EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE AGENDA 8th ......2015/03/31 · EC/S4/15/8/A EDUCATION AND CULTURE...

EC/S4/15/8/A

EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE

AGENDA

8th Meeting, 2015 (Session 4)

Tuesday 31 March 2015 The Committee will meet at 10.00 am in the Mary Fairfax Somerville Room (CR2). 1. Decision on taking business in private: The Committee will decide whether

to take items 3 and 4 in private. 2. Educational attainment gap (The Role of Parents): The Committee will take

evidence from—

Dr Sarah Morton, Co-Director Centre for Research on Families and Relationships, University of Edinburgh; Iain Ellis MBE, Chair, National Parent Forum of Scotland; Jackie Tolland, National Director, Parent Network Scotland; Eileen Prior, Executive Director, Scottish Parent Teacher Council; Shona Crawford, Principal Educational Psychologist, West Dunbartonshire Council.

3. Educational Attainment Gap (The Role of Parents): The Committee will consider the evidence received.

4. Education (Scotland) Bill: The Committee will consider its approach to the

scrutiny of the Bill at Stage 1. 5. British Sign Language (Scotland) Bill (in private): The Committee will

consider its approach to the draft Stage 1 report.

EC/S4/15/8/A

Terry Shevlin Clerk to the Education and Culture Committee

Room T3.60 The Scottish Parliament

Edinburgh Tel: 0131 348 5204

Email: [email protected] The papers for this meeting are as follows— Agenda item 2

Written submissions

EC/S4/15/8/1

Review of Research on Family Engagement in Education

SPICe Parent Survey Report

EC/S4/15/8/2

PRIVATE PAPER

EC/S4/15/8/3 (P)

Agenda item 4

PRIVATE PAPER

EC/S4/15/8/4 (P)

Agenda item 5

PRIVATE PAPER

EC/S4/15/8/5 (P)

http://engagingwithfamilies.co.uk/evidence/

Agenda item 2 EC/S4/15/8/1

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Education and Culture Committee

8th Meeting, 2015 (Session 4), Tuesday, 31 March 2015

Educational attainment gap – The Role of Parents This paper contains the written submissions received from those giving oral evidence at the Committee meeting—

Page

Dr Sarah Morton, University of Edinburgh 2 National Parent Forum of Scotland 4 Parent Network Scotland 12 Scottish Parent Teacher Council 15 Further submissions have also been received and these are available on the Parliament’s website— http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/85488.aspx Clerk to the Committee 26 March 2015

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/85488.aspx

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/85488.aspx

Submission from Dr Sarah Morton – extract and infographic from ‘Review of Research on Family Engagement in Education’ Report

1. Introduction The introduction of the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 aimed to not only increase parents’ participation in their own children’s educational experiences but to also become invested in the wider educational community. It has been suggested that we need to progress from parental1 involvement in schools to parental engagement in children’s learning (Goodall and Montgomery 2013). Parental engagement in children’s learning is only one factor of many that influences their educational attainment; however, it is particularly significant, and evidence suggests that among the non-school factors of school achievement like socio-economic background, parents’ educational attainment, family structure, ethnicity and parental engagement, it is the latter which is the most strongly connected to achievement and attainment (Harris and Goodall 2008). This review therefore concentrates on effective engagement strategies that will help to reduce the attainment gap between children and young people from more and less advantages backgrounds. Key points:

Forming a school-family partnership, particularly one that is effectively situated within the context of community agents of children’s wellbeing, requires shared goals, shared contributions, and shared accountability between parents and schools.

Parental engagement is not confined to the visible presence and actions of parents and family within the physical space of schools –for many families may find direct engagement with schools intimidating or difficult – but still participate extensively in their children’s learning at home and in the community.

Considering the educational experiences and outcomes of children as a shared endeavour between families and schools requires better understanding the models, mechanisms, and services that can help narrow the attainment gap amongst Scottish children and young people. This gap in achievement is experienced asymmetrically, with disadvantaged pupils more commonly assessed as at the lower levels of attainment.

There is no singular model or programme of family engagement guaranteed to narrow the achievement gap and increase the involvement of all children’s parents. Every school must adapt the strategies and interventions included in this report to the needs of their own community, school, pupils, and parents and carers.

This review aimed to produce a high quality, accessible evidence review of educational intervention research on family engagement. The outputs from this review are focused on providing support to teachers and schools on how they can use their existing assets to improve the attainment and achievement of disadvantaged pupils. This report consists of a methodology section followed by six thematic sections which formed the website content


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Volunteering Does the school provide opportunities and

encouragement for all parents to come into school

at different times to suit parents’ busy schedules?

Collaboration with the community:

Does the school coordinate resources and services

for families and pupils with the wider community,

including third sector organisations?

Decision-Making:

Are a variety of parents involved in

parent organisations and committees?

Learning at home:

Does the school give information and advice

on the curriculum and how parents can help

their children?

Communication:Does the school communicate and listen to all parents about their role in their child’s education?

There are 6 dimensions to family engagement

Does engaging with families matter?

? ?

Research shows that children and young people’s socio-economic background, parents education level, family structure and ethnicity all have an influence on how well they do at school. However, family engagement in school has a bigger influence on young people’s achievement than any of these.

Influence on pupil

achievement

SCHOOL 20% - 40% H

OME 6

0% - 80%

Parenting: Are there opportunities for parents to get support with parenting and understanding their child’s education and developmental needs?

achieve:l better exam resultsl higher retention ratesl smoother transitions

between nursery, primary and secondary school

To find out what schools can do go to www...........................The information on this poster has been extracted from a literature review conducted by CRFR on behalf of the Scottish Government.

and alsol attend school more

regularlyl have better social skills

and improved behaviourl adapt better to schooll have better networks of

supportive relationshipsl have a greater sense of personal competence and be open to learningl engage more in school

workl are more likely to go

on to further or higher education

Children and young people who have at

least one parent/carer engaged in their schooling:


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Evidence to the Education and Culture Committee Educational attainment gap – Involvement of parents

March 2015

Introduction 1.1 The National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) welcomes the opportunity to provide evidence for the Committee’s inquiry into the educational attainment gap and the involvement of parents. This evidence is based on the views of parents who participated in a focus group on attainment, held in Edinburgh on 12th March, and of NPFS’ representatives. It also reflects the views of parents gathered at other focus groups, local events, quarterly forum meetings, and at our annual conference.

NPFS’ role in parental involvement

2.1 NPFS was established in 2009 following the introduction of Parent Councils by the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) 2006 Act. The Forum aims to support parental involvement in education and provides a parental perspective at the national level. The Forum is parent-led and is comprised of volunteer parent representatives from each of the local authority areas, who communicate with Parent Councils and support parent involvement at the local level. Our representatives work with Parental Involvement Officers in local authorities to share information with parents. In many areas, there are local authority-level parent forums, usually attended by Chairs of Parent Councils, where local issues can be shared and concerns raised. 2.2 NPFS delivers a range of resources, events and other opportunities to help parents understand what their children are learning and to enable them to participate in their child’s school. For example, we produce ‘in a Nutshell’ leaflets clearly summarising Nationals 1-5 and new Highers in a range of subjects to help parents understand the new qualifications and support their child in making decisions about which subjects to choose. We also produce leaflets that provide an overview of assessment, skills, learner pathways and many other aspects of Curriculum for Excellence. 2.3 We also help schools understand how to engage with parents. For instance, we presented at the primary and secondary Curriculum for Excellence leadership events for head-teachers, held in 2014 and 2015. Our representatives have also presented on parental engagement at the Scottish Learning Festival ‘extra’ learning events held throughout Scotland, which are aimed at teachers.


