MANAGING ICT

So darling, what did you do at school today?

Steve Smith

provides a holistic view of parental engagement

M

ANY PARENTS declare they feel “excluded” by their children’s reluctance to tell them anything about their time at school, according to

the Oh, Nothing Much report

published by Becta last year.

A staggering 82 per cent of parents wished they

had more information about their children’s school life, particularly as only 16 per cent of children volunteered information. For many parents, the old- age question of “so darling, what did you do at school today?” is sadly often met with a short, non- descriptive response. The days when schools communicated with

parents solely through parents’ evenings and end-of- year reports have disappeared. Today the engagement process has evolved and schools use a combination of traditional and technology-enabled methods such as email, extranet solutions, and learning platforms. Schools also often instigate a range of other activities

to support parents in helping their children learn. For instance, events aimed at fathers and sons or mothers and daughters, family learning events, literacy classes, and so on. Parental involvement and parental engagement

are not necessarily one and the same, however. The big difference is that parental involvement may encompass a range of activities, which are not necessarily connected to learning, and may, therefore, have little impact on student achievement. Parental engagement on the other hand is about a range of activities that directly impact motivation, behaviour and achievement. Schools that successfully engage parents

in the learning process consistently reinforce the importance of parents’ focus on furthering the home- school relationship. It is crucial that schools help parents understand why they are so important to their children’s educational success, and provide mechanisms, including the use of technology, to explain how and why these can be used to support engagement. No doubt every school at one time or another has

experienced a parent who is disengaged from their child’s education. There may be a number of reasons – the parents’ own negative educational experiences, or because their work commitments make it difficult for them to engage with the school in a traditional manner. It is issues like these that technology can assist with, being a less threatening, neutral medium for collaboration and communication to the former and a lifeline for the latter. Indeed, the benefits are not restricted to the schools

and students alone, the parents can experience greater confidence in the school itself. For some parents, it can also lead to them having

a greater belief in themselves as parents and in the help they can provide their children in the home environment. On occasions, it has even been known to encourage parents to further their own education.

Everyone’s a winner

Parental engagement is clearly invaluable. It aids student performance, attendance and behaviour, but have the true extent of the benefits that it bestows really been recognised? Parents view it as a way to demonstrate support for

their children; teachers view it as an effective method to improve behaviour; while the students themselves see it as a manner in which interest is expressed in their progress. Research has proven that engagement of parents

helps students achieve higher grades, attend school more regularly, and complete more homework. Furthermore, it is particularly effective for increasing motivation and creating higher self-esteem, which subsequently means that students have more positive attitudes, hence the improved behaviour. It may also help students to develop better social skills and adapt well to school. For schools, parental engagement leads to more

confident teachers and an increase in teacher morale, while it also means that students further achieve. Indeed, schools that have good levels of parental engagement generally have greater academic success and a better reputation in the local community. The significance placed on parental engagement

is even reflected in Ofsted inspections now. One of the eight criteria in the leadership and management section of the new Ofsted framework is “the school’s engagement with its parents”. Ofsted inspections also evaluate the quality of parental

SecEd • May 27 2010

Keeping parents in the picture

communications, which reinforces the value of parental engagement.

The facilitator

Positive interactions between school staff, students and their parents support students’ learning in the classroom and beyond the school gates, and with a myriad of technologies available, ICT can play a crucial facilitator role. Technology is already being applied in innovative

ways to build engagement levels, such as via text messaging, email, telephony systems, management information systems (MIS), learning platforms, websites, and assessment systems. These methods can be used to alert parents to a range of issues, such as attendance, punctuality or simply to remind them about parents’ evenings. There are plenty of other opportunities too. A video

stream or a podcast could be used to provide guidance on how, for example, a parent can help their child with a particular piece of maths coursework. We all know just how much the teaching of maths has changed and how parents can approach tasks from a very different methodology. Consideration could also be given to using an online

survey tool to assist with the “parent and student voice” agenda. Video-conferencing and virtual classroom technologies can be used to offer masterclasses to parents in a disparate catchment area or to reach out to a more diverse community unable or unwilling to come to the school’s buildings. While how about using specialist language software and/or online mentors to provide EAL (English as an additional language) support or translation services online? The 2010 deadline for schools to have online

reporting systems available is upon us. Parents across the country should now also have secure, online access to information on their child’s progress, achievements, attendance, behaviour and SEN, at anytime and from anywhere. Some parents have raised concerns that online

reporting removes the opportunity to interact with teachers. Online reporting is not a replacement for face- to-face communication, instead it is a supplementary method to provide up-to-date information at regular intervals throughout the year. Perhaps the biggest challenge of online reporting is

the people element; ensuring that everyone including teachers, parents and students are fully aware of how to use the technology and the necessary protocols. It is also important to consider the format of the reports. Data cannot simply be extracted from the MIS, it must be interpreted and supplied in an easy-to-understand format that the parents are comfortable with. Furthermore consideration should be given to

making reports available at different levels. For instance, a traffic light system could provide immediate feedback on aspects such as a child’s attendance, absence or punctuality; with the facility to click and drill down for more in-depth information. Part of the battle is of course to close the digital

divide, which although relentlessly discussed, remains an issue. More than one million children and their

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families have no access to a computer at home; a worrying statistic that will continue to be battled. So, what will make the difference? The answer is

creative teachers and school leadership. Technology can help start and embed parental engagement, but it is

the talent of the professionals that will see it realise its full potential.

• Steve Smith is director of learning at Ramesys. Visit: www.ramesys.com

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