Schools and Families:Working Together

Survey of Schools and Parents 2012

Schools and Families: Working Together

Survey of Schools and Parents 2012

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Why is parental engagement so important? There is a large body of research that suggests parental involvement and engagement can improve the academic and social outcomes of children, even when factoring out parental education levels, socioeconomic background and family structure. Good parental engagement can also improve teacher morale, increase parents’ confidence in their ability to support their children’s learning and increase interest in parents improving their own education.

So perhaps it’s little wonder that 90% of primary and 97% of secondary school head teachers, whom we surveyed in autumn 2011, said that building better partnerships with parents was highly important in terms of their school development plan. These figures represent a large increase on the previous year. One reason for this increase could be that floor standards (the minimum standards pupils are expected to reach) are being raised and a challenging funding environment means schools need all the help they can get. Parents represent an underutilised resource.

It’s important to point out that it is specifically parental support of learning at home that is crucial to raising attainment – while activities such as school fundraising may help create a dynamic and thriving school culture, they do not necessarily have an impact on attainment.

The studyBecause of its importance to head teachers and parents, we wanted to improve our understanding of parental engagement, current practices and barriers to success. We worked with Teach First and You Gov to survey 1,087 parents. We then surveyed head teachers and other leadership staff and received 340 responses from schools. We wanted to share our findings to give schools and parents some insight into the potential of parental engagement, how things

stand now and how it might be improved. As always there is no silver bullet, no single answer or ‘right way’, but we hope to give some ideas about how schools and families might work together to find a way that is right for them.

The findingsFull results are published in the report but a few of the key findings are as follows:

• 55% of schools are concerned about levels of parental engagement. There is a much higher level of concern in schools with less affluent catchments, but because it is more of a concern they are coming up with more innovative solutions.

• 73% of parents think they are involved with their children’s school life and 52% of parents would like to be more involved. The main barriers to participation are work commitments, that their child doesn’t want them involved, or not feeling confident in their own ability.

• 87% of schools and 75% of parents believe schools and parents are equally responsible for education. But, 79% of schools think that parents believe education is more the school’s responsibility.

• 70% of schools think they could improve communication about how parents can support learning. Parents are generally happy with communication but would like to hear from the school more frequently and from the teachers who are teaching their child – not just a general newsletter from the head teacher

ConclusionsThere is a clear desire among schools and parents to improve levels of engagement but less than half of schools involve parents in the development of their parental engagement plan. To make it effective, the parental engagement policy needs to be developed with parent, staff and pupil involvement so that it meets the needs of all. Once it’s up and running it needs to be monitored regularly to ensure its continued effectiveness.

Key to success is increasing parental confidence in their abilities to support learning. Schools might consider providing training and tutoring techniques – online, in school or both. This would encourage parents to reinforce and prepare for learning from home. Training for teachers would also help them work effectively with parents.

Parental engagement and involvement is so important to learning outcomes we need to be creative, innovative, learn from others and do all we can to ensure that schools and families work together to achieve the best outcomes for all our children.

Welcome toSchools and Families - Working Togetherthe RM Education report on Parental Engagement

Executive Summary

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There is a wealth of literature that suggests that parental1 involvement and engagement can significantly improve the academic and social outcomes for children, even after controlling for parental education levels, socioeconomic background and family structure (Epstein, 2001; Fan & Chen, 2001; Jeynes 2005, 2007). Indeed, it is now widely accepted to be one of the most critical factors in maximising education potential (Desforges & Abouchaar, 2003; Harris & Chrispeels, 2006; Hornby 2011). Effective parental engagement can not only improve academic attainment, but also increase parental confidence, increase their interest in developing their own education, and improve teacher morale; all of which lead to a more fulfilling and enjoyable learning experience (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).

Effective parental engagementIn a review of the conceptual and methodological issues of parental engagement research, Desforges and Abouchaar (2003) emphasised that ‘parental involvement in education’ in itself is highly varied in nature, and can take the form of a vast variety of behaviours and parenting practices; including good parenting at home, contact with the school to share information, participation in school events, participation in the work of the school, or participation in school governance. A parent for example may regularly check their child’s homework, but never help with fundraising, while another may help out at sports events, but never consider being a school governor. Different elements of parents’ educational attitudes and behaviours; such as parental aspirations, provision of a cognitively stimulating home environment and involvement in children’s activities have all been identified as having significant passive effects on children’s educational attainment (Feinstein et al. 2006).