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The attainment gap and parental involvement 3.1 There is a need to examine what is meant by attainment and the attainment gap. Audit Scotland’s report on School Education found that there is a lack of information about pupil performance at both the local and the national level. The measures that are currently used focus on the exam results of pupils in S4-S6. Audit Scotland found that there is little information available on wider achievement or the performance of pupils in P1-S3 available at either the local or the national level. Vocational courses have not been captured in the existing attainment measures. However, it is hoped that the Insight benchmarking tool will start to capture information about vocational courses and wider achievement as the tariffs are currently being applied to a broader range of achievements, and this will continue to increase over time. 3.2 Although there is evidence to suggest that pupil attainment has been rising over the past decade by around four percent for S4 and around five to ten percent for S5-S61, we do not currently have the evidence to comment on whether this is directly related to parental involvement through Parent Councils as created by the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) 2006 Act. 3.3 The evidence does tell us that there is an achievement gap between pupils from higher and lower-income households, and this gap is persistent2. The OECD review in 2007 found that in Scotland a pupil’s social background mattered more in terms of attainment than in other countries: ‘Who you are in Scotland is far more important than what school you attend, so far as achievement differences on international tests are concerned.’3 Research based on the 2009 PISA study found that, in relation to boys’ reading skills, Scotland’s attainment gap was the highest in the developed world, and was comparatively worse than in emerging economies such as Chile, Turkey and Mexico4. 3.4 NPFS welcomes the Scottish Government’s recent announcement regarding the Scottish Attainment Challenge, which will provide £100m funding in addition to the existing Raising Attainment for All programme. The first tranche of funding will focus on the areas that have the highest concentration of primary school age children from households in deprived areas. However, targeting using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) means that pupils who are living in poverty, but not in the areas classified as the most disadvantaged, will miss out. NPFS is gathering evidence on the indicators used in the SIMD as we believe these may need updating in light of some anomalies – for instance, inner city areas in which a 1 Audit Scotland School Education (2014) p. 18 2 Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Closing the attainment gap in Scottish education (2014) p.8 3 OECD 2007 p.15 4 Jerrim, J. (2013) ‘The reading gap: the socio-‐economic gap in children’s reading skills: a cross-‐ national comparison using PISA 2009’, www.suttontrust.com/public/documents/readinggap.pdf


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significant proportion of residents are in privately rented accommodation. NPFS is currently in discussion with Ministers regarding this issue. 3.5 Parents have told us that they believe that there needs to be a broader and more inclusive interpretation of what ‘attainment’ means5. It should encompass wider and personal achievements as well as qualifications. For example, it should encompass youth work activities such as the Duke of Edinburgh awards, which are recognised and valued by young people, parents and employers. These help young people develop the ‘soft skills’ that employers value and are particularly successful at reaching young people who are otherwise at risk of becoming disengaged from formal education. However, it important to take a ‘whole child’ approach, in keeping with the aims of GIRFEC and Curriculum for Excellence, and to recognise the strengths, aptitudes and interests of each child in the round6. 3.6 However, even taking this broader definition into account, we still need to address the inequality in the education system, as it is unacceptable that there is such a persistent gap between the numeracy and literacy skills of pupils from higher and lower income households. Improving parental involvement 4.1 NPFS agrees with Audit Scotland’s view that spending should be targeted on the parents, pupils and schools that need it the most. The focus should not be on raising attainment for all, as this will continue to raise the bar while not addressing the equity gap, but on supporting pupils from lower income households to achieve (which should be defined as including exam attainment, vocational courses and wider achievements) and on supporting parents from lower income households to engage and support their children’s learning. 4.2 There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that parental involvement plays a key role in closing the attainment gap. For instance, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report found that parental involvement programmes that focus on helping parents to support their children’s learning at home have a positive impact on reducing the attainment gap.7 The Audit Scotland report identified parental involvement as being one of the key factors in improving pupil performance.8 Some studies have gone so far as to state that parental involvement is the only factor that makes a significant contribution to closing the attainment gap.9 5 Evidence from NPFS focus group with parents on attainment, 12 March 2015. Full report available on request from NPFS. 6 Ibid. 7 Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Closing the attainment gap in Scottish education, 2014 p.23 8 Audit Scotland School Education (2014) p.31 9 Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The impact of attitudes and aspirations on educational attainment and participation (2012).


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4.3 However, there are a number of barriers to parental involvement. Parents may not be able to support their child’s learning in the home due to issues such as a lack of time, or not having enough information about their child’s learning stage. Some parents may be reluctant to engage in parent councils due to a lack of confidence in public speaking, or they may be put off by a formal approach to parental involvement. Schools can also create barriers, for instance if their communication with parents is not effective, or by not providing enough opportunities for parents to participate. Schools may also have a lack of knowledge about parents’ skills and expertise and how these could potentially support their children’s learning. 4.4 Children who have lower levels of attainment may have parents who had a negative experience of school. For this reason, they may be reluctant to engage with the school, a problem which can be reinforced if they get negative messages about their child’s performance back from the school.10 4.5 Communication from schools varies greatly, with some schools providing very good feedback and others providing very limited information. Parents have provided us with examples of where communications can go wrong - for instance, some schools not informing parents about important indications that something is not going well, e.g. a parent only being told at the end of term that their child had failed five maths tests in a row. Parents would prefer to know sooner rather than later if there is an issue that they need to be aware of, so that they can try and support their child. One parent attending our focus group commented that ‘I get more feedback from my garage after an MOT than I do from the school about my child.’11 More positively, parents told us about approaches that some schools have adopted to try and combat the problem of negative feedback, for instance by letting parents know (e.g. by text message) when a pupil has noticeably improved or has done something particularly well. 4.6 Parents also disengage at transition points, particularly primary to secondary. The risk of disengagement at this point can be compounded by some parents lacking the confidence to engage with secondary school subjects with which they are unfamiliar. They may also feel that their child’s homework is beyond their level of understanding. There is a need to consider how to build on the momentum in the early years, when parents are often very closely engaged and are speaking to staff on a daily basis and support this into the primary and secondary stages. 4.7 While some parents are heavily involved in their child’s education and are strong advocates for their child, it should be recognised that not all parents can or are able to have this level of involvement. A great deal is expected of parents in terms of supporting their child’s learning – e.g. encouraging them to practice their reading and writing, supporting them to do homework, helping

10 Evidence from NPFS focus group with parents on attainment, 12 March 2015. Full report available on request from NPFS. 11 Evidence from NPFS focus group with parents on attainment, 12 March 2015. Full report available on request from NPFS.


