Working with Parents and Carers

1. Working with Parents and Carers Yvonne Williams

2. They know their children best. Practitioners have knowledge of child development. The law says so (Children’s Act 1989, Special Needs Code of Practice). Education does not just take place in school. parents may be anxious about their child and their own parenting skills Self esteem is important of not only the child but the parents. Why do we work with parents?

3. Why do we need to work with parents and carers? • Research increasingly shows that when parents are involved with their child's education, children do better. Parental involvement is therefore an important lever for raising children's achievements. http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/familyandcommunity/workingwithparents/

4. Gordon Brown, in a recent speech, emphasised parental engagement with schools and children's learning as the 'single biggest determinant' of a child's achievement at school. http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_20801.aspx

5. Research has shown that 'young children achieve more and are happier when early years educators work together with parents and share ideas about how to support and extend children's learning' (Athey, 1990; Meade, 1995). Working closely with parents is a key element of the Every Child Matters document

7. Parents as partners • Local authorities and other providers are increasingly regarding parents and their children as customers and planning and managing their services accordingly. • Likewise, for schools to achieve the best they can for their pupils, parents should be seen as genuine partners in the success of the school. • This means more parents being more involved in the life of the school. 

8. It is also important to remember that the great majority of parents are concerned to do their best for their children. (Even if they are not always sure what this might be).

9. ‘Establishing an active and equal relationship with parents depends on a setting having clear values’ http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/resources/downloads/2_2_a.pdf

10. Open door policy Open evenings Parent helpers Parent governors PTA’s Communication Reports Notice boards Email Text messaging Home visits Education sessions Social activities How can we work with parents?

11. Is it more important to work with parent of children with special needs?

12. The benefits to schools of involving parents/carers in their children’s education are well documented. The former Department for Education and Skills (now the Department for Children, Schools and Families), for example, drew upon research evidence and inspection data (Bastiani, 2003) and identified a number of significant and lasting benefits: • increased parental participation in, and support for, the life and work of the school • a greater willingness for parents and school to share information and tackle misunderstandings and problems at an early stage improved levels of achievement – parents’ active encouragement and support for children’s learning produce tangible academic benefits that last throughout a child’s school career • more positive pupil attitudes and behaviour. Desforges and Abouchaar (2003), however, found that parent- child conversations in the home were more valuable, in terms of enhancing children’s school achievement, than parents’ involvement in school activities, suggesting that schools should encourage parents to talk to their children about school activities at home. The Annual Survey of primary and secondary headteachers explored the ways in which schools involved parents in school life with the aim of identifying: • the range of mechanisms used • headteachers’ views on the most effective strategies.