There is a distinction between ‘parental involvement’ (schools involving parents in activities, such as fundraising and helping in classes) and ‘parental engagement’ (schools engaging parents in

learning, through e.g. joint homework classes) as made by Harris and Goodall (2007). While many schools involve parents, through activities such as fundraising and sports days, fewer actually engage them in learning related activities. Yet the authors argue that it is the parents’ support of learning within the home that can have the most impact on their child’s achievement. Other research suggested that most of the forms of parental involvement that are common practice and easily accepted by schools are those that yield more benefit to the school than the parent, such as fundraising and volunteering (Hornby, 2011). Desforges & Abouchaar (2003) concluded that parental engagement in the form of ‘at home parenting’, such as having parent-child discussions, has a significant effect on children’s academic achievement, while other forms of parental involvement have a far lesser impact once factors such as the families socio-economic background have been taken into consideration. The research shows that while parental involvement, such as volunteering at school is not without benefit, and can indeed have a positive impact on the community, improve accountability of the school, or help short-staffed classes, there is no consistent evidence that suggests it improves children’s attainment (Okpala et al. 2001; Singh et al. 1995; Zellman and Waterman, 1998).

However, parental involvement in learning, such as parent-child discussion or reading to the child, shows consistent, significant benefits to children’s attainment (McNeal, 1999; 2001 Sylvia et al, 1999). The OECD (2011) stated that children whose parents read to them at the beginning of primary school achieved markedly higher scores when taking the PISA test at the age of 15. The research found that the activities which were most strongly related to higher performance were reading a book with their child, talking about things they have done during the day, and telling stories.

This emphasises that parents need not necessarily have unlimited spare time nor specialised knowledge to make a difference to their child. Another interesting conclusion from the PISA report was that children were never too old to benefit from their parent’s interest in their learning. Students whose parents discussed political or social issues with them either daily or weekly had significantly higher test scores than those whose parents discussed these issues less often or not at all.

Barriers to engagementNevertheless, the quality of parental engagement and involvement is highly variable and for many complex reasons. There are both practical and social barriers to parental engagement, with the most commonly cited reason for parents not being more involved in their child’s schooling being work commitments (Harris & Goodall, 2007). Working full time often means being unable to attend events in the day, such as coffee mornings, and lack of childcare can make it difficult for parents to travel to the school in the evenings. Social reasons may include the perceived attitude of the school or other parents, and it is not unreasonable to suppose that parents will only get involved to the extent that they feel they can make a difference (Hornby, 2011).

Schools and Families: Working Together

Introduction

1 The term ‘parent’ or ‘parental’ here denotes any person who is in a parenting role with children; including guardians, foster parents or extended family.

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Why it mattersThere are a variety of factors which mean that securing parental involvement will be more pressing for schools than ever. The government has previously published the document ‘Every Parent Matters’ (Department for Education and Skills 2007), which emphasises the importance of parental engagement to improve educational attainment and enabling all parents to play a positive part in their children’s learning. One of the Ofsted criteria under ‘Leadership and Management’ is the effectiveness of the school’s engagement with parents and carers. More recently, in October 2011, Ofsted launched ‘Parent View’ (www.parentview.ofsted.gov.uk) which allows parents and carers to give their opinions on their child’s school at any point throughout the year on a range of issues, as well as view other parents’ opinions on any maintained school in the country. In fact, the current government is making transparency a priority, publishing raw datasets of the income and expenditure of all maintained schools as well as performance data. In addition a school comparison website has been set up, which will all parents to compare schools by locality (http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/search). Additional pressure to schools comes from the recent government announcement to raise the floor standards year on year in order to avoid ‘coasting schools’ (The Importance of Teaching: Schools White Paper, 2011). With these challenges ahead, especially in light of the recently announced cuts in funding, schools more than ever need to be looking further to achieve these goals; and parents represent an underutilised resource.

Innovative solutionsUnravelling the wide range of variables that surround the relationship between schools and families in order to place all the fragments into a coherent framework may be challenging, but it is absolutely vital for schools to use innovative, custom tailored approaches to parental engagement in order encourage parents to become more involved in their children’s learning, or risk alienating them further; “poorly planned attempts to increase PI [parental involvement] may result in parents and teachers being pushed further apart” which only works to increase distrust (p. 46 Hornby & Lafaele, 2011). Some studies have shown that if initiatives presuppose that all schools, parents, and students make up a homogenous groups and are thereby equally willing and able to get involved, the initiatives can reinforce the existing divisions between schools and families and can reproduce educational inequalities around social class and ethnicity (e.g. Crozier et al. 2000; Hanafin et al. 2002; Vincent et al. 2000).