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them undertake projects, making financial contributions to the school. In reality, many parents are unable to provide this level of support for reasons including poverty, mental or physical ill health, and a lack of confidence and low self-esteem. They may have literacy and numeracy issues themselves, and many have had a negative experience of formal education overall. Children from less advantaged households are less likely to experience a wide range of ‘home learning’ activities than children from higher-income households as it is more difficult for parents living in poverty to provide opportunities such as educational trips and books12. 4.8 In order to redress the balance for children who do not have this level of support, we need to consider different approaches. For example, by providing short, simple, clear advice for parents, with practical examples of what they can do to support their child’s learning (e.g. reading together for ten minutes a day13) along with a flexible, open approach to communicating with and involving parents in the school, recognising that not all parents have the time or capacity to participate in parent council meetings, and that this approach may be off-putting for some parents. 4.9 There are currently a range of different projects and initiatives addressing attainment and parental engagement taking place throughout Scotland. We believe that, rather than a piecemeal approach to addressing the attainment gap with small-scale projects being done in different ways in different local authorities, a national approach to engaging with parents at the grassroots level is needed. There is a need for parent-led approaches based on identification of communities’ needs, building on existing strengths and identifying areas for development with a view to boosting skills, self-esteem and encouraging active participation so that parents feel they are equipped to participate in parent councils as well having the knowledge and confidence to support their child’s learning more generally. 4.10 Local authorities and Education Scotland can also do more to support parental involvement. For example, there are currently plans for HM Inspectors to evaluate parental involvement and family learning as part of the school and leaning community inspection process. Local authority education departments support parental involvement through the work of Parental Involvement Officers (PIOs), but many councils do not currently have PIOs and where they are in place, around half of them spend less than 40% of their time on parental engagement work14. Other factors impacting on attainment

12 Growing Up in Scotland: Early Experiences of Primary School – the transition to school (2012) 13 Lewis, M and Samuels, SJ (2005) Read More, Read Better? A meta-‐analysis of the literature on the relationship between being exposure to reading and reading achievement http://www.tc.umn.edu/~samue001/final%20version.pdf 14 Audit Scotland School Education (2014) p.40


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5.1 Closing the attainment gap is increasingly challenging given the cuts to school budgets being made by local authorities. For example, at the time of writing Edinburgh City Council is looking to cut 1,200 non-teaching posts. As we reported in our evidence on school budgets, English as an Additional Language support is being cut in many authorities, yet there is a growing need for this in communities throughout Scotland.15 NPFS’ view is that it is difficult for measures aimed at improving attainment to succeed when the support children need is being reduced. 5.2 NPFS has particular concerns in relation to additional support for learning (ASL) and are writing to the Children and Young People’s Commissioner with regards to this. Although the majority of teachers are dedicated and committed to the principles of ASL, and many schools lead the way in good practice, there are a number of recurring and significant issues that have the potential to impact negatively on the educational outcomes and well-being children with additional support needs (ASN). Our concerns about provision for ASL are supported by research evidence such as the report undertaken by Prof. Kirsten Stalker for the Commissioner for Children and Young People in 201316, anecdotal evidence we have received from parents, and from the results of a survey for parents of children with ASN which was undertaken by NPFS in February-March 2015. Around 400 parents have responded to our survey. The findings tell us that: 42% of respondents feel that the ASL resources and support available in school do not meet their child’s needs. 30% said that their child’s support had decreased; and in terms of what specifically has been affected, 91% said that support staff/auxiliaries have reduced in number. Of those who said that support had been cut, nearly half said that they had not been involved in any discussions about the decisions that had been taken. And of those who did take part in a discussion about changes to their child’s support, 37% said they had found this discussion to be unhelpful, or only slightly helpful. 5.3 However, evidence tells us that it is not just parents who are key to improving attainment; Audit Scotland identified improving teacher quality and leadership as other significant factors. Across Scotland local authorities are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain high quality teachers, with consequent impact on children and young peoples’ education. In one local authority area, for example, class sizes in P2 and P3 have been increased as a measure for tackling a shortage of teachers at some schools.17 There have been reports in the national press about potential school closures in some areas of Moray and Highland due to a lack of teachers. 5.4 There would appear to be a national problem in relation to supply teachers, with particular difficulties in rural and remote areas. All of this has a

15Count Us In, Education Scotland 2009 http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/cuimnnus_tcm4-‐618947.pdf 16 http://www.sccyp.org.uk/ufiles/It-‐always-‐comes-‐down-‐to-‐money.pdf 17 We have anonymised these examples but can provide further details on request.


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negative impact on children’s learning experiences and outcomes. NPFS representatives told us: ‘My daughter's school is short of teachers and we've been told that they can't get supply teachers. I have checked with several other parents (from other local schools) as well as some teachers, and they have confirmed that supply teachers are unavailable.’ ‘Parents play a vital role in supporting their child’s learning but they can only do so much, and their role should be supported by an adequately funded education system staffed by quality, motivated teachers. A good energised motivated teacher in every classroom is a fundamental part of the education process. It is key to attainment, achievement, confidence, and self-belief - the works! CfE philosophy documents explicitly state it too.’ ‘The Government’s focus on closing the attainment gap is welcome, but we do have concerns that trying to do this at the same time as implementing a new curriculum, a new qualifications system and setting up Glow+ etc. is challenging. There is a need to ensure that the basic building blocks of the educational system – teachers – are in place.’ What the Scottish Government can do to close the attainment gap and support parental involvement 6.1 The forthcoming Education Bill (Scotland) 2015 contains provisions on closing the attainment gap. We believe that the Bill and the accompanying statutory guidance should address how to target pupils, parents and schools who need the most support. Otherwise, there is a risk that the provisions will not affect pupils who are living in poverty, but who are not resident in areas of multiple deprivation as defined by the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation. The provisions should also include a duty to support and engage with parents in order to increase their involvement both at home and in the school. 6.2 It is also important to protect pupils from the negative impact of education budget cuts. Attempts to save costs by reducing services and staff will have a negative impact on all pupils, but will have the biggest impact on those who are already struggling. As Audit Scotland stated: ‘councils also need to understand the longer term effect that budget reductions could have on efforts to raise attainment among pupils.’ Cutting the number of learning assistants, ASL provision and other cost-saving measures will not help address the attainment gap, but could, in fact, worsen it. As one measure, NPFS has suggested that the Bill should include provisions on protecting the school week, in order to stop cuts to the school week being proposed by local authorities each year. 6.3 As we have argued in previous evidence to the Committee, NPFS believes there are other ways for local authorities to save money which have less of an impact on children’s learning. For instance, Councils could share services much more than is currently the case. For instance, one means of


