What? When? Why? The Future of Parental Partnership in a Changing Scottish Policy Context – Perspectives from Early Career Teachers.

Paul Campbell – Clarkston Primary SchoolSusan Liveston – Hyndland Primary School

- Japanese Proverb

‘Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.’

But we don’t claim to have a panacea, to know everything

about effective parental

partnership in learning or to have all the answers to the questions we

are raising.

Provocative and challenging

ideas/questions?

We can promise that.

Why?• Commitment to the area of working with families.

• Recognition and understanding of wider policy area and implications on practice.

• Focus for practice, professional learning and development and under continual review.

• Engagement with the wider education debate.

• Share, discuss, challenge ideas, engage with a wider demographic of partners in education.

• Share what we see as important and key next steps for progression and improvement.

The Context• Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) – Building the

Curriculum

• Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)

• Advancing Professionalism in Teaching – McCormac

• Teaching Scotland’s Future – Donaldson

• Commission on School Reform

• Quality and Improvement in Scottish Education Report

• Curriculum for Excellence Impact Reports

Implications

• The Journey from Good to Great to Excellent

• Involvement, expectations and rights of the relevant partners in the education and learning of our children and young people

WHO?HOW?

WHAT?

Key Challenges – Practice/ Policy• Time • Family circumstances• Geography• Lack of confidence• Unfamiliarity

With barriers come ideas and approaches that can overcome them. But it takes time, as well as active and sustained dialogue between relevant stakeholders with a practical focus on improving experiences, achievements and outcomes of all learners.

Key Challenges – Policy/Practice• System wide variation: Healthy but practically there are wide unfortunate variations. How do we embed the key elements – agree the key elements?

• Agreed broad national framework to allow for local interpretation:

Positive and necessary but can be a potential challenge.

• Sharing local innovation.

• Redefining the policy-maker.

Discussion Point• What is parental involvement? Consider the following reflective questions in groups of 2-4.

1. What do you consider to be effective parental involvement and in what way does it happen in your establishment/ associated educational setting/ sector?

2. How are you supporting/ encouraging effective and meaningful involvement of parents in their child’s learning?

Effective Partnership – Next Steps for PracticeEffective partnership and involvement has to start with communication.Communication is key to having effective and meaningful partnership with

parents. It takes a tailored, relevant approach agreed by all involved.

This can be done in a variety of ways:- • Face-to-face appointments• Chats at the gate• Letters/notes• Phone calls • Class blogs• Twitter/ Facebook/ GLOW page and updates• Drop in sessions• Open mornings/afternoons

Considerations (not exhaustive): communication preferences, time commitments and constraints, personal and

social circumstances, required tools/ input, expectations

Effective Partnership – Next Steps for Policy• Establishing effective practice at local levels with mechanisms to collaborate

a share between professionals, parents and community partners, devised, developed and sustained locally.

• Broader range of communication tools and mechanisms advocated and in place; harnessing the full potential of technology and social media.

• Greater involvement of the ‘everyday, busy’ parent and teacher (children’s learning, school life, policy development and decision making)

• Move beyond the ‘call for evidence’, ‘opportunities to respond’, ‘representatives from all parties’ to a model of localised community partnership working/implementation (and interpretation)/review groups (e.g. curriculum, qualifications, assessment, reporting, partnership mechanisms) …with regular meaningful opportunities for feeding back to national groups/bodies.

Why?• We know it’s right.

• Our children deserve the best; better than we are doing.

• The school as the community hub.

• Reconceptualising the learning process – there is still work to do. Not just at policy level, but practically and meaningfully.

• Valuing what our children and young people value.

Our Approach• Curriculum News / Newsletters and updates• Homework Log – tips/hints and two way communication• Letters communicated to and from parents• Being available to talk to parents outside at the end of the day• Appointments to talk to individual parents• Open door system for all • Open days• Meet the Teacher• Display of Work• Parent helpers • Class Blogs• Shared Learning Journals• Personal Learning Plans

• Peer-initiated and led professional learning networks• Openness to new ideas and approaches• Engagement in the wider policy debate• Commitment to career long professional learning and development• Commitment to engaging with parents, families and community partners to

ensure the best experiences and achievements possible

Reflection Point• Complete the table by identifying all the parental

involvement opportunities that are offered by your school or establishment.

• On a scale of 1 to 6, grade their success in terms of (for example) raising achievement, positive pupil attitudes, behaviours and attendance, and encouraging parental participation (with 1 being the least successful and 6 the most successful).

• Identify what made it successful.

- Japanese Proverb

‘Vision without action is a daydream. Action without vision is a nightmare.’

There isn’t a panacea, there

aren’t answers to all the challenging

questions. But there are actions to

go with visions.

Reflection.Ideas.

Communication.Evaluation.Revolution.

Transformation.