The role of technologyThe past decade has shown a large increase in digital technology to help connect schools and families, and schools have been encouraged to use learning platforms/Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) in order to coordinate and support parental involvement and children’s learning (Ofsted 2011: ICT in schools 2008-2011). In a recent study, parents reported a tendency to hear too little from their children about what happens on a daily basis in the school, and that they would welcome the use of digital technologies such as emails and text messaging to communicate

(Byron, 2009). However, recent evidence has shown that even within a sample of schools frequently using learning platforms, there is only limited use of the technology to actively engage parents (Selwyn et al. 2011). Despite the fact that learning platforms have the potential to be used in a huge variety of ways through social networking, podcasts, or wikis, most schools were using it more to reinforce the existing ‘top down’ methods of relaying one-way information.

What we did and whyDespite the wide national and international acknowledgment of the potential benefits of parental engagement, the reality remains that most parents as well as schools still feel that not enough is done. Williams, Williams & Ullman (2002) reported that 72% of mothers wanted more involvement in their children’s education. Indeed, in the RM Education annual school survey (2011) of 600 schools in the UK a huge majority (90% of primary and 97% of secondary heads) indicated that building better partnerships with parents to be highly important in terms of their school development plan.

A vital aspect of improving parental engagement is to understand it, and therefore understand what limits engagement. Although there is a wide range of research on barriers to engagement (Fan & Chen, 2001, Harris & Goodall, 2007; Hornby, 2011), it is essential to differentiate between what schools perceive parental barriers to be, and what parents themselves believe. Finding out to what extent the attitudes and opinions towards a child's education are matched or mismatched, could have significant implications to the type of interventions most appropriate. This research attempted to investigate to widen our understanding of the current approaches to parental engagement, the barriers that families as well as schools face, and most importantly whether the opinions of schools on parental involvement and its barriers are reflected by the opinion of parents. Furthermore, this research looked at the extent to which schools are offering 'new technology' methods of engagement (such as learning platforms, emails, text messages or podcasts) compared to what extent parents themselves are aware of these options being available. In addition, we looked at parental preferences of communication, compared to what the schools perceive parental preferences to be.

In order to achieve this, RM Education conducted two surveys; the first gathering information on attitudes and opinions of schools, and the second in conjunction with YouGov surveying a broad range of parents. This resulted in a sample of over 1,000 parents with children aged 4-16, and 340 schools.

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In autumn 2011, two separate surveys were distributed to gather the attitudes and opinions of both parents and schools around the issue of parental engagement. The school survey was sent out by email to a variety of headteachers, deputy heads and other senior staff of primary and secondary schools in the UK, which were available through the internal database. This survey was completed by 241 primary schools and 85 secondary schools.

The parent survey, in conjunction with Teach First, was conducted by YouGov and received 1,087 responses of parents or guardians of school children aged 4 to 16. The survey was conducted using an online interview administered to members of the YouGov Plc GB panel of 300,000+ individuals who had agreed to take part in surveys. An email was sent to panellists selected at random from the base sample according to the sample definition, inviting them to take part in the survey and providing a link to the survey. The majority of parents had children in state schools, while 69 had children at an independent school. The parents and guardians were in equal proportion male and female. Both surveys also included a qualitative aspect in which schools and families were encouraged to discuss their opinions in greater detail.

Schools and Families: Working Together

Sampling

SectorSectorSector Job RoleJob Role Free School Meals*Free School Meals*

Total Sample

Total Sample

Primary Secondary OtherHead

TeacherOther SLT

≤Mean % FSM

>Mean % FSM

241 85 14 250 90 145 80

Table 1. Sample composition of the school survey

SectorSector Type of SchoolType of SchoolType of SchoolType of SchoolType of SchoolType of School

Total Sample

Total Sample

Primary SecondaryMainstream State School

AcademyFaith

SchoolGrammar

SchoolIndependent School

Other

501 586 755 122 102 54 69 127

Table 2. Sample composition of the parent survey

*Only includes schools in England that completed the 2011 pupil census

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The findings of the two surveys were split into four sections:

1. Research and Planning• Understanding the views of parents and assessing progress on a regular basis

• Involve parents in the creation of a written parental engagement policy and review that policy regularly

2. Communication• Frequency and method of communication

• Type of information that is provided by the school to keep parents informed

3. Participation and Barriers• Participation in academic and social school activities and events

• Barriers to participation as perceived by schools and parents

4. Attitudes and Opinions• How engaged do parents feel and how engaged to school think parents are

• Whose responsibility the education of the child is

1. Research and Planning This section investigates what schools are currently doing in terms of researching and planning parental engagement, and whether they involve parents in the planning stage.