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cost saving could be for teacher payrolls to be either delivered at the national level, or shared between several authorities. Conclusion 7.1 Parents have told us that there needs to be a broader definition of what we mean by attainment, and that this should include wider achievements, personal achievements and vocational courses. The Insight tool is making some progress towards this, but this is still on going. Parents have also reported that it is good communication with schools that makes a considerable difference to their understanding and engagement. 7.2 Research evidence suggests that in order to close the attainment gap, the Scottish Government should concentrate funding on the parents and pupils who need the most support. However it will be difficult if not impossible to raise attainment at the same time as cuts to school budgets, which have a disproportionate effect on the pupils who are most in need, are being pushed through. The forthcoming Education (Scotland) Bill 2015 presents an opportunity to protect one area which is subject to cuts, i.e. the school week. 7.3 Although they play a vital role, parents are not the only factor in closing the attainment gap, and it is important that there are is an adequate number of high quality teachers, including supply teachers, available in all schools. 7.4 Parents are however expected to play a considerable role in their children’s school and in their child’s education generally. Unfortunately, not all children receive this level of support and involvement. In order to address this inequality, there is a need to support the involvement of parents from lower income households so they have the skills and confidence to participate in schools and support their children’s learning at home. Iain Ellis MBE, Chair [email protected] For more information, please contact Barbara Schuler, Policy Manager [email protected]


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Parent Network Scotland (PNS)

Response to call for evidence from Education and Culture Committee

Role of parents and guardians in helping to raise attainment

Parent Network Scotland commends The Scottish Government and the Education and Culture

Committee in their ambition to raise attainment for all children and young people and their

recognition of the correlation between parental involvement and children and young

people(s) attainment.

Scotland’s communities today are extremely diverse and family structure therein may also be

complex. The parenting role has many faces including parents who are biological, adoptive,

step, sibling, kinship and corporate parents. In addition, our communities have a complex

cultural diversity where customs and parenting style can be very different from family to

family. These factors, we feel, would make it difficult to see how a ‘one size fits all

approach’ could hope to achieve full parental participation across education in Scotland.

PNS recognise, from our parents feedback, that whilst schools find some parents ‘hard to

engage’, parental engagement in education is an area which most parents wish to become

actively involved in, however, for some there are many barriers which must first be

overcome, including: time, family commitments, understanding of the education system,

language, social and cultural experience and the parents own past experience of learning or

their perception of being involved with or judged by professionals.

That said, our 20 plus years of working with parents demonstrate that the main barrier,

regardless of culture, experience or language is confidence and here is where we would

suggest that the Scottish Government concentrates efforts to attain the positive impact that

parent’s involvement in both their children’s learning journey and wider community setting

has on raising ambitions, expectations and economy through positive attainment of education,

training and employment.

1. Whether schools always explain clearly to parents how children learn throughout their

school years and how parents could help their development (e.g. with reading and wider

literacy approaches)?

Parent Network Scotland recognises that Early Years and Schools work hard to engage

and communicate with parents, although levels of success is different across the country;

One parent commented on the vast amount of communication from school via letters

which is difficult for parents where English is not their first language. Other parents

commented that they cannot attend meetings due to family and work commitments and

therefore miss vital information for their child’s education. Therefore, to close the gap it

is clear a variety of communication formats are essential.

2. Whether schools are always flexible enough to allow parents to be involved in their

child’s education (given parents’ work commitments, for example)?

This area raises a question that requires further definition, that is, “what is the definition

of involvement?”


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If parents are clearer on the expectation of involvement they are more likely to

understand the routes to becoming involved and actively participate with confidence.

Parents have discussed that school flexibility differs dependent on stage of learning (early

years, primary and secondary). Our parents’ voices state that often early years and

primary school engagement is easier to access than at secondary school level where often

they are only encouraged to participate when there is a problem with their child.

3. The extent to which schools offer particular support to the parents of pupils from the most

disadvantaged communities, in order to improve the attainment of those pupils?

PNS recognise that children & young people’s educational experience via school cannot

be measured as a separate entity from their experiences gained from their families and

communities. Environmental factors have a real and measurable impact on children and

young people’s development, formation of attitudes, resiliency and therefore directly

impact on their learning and ultimately their attainment.

Therefore, school support would need to be highly robust to offer the full breadth of

support required. PNS believe that schools would benefit from engaging with community

partnerships to ensure they can effectively sign post parents to gain the appropriate

support required. In addition, support appeared to differ from school to school, parents

commented that often school to home support is seen as a negative connotation; that is,

that the intervention is due to unacceptable behaviours, low attainment, absenteeism,

lateness or non-progress of their child. Pupils and parents are often supported via Home

Link Officers, Guidance, School Nurse and other interventions, however, if parent-school

partnerships were to become the norm these services could take on a more positive slant

and parents would have the confidence to see referrals as supports rather than labels on

their children.

4. Whether there is evidence to demonstrate which approaches used by schools have been

most successful and whether these are being used, as appropriate, throughout Scotland?

Early year’s establishments demonstrate a strong success on involving parents as partners

and offer a collaborative approach which develops parental confidence in their child’s

learning and often this is then continued into the primary school. However, parents

commented that often as their children becomes young adults the partnership approach

reduces and there is little opportunity to engage directly with the secondary schools. An

opportunity to share success between early years and secondary establishments may be

beneficial to the attainment of children and the wellbeing of parents, many of whom

stated a sense of loss as their input was no longer required.

5. Whether greater parental involvement in school education through the Parental

Involvement Act (2006) has led to an improvement in pupil attainment?

PNS recognises that the Parental Involvement Act (2006) goes some way in ensuring that

parents have a right to become involved with their child’s learning. However, we

recognise that the right to become involved is not enough and some work must be done to

ensure we increase parent’s confidence, knowledge, understanding and networks to

ensure all parents feel they have the skills, confidence and ability to become involved.


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6. Whether there are any new measures that could realistically be taken (for example, by the

Scottish Government, local authorities, parents’ forums, the voluntary sector, etc.) to help

parents raise their child’s attainment?

At Parent Network Scotland, we specialise in building community capacity through

effective parental involvement programmes that focus on helping parents to build

techniques, confidence and informal networks to support their child’s development and

learning. Working with trained parent facilitators, our programme creates the confidence

in parents to become active citizens within their communities by developing the

confidence to become engaged.

Graduates from our core programme can opt to continue their development via our

‘Parent Link Volunteer’ programme where parents are supported to become facilitators of

groups broadening the impact of our toolkit to more families. This method of peer to peer

learning has grown the confidence and transferrable skills of parents to not only

supporting other parents to rediscover the joy of parenting, raising their aspirations for

their children’s education, regardless of their personal experience of learning.

We believe our approach of working in partnership with parents, where they build their

confidence through experiencing learning in leadership, communication, relationship and

nurturing toolkit directly impacts on families ability to support their child(ren) to be

confident, responsible, effective and successful learners.

Our model has been developed with parents over 20 years and has been externally

evaluated by Dr Barbara Kelly as having a real impact on family relationships, resiliency

and confidence.

The PNS parent journey strengthens parent-child understanding, bonds and

communication which has a positive impact on the parent, child and the wider

community.


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PARLIAMENT EDUCATION COMMITTEE

EVIDENCE RE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT AND RAISING ATTAINMENT

SPTC welcomes this opportunity to submit evidence to the Education and Culture Committee

of the Scottish Parliament on the topic of parental involvement and its impact on young

people’s attainment. A great deal is said and written about the positive impact of parental

involvement on educational outcomes for young people: we believe it is entirely appropriate

that the committee undertakes a critical analysis of both practice in Scottish schools and

impact of that activity on outcomes.

