An 'engaged' P&F helps facilitate the engagement of the whole community in the life and mission of the school.
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WHERE DO WE START?
1. Know what guides your work P&F teams in the Broken Bay Diocese operate under the Broken Bay Parent and Friends Constitution. The constitution provides guidelines and ideas on how P&F teams operate to support their school community. The constitution with Explanatory Guidance notes covers:
2. Know your Community
Welcoming schools acknowledge and honour the diverse needs of families and cater to those needs. Whilst P&F's are required to follow the Constitution in their operations, there is flexibility to be creative in operations to meet the unique needs of your school communities in your goal and event planning. All parents of your school community are members of the P&F. It is important that P&F teams consider the nature of their school community in all planning, by developing an understanding of "who" the families in the school are, and organising communication and events to suit the needs of all families. Collect information about your school community * include discussion on agenda item of P&F meetings * conduct 'getting to know you' surveys * find out the ideas, needs and skills of your parent community 
3. Know your role and responsibilities
The P&F Constitution is the starting point for understanding all parent leadership roles and outlines what is involved for each executive position. As office bearers of the P&F executive, you work on behalf of the whole P&F and therefore all parents in the school. Establishing good working relationships and adopting a team approach to decision making and goal setting is essential to P&F Teams achieving direction and building community. It is the responsibility as the leadership group to: * arrange a planning session and set P&F goals for the year * ensure transparency, fairness and a continued direction by having established plans for succession and handover procedures * conduct a handover and planning meeting with the 'old' committee before the first executive meeting of the 'new' committee. 
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RESOURCES
What are the 6 Constitution goals of the P&F?
Know 'how to know' your community
The Better Together website section KNOWING contains resources, such as surveys and reflection tools, to help you understand and know your community as well as resources to help you understand and interpret educational data. 
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