The vast majority of schools surveyed included parental engagement as part of their school’s development/improvement plan, with more secondary schools doing so than primary schools (95% compared to 85%). However, only 20% these schools had a separate written policy on parental engagement. Interestingly, almost 30% of schools who had a higher than average number of pupils in receipt of free school meals (FSM) had a written policy, compared to only 12% of those with a lower than average number of pupils with FSM.

In addition, just over half of the schools surveyed indicated that they involved parents in the development of their parental engagement policy; and if they did it was predominantly through the use of parent governors, rather than all parents.

Schools and Families: Working Together

Results

Figure 1If parents were involved in the development of the parental engagement plans, which parent groups were involved?

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Primary schools were significantly more likely than secondary schools to ask all parents, rather than a specific group. In the ‘other’ category, schools included parent forums, coffee mornings, suggestion boxes and surveys.

When schools were asked how frequently they assessed parental engagement and communication preferences, over half the schools stated that they did so annually. However, 16% of schools stated that they assessed parental engagement less frequently than annually and 30% assessed parent’s communication preferences less frequently than annually. In addition, the parent survey revealed that 34% felt that the school does not seek feedback about their preferred form/frequency of communication; which rises to 57% for those parents who consider themselves less involved.

2. Communication This section looks at the communication practices between schools and families, as well as parental preferences about communication.

The majority of parents (64%) in this sample believed that the information they receive from the school is relevant and interesting, and around half (52%) agree that the school celebrates their child’s achievement and helps parents participate in events. However, 32% of the respondents stated that that the school does not communicate relevant information to them if they are unable to attend an event. Parents who considered themselves uninvolved in their child’s education were less likely to say that the information they receive is interesting or that the school helps parents to participate, with 25% and 37% respectively disagreeing.

When schools were asked which methods they used on a regular basis to communicate with parents, the vast majority indicated using letters sent home with children, telephone calls, their website, posting letters, or homework books. 79% of secondary schools also stated using text messages and emails. Secondary schools were more likely than priResultsmary schools to use their school portal/VLE (59% compared to 34%) while the opposite was true for using school notice boards (37% compared to 87%). Very few schools used blogs (7%), radio (3%), or podcasts (1%). This was mirrored by the responses from parents, who when asked, indicated the most common method to be letters sent home with the child, followed by notes in the homework book and letters send through the post. Almost half indicated their school also used their website to communicate with them and over a third mentioned emails and text messages. The biggest difference in parent/school responses of communication was that only 22% of primary school parents stated their school used the notice board, while 87% of primary schools said they used the notice board to communicate. This suggests that while schools may see the noticeboard as a form of communication, parents themselves don’t. In addition while a third of schools said they communicate through home visits, only 1% of primary and 2% of secondary school parents said the school did so.

When probed as to which method schools thought was most popular with parents, primary schools thought it would be text messages and letters sent home with children, while secondary schools thought it would be emails followed by text messages. When parents themselves were asked, the answers broadly reflected what schools thought; the most preferred method for parents being emails, followed by letters sent home and text messages.

“More written communication through the post - it is no good expecting the child to hand a letter over, my son just loses them or forgets they are in his bag. The text messages are very handy” Parent (Female, secondary)

Figure 2(parents) Which method of communication would be most effective for you?

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66% of primary and 71% of secondary schools think they could improve communication about how parents can support learning and almost two-thirds of parents indicated that they would like their child’s subject/class teacher to communicate with them more often, with no difference between sectors although uninvolved parents were more likely to wish for more communication (80%) compared to those involved (69%).

Nevertheless, two-thirds of involved parents believed the overall school communication to be effective, although only 36% of uninvolved parents did.

Over half of parents say they are unable to check their child’s progress through the school’s website/ VLE (62%) while 18% don’t know whether they have that option. When asked what parents believed would help them be more informed and engaged in their children’s school life, many of them made note of websites/VLE:

Interestingly, many parents stated that the school did have a website or VLE but they did not use it because it was poorly maintained. In fact the survey showed that one in ten parents have the option to use a website/VLE, but rarely or never use it.

This suggests, parents feel regularly updated websites, parent log-ins, and forums would help them keep in touch despite working full time or living far away from the school.

One issue that repeatedly surfaces in the parent discussion was that of supporting parents to enable them to more effectively help their children throughout their education. Many parents may lack the confidence or skill to be able to help with certain topics their child studies, or even if they do have the skill they are often unsure about the ‘right way’ to teach as methods will have changed since they went to school.