1. SPTC Background

SPTC is a long-standing parent-led charity and membership organisation providing help,

advice and support to parents up and down the country. Our focus is on making parental

engagement with education as good as it can be, by supporting parents and working with

local authorities, schools and other stakeholders to build and share good practice. Parents

are involved with school because of their child not for themselves. Any activity therefore must

be directed at making the educational experience for young people as positive as it can be.

We have had both formal and informal contact with thousands of parents and carers over

recent years: they have responded to our surveys, emailed and phoned with their queries and

worries, spoken to our team as we work with them face-to-face at our information sessions.

Our membership comprises almost 2000 Parent Councils and/or PTAs in state schools,

representing tens of thousands of parents and carers.

2. Parental Involvement in Education

While much has been written and said about parental involvement in education, there is very

little research into the topic in the UK and particularly in Scotland, where the Parental


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2

Involvement Act of 2006 established the notion of the Parent Forum (all parents and carers

with children at a school) which has the right to establish a Parent Council to represent them

and take forward matters of parental interest in the school. The legislation was written to be

non-prescriptive and inclusive (in contrast to the previous model of parental involvement,

which was rigid and formal), with the ambition that this would encourage a more inclusive and

engaging model of involvement and, as a result, improve attainment.

Nine years on, it is unclear whether this ambition has been realised. While Parent Councils

have been established in most schools there is little or no evaluation of impact. School

inspections by HMIe do look at parental involvement but impact is not measured and the role

of parents in the school community is not currently a measure by which schools are

evaluated. In the school self-evaluation tool How Good is our School (HIGIOS), parental

involvement is not regarded as being a high priority in the school’s performance.

In our experience, the level of support being provided at local authority level to parents and

parent groups – through Parent Officers and similar – has declined significantly over the years

since the Parental Involvement legislation was enacted. At that time, a great deal of time and

effort was made to support the establishment Parent Councils but this has fallen away even

though, by its very nature, the parent population is constantly moving and so those receiving

training and support inevitably move on. A good deal of SPTC’s work is in supporting parents

and parent groups as part of membership and, through that work, we aim to develop and

share examples of successful partnership working between parents and schools. We have

also developed a training session for school leaders which has proved to be an extremely

popular and welcome support for those head teachers and senior school staff, who are often

unsure about the role of parents in schools, and how to involve them.

Our view is that parental involvement continues to be seen as peripheral, not central, to the

effectiveness of a school and the desire to close the attainment gap. In fact, the tenor of the

dialogue in schools around parents is often negative, with parents portrayed as difficult and

there to be managed or controlled: indeed they are often portrayed as part of the problem

around children’s attainment, rather than part of the solution. Parents and carers are often

treated by schools and local authorities as a passive audience to receive communication,


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rather than partners with whom schools/authorities should work. Communication is often top-

down based on what local authorities or schools want to tell parents, rather than being based

on information which parents and carers want to receive.

Research has shown that family is as influential to outcomes as high quality teaching and

effective schools: we therefore hold the view that the mind-set in many schools and among

education professionals remains an issue to be addressed.

SPTC’s perspective on parental involvement has been heavily influenced by the academic

work, and practice, of Dr Joyce Epstein, who leads the National Network of Partnership

Schools based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Dr Epstein’s work is founded on the

principle that schools, parents and communities have a shared sphere of influence in relation

to our children and that planned and purposeful partnership between all of those parties in

this shared space makes a positive impact on outcomes for young people. Dr Epstein and her

team have researched and evidenced the impact of this approach, which makes parental and

community involvement integral to the work of a school.

3. Committee Questions

3.1 Whether schools always explain clearly to parents how children learn throughout their

school years and how parents could help their development (e.g. with reading and

wider literacy approaches).

There is little which can be said to happen consistently across all schools in Scotland and

advice/information for parents is no exception to this. Without doubt there are examples of

schools which do this very well, but much of this good practice rests with individual class

teachers, head teachers or projects. What good practice there is tends to be in early years

and the primary sector. Parents are rarely given this information at secondary school level

(though the most engaged and persistent parents will pursue it). More able parents will

research approaches and seek advice. The result is that, for the most part, children from

more advantaged backgrounds are likely to benefit most from parental support in learning.

3.2 Whether schools are always flexible enough to allow parents to be involved in their

child’s education (given parents’ work commitments, for example).


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Again, there are examples of schools which work very hard to ensure flexibility, so there are

many and varied ways for parents to be involved with school. However this is by no means

universal and parents often complain that their opportunities for involvement are limited by

inflexible and ‘one size fits all’ approaches at school. The further through school a child goes,

the less flexible approaches tend to be and parents tell us conversations tend to be around

issues rather than being proactive and constructive.

3.3 The extent to which schools offer particular support to the parents of pupils from the

most disadvantaged communities, in order to improve the attainment of those pupils.

We know from research that every school has issues of deprivation and disadvantage: it is

therefore incorrect to see this issue as one of difference between schools and communities –

the difference is within schools. Schools – and other public services - therefore require to offer

support to the most deprived families in all of our communities. Experience tells us that this is

not happening consistently or effectively: once again there is good work going on but it tends

to be in isolated pockets.

In many cases, the third sector and externally funded projects play a significant role in taking

forward this work, rather than the school itself. The reasons for this are complex, however the

flexibility and creativity of the third sector are likely to be significant factors. The capacity of

local authorities and schools to define and adopt the most successful models of intervention is

a challenging topic on various levels, particularly within the context of local authority funding

which is leading to significant reductions in service.

3.4 Whether there is evidence to demonstrate which approaches used by schools have

been most successful and whether these are being used, as appropriate, throughout

Scotland.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation research – Closing the Attainment Gap in Scottish

Education - published in 2014, identified clearly that, while there is good practice within our

schools, there is insufficient emphasis on evidence-based practice and insufficient

consistency of practice. In other words, we could do a great deal better if practice were

evidenced and shared, and if there were co-ordination of activity.


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3.5 Whether greater parental involvement in school education through the Parental

Involvement Act (2006) has led to an improvement in pupil attainment.

As indicated in Point 2, there is no evidence to support or reject this hypothesis. This would

require longitudinal research, which we would very much support.

3.6 Whether there are any new measures that could realistically be taken (for example, by

the Scottish Government, local authorities, parents’ forums, the voluntary sector, etc)

to help parents raise their child’s attainment.

We believe there is sufficient evidence available regarding strategies which make an impact

on children’s attainment, including the Partnership Schools model which SPTC is currently

trialling with the support of Skills Development Scotland.

There is a body of evidence which supports the premise that parents have a significant

influence on the educational attainment and achievement of their children: our experience of

working with parents and parent groups tells us that parents – and teachers – generally look

for evidenced models and practical support which they can use to guide their work. As

highlighted in the JRF Foundation report mentioned earlier, we have to focus our energies on

evidence-based approaches implemented consistently.

4. In Conclusion

As a parents’ organisation, SPTC is wholly committed to supporting the involvement of parents and

carers in their children’s education, and to ensuring Scotland’s children have the opportunity to

achieve the very best they can. We believe the legislation and policies are in place which recognise

and support the central role of families in education but there remains a long way to go in terms of

changing hearts and minds within the educational establishment, local authorities and schools.

