Parental Involvement
The school has a very active group of parents involved in charity and fund-raising initiatives. In the 375th Anniversary year, it has collaborated with Alder Hey Children's hospital on the LeJog project; the first ever completion by a school of a relay from Land’s End to John O’Groats. The aim of this is to raise £3.75 million for childhood cancer research at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where one of the school’s runners is currently receiving chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia.
In addition to charity work, parents have involved themselves in the running of the school through parent governors and have acted as a pressure group to seek to keep the governors and leadership team accountable. This has been especially noticeable through the Concerned Calday Parents Facebook group, which is currently at some 300+ members. This group brought about an early Ofsted inspection and is seeking the early resolution of the perceived mistrust of the governors by the parents as a whole. It was originally set up to seek a fair resolution of the suspension of the headmaster, but has since expanded to cover topics such as trust status, freedom of information and curriculum choices. In order to start a clean slate and to coincide with the new headmaster starting in April 2012, the Facebook group has been wound up and a new, open group started "... intended primarily for parents and carers of children attending Calday Grange Grammar School, although other interested adults (teachers, governors, ex-pupils) are welcome to join and enrich the discussions."
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