In addition, there is a desire to be more informed about the curriculum and key stage targets, as in order to know when their children are struggling they need to know what level they are supposed to be at.

“The school needs to be more consistent in its communications, and offer electronic means where the parents are able to use this. They should also provide information earlier - lots of last minute stuff arrives in school bags and sometimes children forget to pass the letters on - they're only human!” Parent (Female, primary)

“set up a website with alerts telling of upcoming events for each class/year group, and telling of what subjects they are covering along with what homework they will be getting as not all children tell their parents if they have homework” Parent (Male, primary)

“There is a website set up but poorly maintained. Too much generic information given via paper newsletter and only specific for the children at open evenings, where it’s usually too late to sort out” Parent (Male, secondary)

“Website is very out of date. Regular updates on the website would help me personally. Email would be best as I'm on that at work all day.” Parent (Female, secondary).

“Run classes for parents to get up-to-date with current methods in key subjects such as maths, English and science. This would enable parents to be more able to effectively help their children with their homework. For example, the way I was taught to do certain calculations is different to the way they do it now - if I try to help with homework, I use different methods and my children get confused. Classes would help.” Parent (Male, secondary)

“Give more details of the daily routine of each class - if we don't know what the children are doing all day (7 year old boys aren't the best communicators!), we can't support individual learning, or see where our help could be needed.” Parent (Female, primary)

“If they had a system in place where they update you via a monthly email or sign in on the website so as you can ask questions as going up to the school is not always possible due to work commitments etc. As schools only ever seem to send letters or call due to attendance or sickness etc. but never on anything positive” Parent (Female, primary)

“I believe that a monthly update and guide to help my child with their education would help extremely. If I knew when there is an issue or poor area for my child regularly I would know where to be more involved and thus help the school and teacher.” Parent (Male, primary)

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3. Participation and BarriersThis section investigates the extent of participation, as well as barriers to further engagement as perceived by schools and families.

The majority of both primary and secondary schools indicated that parents could participate in parents’ evenings or by being a school governor. Almost all primary schools also stated that parents could help on school trips, while this was only the case for half of the secondary schools. A similar disparity was apparent for parents being able to help in class, with almost all primary schools indicating they could compared to only 15% of secondary schools. Only around a third stated offering adult education classes.

Schools were also asked how easy they found it to attract parental involvement in a variety of activities. As might be expected, the data suggests that primary schools had less difficulty than secondary schools in attracting participation. Parents’ evening and school events were classed as the easiest to attract attention to in both sectors. Around half of primary schools however found it difficult or very difficult to engage involvement for parent councils, PTAs, and adult education classes. Approximately half of secondary schools also found it difficult to attract parent governors, PTA members, and to get parents to help with fundraising and help in class, while 80% found it difficult to attract participation in adult education classes. Overall, schools with higher than average proportion of children with FSM indicated more difficulty attracting parental involvement in all categories.

In all categories, primary schools were more likely to state that they invited parents to support activities at school. Almost nine out of ten primary schools indicated that parents were sometimes or often invited to help support teaching in class, while only around half of secondary schools did. Around 60% of primary schools suggested that parents were invited to provide talks and presentations while only 16% of secondary schools said they did so ‘sometimes’ and none indicated they did so often.

In terms of attendance of events, both primary and secondary schools in general suggest a good turnout. In nine out of ten cases, school plays, sports events, concerts, exhibitions and open days are attended sometimes or often. The only marked difference between sectors appears for school assemblies, which still elicit a very high attendance from parents in primary schools, but in secondary school three quarters indicate that parents never or seldom attend. When asking parents, some differences emerged; while almost nine in ten indicated attending parents’ evenings, less than a third helped on school trips or in class, a tenth were part of the PTA and even

fewer had been a school governor. Parents of primary school children were more likely to have helped with school fundraising (44% compared to 30% in secondary schools). Parents of children in independent schools were most likely to participate in most categories, including a 99% attendance rate for parents evening compared to 81% at academies. This confirms much of the previous research which indicated parents to be more willing to get involved with events and fundraising, although research has shown that it is the engagement with learning in particular which has the most academic benefits (Hornby, 2011).

Barriers to Parental EngagementSchools indicated the main perceived barrier for engagement to be parental work commitments (85%), followed by having been put off by their own experience of school (58%), childcare issues (56%) and not believing they would make a difference (39%). In secondary schools, over a third of respondents also indicated that they feel parents don’t know how to get more involved, or feel their child doesn’t want them more involved while this was only the case for 14% and 3% respectively in primary schools. A fifth of respondents in both sectors also indicated language barriers.