Part of this is around the professional education of school leaders and teachers, where parental

involvement is scarcely addressed, if at all. We also believe local authorities and schools should focus

on evidence-based, practical measures which school communities are able to implement and which

address the inequalities in our schools.

The Committee is well aware of the issues of funding for local authority services and the impact of

reductions in services currently being experienced in schools. We also know that poverty is a growing,


19

6

not shrinking, issue in our communities. There is a huge challenge therefore to close a gap which is

widening.

Eileen Prior

Executive Director

Scottish Parent Teacher Council

20 March 2015


20


1

Scottish Parliament Infor mation C entre l ogo

SURVEY OF PARENTS

Introduction

As part of its work on educational attainment, the Education and Culture Committee is looking at how parents and schools can work together to raise all pupils’ attainment, particularly those whose attainment is lowest. An evidence session is planned on this topic for 31 March 2015. As background to this session, the Committee commissioned SPICe to carry out a short survey seeking the views of parents of school age children on their communication with school, involvement with the Parent Council and ideas for how schools and parents might work together.

This briefing provides brief background on the research literature and legislation on parental involvement and reports results of the survey.

Method and distribution

We prepared a short on-line survey, with 6 questions and an option for comments. The survey ran from 14 January to the 5 March 2015 and received a total of 2,599 responses. A British Sign Language version was also produced which attracted 5 responses.

The survey was disseminated in a number of ways, including:

through twitter and the Parliament’s website, as well as through traditional media contacts

to organisations that have previously engaged with parliamentary committees, including Scottish Parent Teacher Council and National Parent Forum Scotland

to major employers

Interpretation of results

It is important to note that a non-probability sampling method was used meaning that those who completed the survey were essentially self-selecting. This results in a loss of generalisability and means that we have to be cautious about attributing the results to the whole population of parents with children at school. The results show an over-representation of parents from Edinburgh (56% of responses) (in particular from Morningside, 11% of all responses), parents with children at independent schools (22% of responses) and parent council members (30% of responses). See appendix 1 for responses by postcode area which illustrates the dominance of responses from Edinburgh.

There is under-representation of parents of children from local authority secondary schools (22% of all responses).

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This pattern of responses should be borne in mind when considering the results.

Main themes in results

Most parents find it easy to get information from their child’s school and most find that information helpful. However, there were many comments suggesting that communication could be improved. In particular, a strong theme was the need for more regular, jargon-free updates on pupil progress that make it clear whether their child is making satisfactory progress. There was also a desire for more time to discuss issues with class or subject teachers.

While the vast majority of respondents agree that parents and teachers should work together, there was some ambivalence about whether the Parent Council has a direct role in raising attainment.

In general, answers differed according to whether the child was at state or independent school. In particular, parents of children attending independent schools were more confident that the school would help with concerns about their child’s learning.

Research Literature on Parental Involvement

There are many forms of parental involvement in school learning. Some might be considered part of general parenting (help with homework, discussing school, communicating with the school about your child's progress). Others might be characterised as involvement in the life of the school more generally. This might include volunteering in the classroom, or with school activities, and membership of a PTA or parent council. It is home based involvement that has been found to impact most on pupil achievement and motivation.

The literature on parental engagement is extensive and the following is based largely on a literature review by Desforges (2003). This concluded that:

"parental involvement in the form of 'at home good parenting' has a significant positive effect on children's achievement and adjustment even after all other factors shaping attainment have been taken out of the equation."

It was also clear that "the higher the social class, the more parental involvement was evident."

Sylva et al (2001) have shown the importance of the 'home learning environment' for pre-school children. Studies tended to find stronger effects for pre-school and primary age children than for children at secondary school. Sacker (2002) looked at the mechanism by which inequalities in school achievement are formed.

"At age 7 pupil achievement and adjustment was mainly influenced positively by parental involvement and negatively by material deprivation".

At 16 years of age, parental involvement continued to have a significant effect, but school composition (including peer group influences) had become a more powerful determinant. (Quoted in Desforges, 2003).

Children are also active in mediating parental involvement, and this increases with age. Edwards and Alldred (2000) talked to 70 children aged 10 to 14.

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"Pupils saw themselves as autonomous and with a right to some privacy. They saw it as their own responsibility to do their homework for example."

Desforges summarises the findings on how parental involvement works:

"the impact of parental involvement arises from parental values and educational aspirations and these are exhibited continuously through parental enthusiasm and positive parenting style. […] This has its impact on the students' self-perception as a learner and on their motivation, self-esteem and educational aspirations." […] "It bolsters their motivation to succeed."

He suggests that parents will get involved to the degree they feel they have the capacity to make a difference.

Menzies (2013) argued against assumptions about low aspirations of disadvantaged families.

"The real challenge for disadvantaged young people is achieving their aspirations [and] working with parents is a highly effective way of doing so." […] "Engaging parents to help them understand what their children's aspirations involve and what will help achieve them is an effective way of raising attainment."

Blatchford et al (2011) looked at the factors present where children succeeded 'against the odds'. One aspect was parental involvement in learning:

"In the homes of children 'succeeding against the odds‟ parenting practices took the form of ‘active cultivation'. These parents engaged their young children in learning processes, for instance by reading with them, providing them with educational (computer) games and materials, talking with them about school and learning or other joint activities e.g. by cooking together. They continued this involvement throughout the child's learning life-course."

Desforges also considered interventions to promote parental involvement but found that:

"much of it is evaluated in ways that are technically so weak that it is impossible to draw objective judgements as to the quality of the provision and its impact"

As he cautions, this does not mean they are ineffective, only that we don't have robust evidence about whether or not they work.

Goodall et al (2011) and Grayson (2013) conducted more recent literature reviews. They found that parents need clear, specific and targeted information from schools and that information and opportunities to engage can be provided by ICT. They also found that: "parenting styles improve as a consequence of receiving support and training," noting the impact of family learning, literacy and numeracy programmes.

Discussion

Much of the above is reflected in the results from our survey. In particular, most of our survey comments relate to how a parent can support their child's learning at home. There were relatively few references to involvement in the broader life of the school. In addition, the strong theme of the need for clear, specific communication with the school also reflects wider research findings about how to engage with parents.

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Our survey had a clear over-representation of better-off parents which research shows to be strongly linked to greater parental involvement. Reflecting this, we can perhaps assume that the responses to our survey generally represent parents who are both interested in encouraging their child's learning and confident that they can do so.

References for this section

Desforges, C. (2003) The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievements and adjustment. A literature review. London: Department for Education and Skills. Research report RR433.

Goodall, J and Vorhaus. (2011) Review of best practice in parental engagement. London: Department of Education.

Grayson, H. (2013) Rapid review of parental engagement and narrowing the gap in attainment for disadvantaged children. National Foundation for Educational Research

Menzies, L. (2013) Educational Aspirations: How English schools can work with parents to keep them on track. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Siraj-Blatchford et al (2011) Performing against the odds: developmental trajectories of children in the EPPSE 3-16 study. London: Department for Education. Research report DFE-RR128.

