CONTRIBUTORS
Drawing parents into the school fold
This month, regular Education Today contributor GRAHAM COOPER, head of education at Capita SIMS, considers the importance of involving all your pupils’ parents in the life of your school.
It seems incredible to say it, but we’re now well into the new school year and I’m sure there will already be some who are counting down the days until the first half-term break. Now that everyone involved is back and settled into the
rhythms of daily school life, it’s probably an ideal time to think about one of the biggest opportunity areas for improvement – parental engagement. There will always be a contrast between those parents who are
active and take a great interest in their children’s time at school and those who do not or cannot. It can be an easy trap to fall into to put all the non-engagers into one box and label them ‘hard to reach’. Early in the summer, I took part in an online seminar on
parental engagement, led by the industry expert Maureen Hunt, from Achievement for All. I’ve been involved in education for a while now and thought I knew a fair amount when it comes to parental engagement, but Maureen’s presentation was a real eye- opener. In particular, Maureen’s observations on the ‘hard to reach’
parents were of greatest interest. Rather than categorising so many families under one heading, should we instead be looking to explore the individualities of different situations and needs? All families have complex lives and grouping any number under one banner only serves to reduce the likelihood of finding solutions for them as individuals. It can be easy to forget what parents are most interested in
when it comes to school life – the needs and achievements of their own children. Perhaps the best example of this is the traditional parents’ evening; and while this still remains an important date in the calendar of schools, the way that we all receive and share information has changed drastically in recent years. This leaves the traditional parents’ evening as something of a
perfunctory event – parents find out what they need to know and we all move on. What if attempts to engage parents could be a bit more
interactive? In her presentation Maureen categorises parental engagement events on a grid system, taking into account their impact on children’s learning and their likelihood for engagement. For example, the annual festive play is likely to attract a lot of parents, but less likely to have a significant impact on learning. At the other end of the scale are activities that get parents
involved and spark improvement among their children – and even the ‘hard to reach’ parents can usually be persuaded to attend something that their child wants to come to. So there’s the challenge – what activities can schools create or
adapt that will encourage parents to share the enthusiasm of their children to attend? Maureen gave the example of a poetry writing and reading event. A great learning opportunity for the pupils and high engagement from parents whose children had asked them to come to school the hear them read their poem out. It might be a tougher task for some schools than others, with
communication barriers presenting more or less of a hurdle, but in some cases technology can help overcome those difficulties, and create a much more individualised parental engagement network.
uwww.capita-sims.co.uk/ParentalEngagementWebinar 18
www.education-today.co.uk October 2018
Maintaining motivation in the classroom
Regular Education Today contributor KIRSTY BERTENSHAWthis month offers some ideas for you to keep motivation up in the classroom.
As we head towards shorter hours of daylight, everything can feel like more of effort, and motivation is hard to maintain during the autumn term, for both staff and pupils. So how can you maintain motivation in the classroom and step back from directing the learning at the same time?
Fun and games Making learning fun has featured in previous columns because it is so important to maintain motivation and tricks pupils into learning activities without them realising they are actively learning. Simple games can be purchased cheaply or made yourself. Here are some examples from across the school curriculum that use matching pairs: • Maths equation snap cards and fraction cards are available to purchase or can be easily made, comparing sums with different functions but the same answer.
• For design technology, make your own matching pair or snap cards for electrical components and symbols.
• For science, make cards with element names and symbols. Add in chemical properties or atomic numbers to make it more difficult.
• For languages, make cards with English words and the French/Spanish/ German terms.
• For English and literacy, match word cards to title cards such as verbs, nouns, adjectives and pronouns.
Treasure hunt Where pupils must learn facts, normal information hunts with information around the room are often used. Improve the interest level by designing a treasure hunt with pieces of paper hidden around the room, corridor or department. These take planning time but are such fun for pupils that they are more likely to want to join in the tasks.
Puzzles At one point, word searches and puzzles were discouraged as a waste of valuable learning time in some schools. However, with a clear leaning objective puzzles can be effective learning tools. Word searches with hidden messages in the unused letters can deliver information, facts, or even ask an open-ended question. Alternatively, give pupils a word search grid and instead of a word list, give them clues or questions. The benefit of this is that the pupil can always work the task backwards, finding the words then identifying the correct question. Use mini quizzes in different ways. Get pupils to write their own mini quiz questions and randomly select them for the class to answer. Pupils can design their own quizzes to ‘beat the teacher’ and see if they can ask (and answer) a question from the learning that the teacher can’t answer!
Positive praise Never underestimate the impact of praise! Don’t praise for no reason, and don’t over praise as it can feel false and then pupils stop paying attention to it. Set out a clear reward system or reward chart - for example, answer three of the maths questions correctly and earn a star sticker. Or, aim for a whole class reward such as playing games based on the subject area.
Tell stories Rather than delivering information in a typical way, gather the pupils and tell them a story! For example, when teaching about the brain, use language and tone to tell the story of Phineas Gage’s horrific injury!
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https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/how-keep-your-students- motivated
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https://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2012/12/10/how-to-motivate-your- students-what-every-teacher-should-know-but-doesnt/
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https://www.ted.com/talks/ tyler_dewitt_hey_science_teachers_make_it_fun#t-318471
Kirsty is the founder of STEMtastic, an education consultancy with a focus on Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths
www.stemtastic.co.uk
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