Similarly, the top response by parents in all categories concerning their barriers to engagement with the school was work commitments (55%). In primary schools this was followed by childcare issues (18%) and feeling that they wouldn’t make a difference (10%). In secondary schools on the other hand this was followed by feeling their child wouldn’t want them there (27%) and not knowing how to get better involved (16%). Interestingly, when looking at parents who consider themselves uninvolved, the top response after work commitments was the attitude of the teachers and school (27%) and that their child wouldn’t want them there (32%).

“Parents seem reluctant to commit long-term, e.g. governors, PTAs, but are happy to attend one-off events” Headteacher, Primary school

[Successful engagement for] anything that is not threatening i.e. great turnout for the Fashion Topic review [but limited engagement for] anything academic or where they feel their child might not be the best. A lot of bad feelings about when they went to school” Headteacher, Primary school

Parents attend anything which is on a social level – fundraising, sports events, plays etc. but rarely attend anything academic – open evenings for progress, training etc.” Headteacher, Primary school

"At secondary schools teachers do not want parents interfering. What is there to get involved in apart from turning up for parent-teacher evenings?” Parent (Female, secondary)

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Having been put off by their own experience of school was only mentioned by 6% of parents as a barrier, although this was slightly higher for parents who felt uninvolved (10%).

Another barrier that emerged in the comments of parents was the attitude or perceived attitude of the other parents that are already involved with the school.

In order to try to overcome some barriers, the vast majority of schools indicate that parents can visit the school out of hours, and while over half of primary schools also offer drop in sessions for parents, only just over a third of secondary schools do. In addition, almost half of primary schools said they offer childcare for parents when visiting or assisting the school, while only 1% of secondary schools do. There are also examples of innovative solutions to specific barriers, such as cliques of parents forming:

This illustrates the variety of issues that may arise and limit parental engagement; successful interventions will therefore be those that analyse the specific issues affecting their school and react to those, rather than adopting a one-size fits all approach.

4. Attitudes and Opinions This section explores the extent to which parents feel involved with their children’s school, and how involved schools perceive parents to be, as well as attitudes towards education.

Parents thought themselves fairly or very involved in their children’s school life, and involvement was slightly higher in primary schools (79%) compared to secondary schools (68%). When asked whether they would like to be more involved, an equal proportion agreed as disagreed (around 40% each), however there were interesting differences when looking at how involved parents currently were. Those ‘very’ involved were most likely out of all to want to be more involved (53%), significantly more than those only ‘fairly involved’. Interestingly, those who stated being neither involved nor uninvolved were as unlikely to want to be further involved than those who stated they

“This [visiting the school] only works for primary school children, my daughter is at secondary and would die if shame if I was a regular visitor at her school” Parent (Female, secondary)

“I feel the parents that do get involved are middle class and I wouldn't fit in” Parent (Male,

“It's not what motivates it's what demotivates i.e. cliquey parent councils, constantly volunteering and being told no thank you, the same parents being "picked" to go on trips all the time” Parent (Female, secondary)

“There are parent cliques which sometimes make it difficult for others to feel confident about contributing.....however the school is combating this by giving responsibility to year group parents to organise events” Parent (Male, primary)

Barriers perceived by parents who have children in primary and secondary school and by whether they feel involved with their child’s education or not.

Figure 3

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were ‘very uninvolved’ (49% and 50%). This mirrors findings by Williams et al (2002) who found that fairly involved parents were no more committed than not very / not at all involved parents.

The research also found that although full time employed mothers and fathers were approximately as likely to feel involved with their children's education, a difference emerges when looking at non-full time mothers compared to fathers. Mothers not in full time employment were significantly more likely to consider themselves involved compared to fathers not in full time employment. This reflects previous findings by Williams et al (2002), who concluded that "clearly mums are more likely than dads to feel very involved but only if free of the burdens of full-time work" (p. 15).

In general, when schools were asked how involved parents were with them, 80% indicated parents to be fairly or very involved. This is slightly lower for secondary schools compared to primary schools (77% vs. 83%) and lower for those who had a higher number of pupils with FSM (70% vs. 84%). 55% of schools express some or great concern about parental engagement, but there was much higher concern about parental engagement in schools with less affluent catchments (22% compared to 8%).

Interestingly, it is those schools with less affluent catchments who were more likely to believe that it has gotten easier to engage parents now compared to five years ago (40%) while only 17% of schools with affluent catchments believe it has gotten easier. This may reflect the fact that schools in affluent areas have traditionally found it easier to attract a core set of parents, and hence have had no need to introduce new policies, while schools with traditionally ‘hard to reach’ parents are those that are coming up with innovative solutions.