Legislation

Parental rights in respect of their children's education are found throughout Scottish education legislation. In particular,

Education (Scotland) Act 1980

Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act 2004

Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 However, the aim of increasing and improving parental involvement in school education is addressed more specifically in:

Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006, and

Education (School and Placing Information) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 The 2006 Act requires Scottish Ministers and Education Authorities to promote parental involvement. Guidance on implementation defines three types of parental involvement.

supporting learning at home

improving home/school partnerships

parental representation Education authorities are required to promote the involvement of parents in their own child’s education as well as the education provided by their child’s school to pupils generally. Local Authorities must have a Parental Involvement Strategy and the Act sets out how Parent Forums (all the parents of the school) can be represented by a Parent Council. Very briefly, the functions of a Parent Council are:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http:/www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/RR433

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20130401151715/http:/www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/RR433

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/182508/DFE-RR156.pdf

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/OUPP01/OUPP01_home.cfm

http://www.nfer.ac.uk/publications/OUPP01/OUPP01_home.cfm

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/educational-aspirations-schools

http://www.jrf.org.uk/publications/educational-aspirations-schools



http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/parentalinvolvementguidance_tcm4-374238.pdf

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to support efforts of the school to raise standards, secure improvements and develop each child's potential

to make representations on parents' views to the head teacher and local authority

to promote contact between school, parents, pupils and community. Education authorities must respond to any reasonable request for advice and information from a parent on the education their child is receiving. They must also take steps to ensure that the head teacher and staff of the school are available to give advice and information to the parent.

The Education (School and Placing Information) (Scotland) Regulations 2012 set out the information that needs to be contained in the School Handbook. Guidance is available in which the Minister's forward states:

"When parents are successfully and meaningfully involved in their child’s learning, and in the life of their schools, children do better. Good communication, relationships and information are key to successful involvement. The new School Handbook aims to support and strengthen the relationship between schools, local authorities and parents."

The information required includes:

the arrangements for when a pupil’s parent has a concern about the pupil;

the opportunities for parents to become involved in the school

how the school involves parents in their children’s education including how information, support and advice is given to a parent to help them support the pupil’s learning

curriculum information including, among other things: the different subjects and learning opportunities that are available for pupils and when these are available.

the school’s arrangements and approaches for tracking and assessing pupils’ progress and planning their future learning.

the school’s arrangements for ongoing and end of year reporting to a pupil’s parent on that pupil’s

progress in curriculum areas, achievements and their future learning Policy The Scottish Government’s 2012 Parenting Strategy included commitments to

explore ways to support parents to engage in their child’s education and create a good home learning environment;

work with the National Parent Forum Scotland

provide resources to teachers to help them engage with parents effectively The Programme for Government 2014/15 included commitments to:

“a new evidence-based, web resource for schools to support their parental engagement strategies, particularly engaging with families living in deprived areas. A refreshed ParentZone website to improve the information provided to parents is currently being developed.”

The issues addressed in legislation, guidance and policy are also reflected in our survey. In particular, the guidance on the 2012 regulations and 2006 Act which emphasise the

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2012/09/8694

http://www.gov.scot/resource/0040/00403769.pdf

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2014/11/6336

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importance of schools being approachable and welcoming and providing clear information to parents. These are major themes in our survey results. Analysis of Results

The following analyses questions 1 to 6 by type of school and summarises the main themes emerging in comments. Tables of results are provided in appendix 2.

I find it easy to get information from the school about how my child is progressing at school (question 1)

The information I get from the school helps me understand and support my child’s learning (question 2)

Most parents find it easy to get information from their school about how their child is progressing (62% agree or strongly agree) (chart 1). However, this is more the case for independent schools (86% primary, 90% secondary) than state schools (55% primary, 51% secondary).

Similarly, most parents find the information they get from the school is helpful (64% agree or strongly agree) (chart 2). Again, this is more the case if the children are at independent schools (89% primary, 86% secondary) than state schools (61% primary, 50% secondary).

Generally, there are only small (5 percentage points or less) differences between primary and secondary schools in each sector. The exception to this is that parents of children in local authority primary schools are more likely to find information helpful than those in local authority secondary schools. 61% of local authority primary schools agree or agree strongly compared with 50% of local authority secondary schools (chart 2).

Parents of children in state primary schools are slightly more likely to agree that information is helpful than agree it is easy to get (55% agree/strongly agree its easy to get (chart 1) 61% agree/strongly agree it is helpful (chart 2)).

Chart 1: Easy to get information from the school about how my child is progressing

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

LocalAuthorityPrimaryschool

LocalAuthoritySecondary

school

IndependentPrimaryschool

IndependentSecondary

school

all schools

Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

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Chart 2: Information I get from the school helps me understand and support my child’s learning

I am confident that the school will help me if I have questions about my child’s learning (question 3)

The vast majority of parents are confident that the school will help them with questions about their child's learning (78%) (chart 3). However, this is more true of independent than state schools (57% strongly agree compared to 23%), and slightly more true of primary schools than secondary schools. In state schools, a fifth of secondary school parents strongly agreed compared with a quarter of primary school parents. In independent schools, 54% of secondary school parents strongly agreed compared to 62% of primary school parents.

Chart 3: Confident the school will help me with questions about my child’s learning

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%



school



school

all schools

Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%



school



school

all schools

Strongly agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly disagree

8

Are you actively involved in the Parent Council? (question 4)

The parent council should help improve children’s attainment (question 5)

Around a third of respondents with children at state schools are actively involved in the parent council compared with only 6% of independent school parents. As the legislation relating to parent councils only applies to state schools, the following responses also relate only to state schools.

Almost half of parents think the parent council should help improve attainment (47% agree or agree strongly). However, a significant minority are neutral on the issue (31%) and over a fifth disagree or disagree strongly (22%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those involved in the parent council are more likely to agree that it should help to improve attainment (60% agree or strongly agree). That said, there is a significant minority, involved in the parent council, who disagree or strongly disagree (18%). (Chart 4). A number of comments were made about parent councils, which are summarised under question 7 below.

Chart 4: The parent council should help improve attainment by whether respondent is actively involved in the parent council. Local authority schools only.

It is important that schools and parents would together in order to help children achieve their best (question 6)

Almost all parents agree or strongly agree with the statement: "it is important that schools and parents work together in order to help children achieve their best."

A large majority strongly agreed (71%). Parents were more likely to strongly agree if they were involved in the parent council or their children were at independent schools (between 74% to 78%). (Chart 5).

Parents of children at state secondary schools who were not on the parent council were less likely to strongly agree with the statement (63%).

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Comparing the almost universal agreement with this statement and the more ambivalent responses to question 5, on the role of the parent council on attainment, suggests that while parents want to work with schools to support their child's learning, they may not see the parent council as the main vehicle for this.

Chart 5: Strongly agree it is important for schools and parents to work together, by school type and parent council.

Despite broad agreement that schools and parents should work together, it is interesting that 2% (61) respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with it or were neutral on the issue. Some of the comments in this group included:

"achieving their best in education attainment is mainly the responsibility of the school, parents have a duty to ensure their child is supported to be 'in the right place' physically and emotionally to participate fully in learning at school."

