conflict & Change was invited by Bibi, learning mentor to run a community conversation in Tuesday Parents Group in Hartley School in East Ham.
Ros, Community Conversations Worker, Anna – EVS volunteer and Tallat from Muslim Mediation Service and came to facilitate this meeting.
This was an unusual Community Conversation because the parents were also decorating flowers for a school event at the end of the week! There were 4 mothers from different cultures: Asha, Zubina, Vasuki and Subuhi.
So to fit in with the circumstances, we started by sharing everybody’s name and their favourite flower. It brought immediately memories of home countries, traditional religious festivals and family events connected with those flowers.
The mothers talked in twos about their personal experience of community spirit and then shared with everyone. Every person had their turn and was listened to and appreciated.
The common topic was the sense of belonging and safety that they get being part of the parents group. They also enjoyed the events the school ran for all the religious festivals and they particularly talked about the Christmas party where lots of people join in.
All the mothers wanted others to get involved in the parents group because it was so important to them, so they went into groups with flipchart paper and pens to think about “how to bring more parents to 
the group”. The ideas were:
Parents from the group to perform in the Town Hall at the Achievement night, invite other parents to the group, information in school newsletter (other languages, say what is going to happen ), include other exercises in the programme to get more people interested, certificates for participation, give them a call – remind, volunteer more – parents getting involved in the school life, translation – assuring that other members are willing to support newcomers who are not fluent in English
One outcome was that the mothers all felt confident to go and ask other people to come along.
The meeting ended with the usual go-round “what I enjoyed about the meeting” with passing the wool, that created a beautiful star with all the participants being connected. Everybody liked this activity. The main things they enjoyed were the flowers, the talking, the sharing and friendship with other group members. One mother said: “I enjoyed that you listened to me, I feel appreciated and I realize I felt valued today and appreciated”.
At the end Bibi said: “I know it is part of my job but I like to know how much they appreciate the parents group. I’ve got wings!”