Almost all primary and secondary schools agreed that their schools welcomed parents visiting the school and that their school provided parents with clear information about the progress their child is making. Mothers who only completed compulsory education or no education were significantly less likely to agree that their children's school was welcoming to parents, with 67% agreeing compared to 81% of mothers who continued their own education longer. There was no effect for father's education levels. Similarly, mothers with lower levels of education themselves were less likely to be confident that they could make a difference (21%) compared to mothers with higher levels of education (10%). There was no difference by father’s education (around 12% at any level of education). In addition, those parents who feel involved in their child’s education are more likely to indicate that they feel welcomed by the school and that they are offered clear information about their child’s progress (over two thirds compared to under half for those uninvolved). Unsurprisingly, they are also more likely to make involvement in their child’s school life a priority and less likely to feel that their involvement won’t make a difference. Interestingly, over a third (40%) of uninvolved parents stated fearing that they would be labelled a trouble maker if they contacted the school regularly.

The majority of schools stated that they believed that the education of children is equally the responsibility of parents and the school (87%). One in ten indicated it was more the responsibility of the school, while only 2% suggested it to be more the parent’s responsibility. In contrast, when questioned on the perceived attitude of parents, almost 80% thought that parents believe the education of the child to be more the school’s responsibility.

In fact, the proportion of parents who believed education to be more the responsibility of the school was only 15%. Three-quarters (75%) of the parents in the survey believed that the responsibility for the children’s education lies equally in the hands of the parents and the school, with those who consider themselves to be fairly or very involved more likely to place responsibility on themselves (12% compared to 3% for uninvolved parents).

Previous research has suggested that parents of lower socioeconomic status were less likely to place the responsibility for their children’s education upon themselves (Harris & Goodall, 2007). Yet this is not supported by our data, as there is no difference in parents believing that the education of their child is equally the responsibility of their school as it is their own (75% of parents in ABC1 and 74% of parents in C2DE).

Fathers who had stayed in education longer themselves, were more than twice as likely to state that their children's education was more their responsibility than the schools (15%) compared to fathers who at most completed compulsory education (6%). There was no significant difference by mother's education levels.

Percentage of parents who said they would like to be more involved by current involvement.

Figure 4

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Although this shows that in general parents are satisfied with their children’s school, overall, almost a fifth of parents (19%) have either moved their child due to feeling unsupported by the school, or have seriously considered doing so. This sentiment was strongest amongst parents of children at independent schools (39%) and lowest amongst parents at mainstream schools (16%). It was also more likely at secondary schools (22%), compared to primary schools (15%).

“It's a question of recognising that my child's education is as much my and my wife's responsibility as it is the schools. The more support a child has at home the better they will do at school. Education should be valued at home” Parent (Male, secondary)

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This study showed…Research: only just over half of the schools surveyed involved parents in the development of their policy. Most schools assessed parental engagement and communication preferences annually.

This means: Any policy should be developed in partnership with parents, staff and pupils and regularly monitored. It is important that schools not only rely on PTAs or parent governors as they do not necessarily reflect the needs of all parents. As it is impractical to personally speak to every parent, schools could attempt using forums or surveys and hold open-door events in order to gather a wider range of opinions.

Planning: Only around a fifth of surveyed schools had a separate written policy on parental engagement, although schools with less affluent catchment areas were more likely to have a written policy.

This means:There is a need for innovative solutions to parental engagement as well as regular communication, as the engagement requirements of families vary from school to school, from parent to parent and from child to child. It is vital to produce creative and personalised solutions to parental engagement, rather than one-size-fits-all approach.

Any plans made need to be flexible, bottom up approaches which are continuously evaluated to reflect the current needs of not only the parents, but also the pupils and the school.

Focus on education: while there are many projects that help connect the community or raise money, there are fewer which are specifically designed to engage parents in learning. Parental confidence in their own ability to help could be increased by providing training and tutoring techniques of how to assist school work – this could be done in school or online or both to get wider participation. Helping parents understand the curriculum and get interested in their children’s education will in turn encourage them to reinforce and prepare for learning from home.

Communication: The majority of parents were satisfied with the communication they receive, although around a third of parents who considered themselves uninvolved did not feel that the information they receive is interesting or that the school helps them participate. Around 70% of schools recognised they could improve communication, and two thirds of parents wished for more specific and frequent communication. The most common form of communication was letters sent home with children, although the preferred method would be emails. 62% of parents indicated not being able to check their child's progress through the school's website/VLE, and a further 18% were unaware of whether they have that option. Even if there was access, many parents stated not using it because it was poorly maintained.