"Too much dependence on parents input , leaving the children whose parents who can't or won't help them, suffering."

"It is the teachers' job to educate the child. - It is the parents' job to raise the child."

"I think that education is the business of schools and I don't think I have anything to offer as a parent outside my normal parental responsibilities."

Comments about how schools and parents should work together to help children achieve their best (question 7).

The last question asked for comments, "about how schools and parents should work together to help children achieve their best". Around half of responses included comments (1,281). The following summary is based on a broad analysis of main themes emerging (see appendix 2) and provides only a very general overview.

The main theme overall was parents' need for good communication in relation to how their children were progressing at school and what they were doing at school. The implication, sometimes stated explicitly, is that this would help parents support their child's learning.

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Teachers informing parents

There was a concern that school reports were not always clear and specific about how children were progressing.

"There's no benefit to parents being told that their child is lovely in class if the child then fails all its exams."

"I receive more information on my car testing through an MOT than my child through S1-S3.”

“I think teachers and reports use too much CfE language that is not always helpful to parents”

Parents want more regular updates on progress and more opportunities to discuss issues with the class teacher. If a child was struggling, they want to know quickly, rather than wait for parents night. There could be better use made of IT to inform parents - texts, e-mails, tweets, schools intranets and websites.

Some parents also wanted information about how they can help their child learn. This would include information about how children learn, about what topics the children are covering in class and what teaching methods were used as these might have changed since the parents were at school.

Dialogue between parents and teachers

While many responses focused on communication from school to parents, there was also a strong theme about the need for schools to be approachable and welcoming of parents' views - that teachers should listen to parents and that there should be a dialogue, trust and respect. (A few referred to the need to involve children in this as well). The type of IT suggestions to facilitate this included skype, discussion forums and providing parents with teachers' e-mail addresses.

"I feel there are sometimes hoops to jump through before being able to speak to a teacher."

There was also reference to the need for schools to recognise that most parents work, and to take account of this when considering arrangements for parental involvement.

There were positive comments, praising communication and involvement of parents at particular schools but more often, comments related to a need for improvements.

Role of teachers and parents

A few responses referred to partnership between schools and parents, some describing it as an equal partnership and others as one in which the schools lead. Others thought that schools and parents had different but complementary roles. Opinion ranged from:

"parents and teachers should work together to build a suitable learning schedule"

to, "let teachers do their job"

Where the Parent Council was mentioned, around half referred to it as having narrow membership or having little influence. The more positive comments referred to its role in

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supporting the school, supporting dialogue between teachers and parents and holding schools to account. Most respondents who commented on its role did not consider that Parent Councils had a role in improving attainment, except indirectly by supporting and promoting the school, or by fundraising.

Only a very few responses suggested that parents could help out in classes or with school activities, or that parents had skills that schools might use.

Specific Issues

There were also some specific issues mentioned in responses including:

difficulties in dealing with the school for those parents who live apart from their

children

objections to proposals to reduce length of the school week

poor experiences of parents of children with additional support needs

Camilla Kidner SPICe March 2015

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Appendix 1: Responses by postcode

1,342

278 193

96 83 79 76 61 56 33 33 25 18 10 4 0

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

EH G AB KA DG KY FK ML PA DD PH IV TD HS KW

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Appendix 2: Survey Questions and Results

1. I find it easy to get information from the school about how my child is progressing at school.

2. The information I get from the school helps me understand and support my child’s learning.

3. I am confident that the school will help me if I have any questions about my child’s learning.

4. Are you actively involved in your school’s Parent Council.

5. The Parent Council should help improve children’s attainment.

6. It is important that schools and parents work together in order to help children achieve their best.

7. Do you have any comments about how schools and parents should work together to help children achieve their best.

Results by type of school1

Q1

Local Authority Primary school

Local Authority Secondary

school

Independent Primary school

Independent Secondary

school

Row Totals

strongly disagree

4% 6% 1% 1% 4%

disagree 20% 21% 4% 5% 17%

neutral 20% 23% 10% 5% 18%

agree 43% 40% 45% 47% 43%

agree strongly 12% 11% 41% 43% 19%

col 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

number 1542 605 253 344 2744

Q2



school



school

Row Totals

strongly disagree

3% 5% 1% 1% 3%

disagree 16% 20% 1% 5% 14%

neutral 20% 24% 9% 8% 19%

agree 49% 41% 52% 49% 47%

agree strongly 12% 9% 37% 37% 17%

col 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

number 1540 605 253 343 2741

1 Totals by type of school are more than the total number of responses as some respondents had children at

more than one type of school. Removing these overlapping responses does not alter the general pattern of results for each category.

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Q3


Local Authority

Secondary school



school

Row Totals

strongly disagree 2% 3% 0% 1% 2%

disagree 9% 10% 0% 3% 8%

neutral 15% 18% 4% 3% 13%

agree 50% 48% 33% 40% 47%

agree strongly 25% 20% 62% 54% 31%

col 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

number 1534 600 253 342 2799

Q4 Local Authority Primary school


school



school

Row Totals

yes 39% 36% 6% 6% 31%

no 61% 64% 94% 94% 69%

col 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

number 1539 604 253 343 2739

Q5



school



school

Row Totals


disagree 18% 19% 12% 13% 17%

neutral 31% 29% 41% 41% 33%

agree 36% 36% 36% 30% 35%

agree strongly 11% 12% 9% 10% 11%

col 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

number 1542 601 253 344 2740

Q6



school



school

Row Totals


disagree 0% 1% 0% 1% 1%

neutral 1% 1% 1% 0% 1%

agree 28% 29% 21% 25% 27%

strongly agree 70% 68% 78% 74% 71%

number 1540 601 253 344 2738

16

Most common themes in question 7 The main themes in the comments were identified and specific mentions of them were counted. This gives a rough indication of the scale of response on the identified themes. Further analysis would allow further grouping of responses.

Communication - general (139)

Regularity and timing of communications from school (125). Of which 60 would like more regular updates on progress. Don't delay telling us about problems (25).

Better use of IT to facilitate communication between parents/teachers or provide information about pupil progress (87)

More opportunities to discuss issues with class teacher (82)

Mention of parent council (69) - (of which around half were positive)

Listen to parents - (58) Dialogue - (42)

Homework - (55) of which 27 approved, 18 approved of 'meaningful, relevant' homework, 13 disapproved and 7 wanted more support.

Easier access to schools/teachers/ more open/welcoming/approachable - (53)

Additional Support for Learning (54) of which 14 referred to more able children. Remainder referred to resources, staff knowledge/training and school attitudes to parents.

School reports unclear (47) or use jargon (32), are 'bland' or generalised (22), need to be honest if child is not doing well (21)

Positive comments about practice at a particular school (46)

Information for parents on how they can help children learn (37), and teaching approaches used (19)

Working parents not well catered for (37)

Information on topics to be covered at school (31)

Respect/trust - (29)

Partnership - (29) , of which 7 referred to schools leading (7).

Parents and teachers have separate roles - let teachers do their job (18)

EDUCATION AND CULTURE COMMITTEE AGENDA 8th ......2015/03/31 · EC/S4/15/8/A EDUCATION AND CULTURE...

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