This means:Regular two-way communication is essential, and not just a letter from the head teacher. When

parents perceive the school not open to involving parents this acts as a major barrier to engagement, meaning parents are most effectively involved when teachers actively encourage engagement (Epstein, 2001; Hornby & Lafaele, 2011).

There is a need for effective channels of communication between schools and homes to ensure that parents and teachers can respond quickly and effectively to any emerging concerns.

Schools may therefore benefit from further exploring new technologies and social media. Many parents who responded to our surveys indicating their preferences for text, emails, websites and forums, it is clear that parents want information that is immediate and accessible anywhere. It appears that switching to electronic methods would be appreciated by parents and could help save schools money

Schools and Families: Working Together

Conclusions

“Problems are not raised when they occur, only mentioned when it is too late to do anything about it”. Parent (Female, secondary)

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Participation and barriers: Parents were found to be more willing to participate in social events than academic events. As in previous research (Harris & Goodall, 2007) the strongest barrier for parents was work commitments, however after that different barriers play a role for different groups of parents. This emphasises that no one solution could meet the needs of everyone, but rather individual barriers need to be assessed and then dealt with in a meaningful way specific to that school.

This means:It is of uttermost importance to take care of the practical issues around parent involvements, as parents can only really engage or take part in meetings if they are not at work, and/or childcare is taken care of. With work commitments and childcare issues being some of the top barriers for parents, schools could make a huge difference by offering out-of hour sessions, childcare or making occasional weekend arrangements.

As previously suggested (Hornby, 2011) there was a clear difference between parental involvement in primary school versus engagement in secondary schools, with involvement dropping significantly during secondary school. The comments by parents suggest that this may be partly due to feeling that children need to be more independent at that age, and partly because the parents feel less capable of helping with the work.

Nevertheless, adolescents are still considered to significantly benefit from parental involvement in their education which could take the form of helping with homework, choosing subjects for GCSEs/ A-levels or simply discussing social or political issues (Hornby & Lafaele, 2011; PISA, 2011). When considering adolescents and parental engagement it is vital to strike the right balance between giving children the independence to grow and supporting their learning

Attitudes in general parents considered themselves quite involved in their children’s education, although mothers with lower levels of education were less likely to perceive the school as welcoming and less likely to be confident they could make a difference. Those parents who reported being neither involved nor uninvolved were least likely to want more involvement, reflecting a group of parents that take up an indifferent middle-ground. In terms of responsibility for education, a vast mismatch became apparent between what parents thought, and what schools perceived parents to think. Schools with less affluent catchments were more likely to say that engagement has gotten easier.

This means:Schools in more affluent areas, which have historically had a set group of parents that are involved, run the risk of overly relying on these methods rather than exploring innovative ways of engaging different groups of parents, while schools with traditionally more ‘hard to reach’ parents have had to work harder to come up with novel ways of engagement; highlighting the importance of remaining creative.

Teachers might benefit from being provided with training for to help them work more effectively with families.

Parental engagement and involvement is so important to educational outcomes that we need to be creative, innovative, learn from others, and do all we can to ensure that schools and families work together.

When done right a school can have incredible benefits from being supported by parents:

Research evidence has consistently demonstrated the influence that families have on their children’s academic and social development. There is little doubt that when families and schools work together to support learning, the children not only achieve better results or stay longer in school, but are also more likely to enjoy school and develop lasting enthusiasm for learning.

“Children should have an environment outside the home where they can be independent, particularly at secondary school age”. Parent (Female, secondary)

“I think the school should carry on doing what it is doing. There is far too little praise given to the fantastic comprehensives we have, the fantastic teachers who work in them and the great results they achieve. Parent (Female, secondary)

“Conduct courses after school for parents so they feel more confident in helping and supporting their child with their school work.” Parent (Female, secondary).

”Curriculum Evenings where parents come to the school and see what pupils have been working on in an informal setting” Deputy Head, Special School.

“for teachers to send home ways in which we can support our children’s learning i.e. how to do particular math questions etc., results of tests, what they are learning about and when” Parent (Female, secondary).

“Targeting certain parents to attend certain sessions, e.g. healthy eating, phonics with your child etc.” Deputy Head, Primary School.

“Guidance on helping with their homework would be useful or curriculum outlines so I can encourage my child to explore the subject outside school” Parent (Female, secondary).

Why not try…

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Schools and Families: Working Together

References