Partnership Schools Scotland School, Family and Community Partnerships School, family and community partnerships to improve outcomes for children and young people Eleanor Coner Connect Project supported by Skills Development Scotland Connect is a trading name of Scottish Parent Teacher Council Company No SC151086 Scottish Charity SC019168

What is Connect? Charity, membership organisation for parent’s groups of more than 70 years’ standing Parent Councils in all SEIC local authorities are Connect members Member benefits include: Information & Training Sessions Public liability insurance Access to leaflets and other information on website Email and telephone helpline Offers professional learning courses

What is Partnership Schools about? ALL ABOUT IMPROVING CHILDRENS’ LEARNING A national programme to form school, family and community partnerships to help school improvement Five year pilot to test this approach; in Year 4 Currently working in Angus, Edinburgh, Falkirk, Fife, Glasgow, North Ayrshire, Stirling and West Lothian Not just about parents Different ways for different people to get involved Everyone is equally important The ways schools care about children is reflected in the way schools care about the children’s families What if educators view children as pupils/students? Family is separate from the school and is expected to do its job and leave education to the school What if educators view children as children/young people? They then see the family and community as partners with the school in a child’s education and development The reasons for partnership: Improves school programmes Improves school climate Provides family services and support Increases family skills and leadership Connects families with others in school and community Helps teachers with their work

Aims To form school, family and community teams within schools to work on goals from the School Improvement Plan Parent and family engagement becomes part of the improvement planning process and decision-making   To raise awareness across the school of the importance of parental engagement for children’s learning To increase the number of parents and families who are actively engaged in children’s learning To increase the confidence of parents to guide and support their child through school To create a culture in schools where parental involvement is no longer an add-on but it is how we do it at our school

Key tasks and messages This shouldn’t be school-led It’s about setting realistic, achievable and measurable goals Need to include people from across the school and wider community – think about others you could involve How will you measure success? How will you let others know about your work? Should share leadership Better to achieve something successfully and then move onto something more ambitious Think about local groups/services that support the school; local employers/businesses; pupils; other family members Talk about the guide to evaluation Using PSS resources; making sure the work is labelled PSS?

What is family engagement? Ask people to comment and write their comments on flipchart paper displayed on the wall. Highlight it is not always about the visible involvement, ie those people who come into school for events and to help in the classroom. It’s about families having the confidence, tools and guidance to help support their child’s learning at home.

Family-like school and a school-like family What that means to us Family-like school and a school-like family This is what we would like to create

Overlapping spheres of influence Strong Families Excellent Schools Healthy Communities Pupil is the main actor in their education, development, and success in school Frequent interactions between schools, families and communities means more pupils receive common messages from various people about: the importance of school of working hard of thinking creatively of helping one another and of staying in school Separate spheres is where a school says, “if the family would only do its job, we could do our job” and where families say, “I raised this child; now it is your job to educate them”. Overlapping spheres is where a school says, “I cannot do my job without the help of my pupils’ families and the support of this community” and parents say, “ I really need to know what is happening in school in order to help my child”. REMEMBER “family-like schools” and “school-like families”

Why aren’t all families visible at your school? Ask people to call out comments

Why aren’t all families visible? Family issues eg work, childcare, other family members, money problems Literacy/language problems Their own experience of school Don’t understand how they can be involved Many need help to be involved in different and new ways in their childrens’ learning As child gets older, they don’t want their parents in school Child takes more responsibility/are more independent

The only solution is: Carefully planned and deliberate activities to keep families involved Ways of giving parents confidence and practical ideas of how they can help Recognising everyone has something to bring

Six types of involvement Collaborating with the Community How families can be involved ? Six types of involvement Decision-making (5) Parenting (1) Volunteering (3) Learning at home (4) Communicating (2) Collaborating with the Community (6) Parenting: help all families establish home environments to support children as learners; help schools understand families 2. Communicating: design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communications about school programmes and their children’s progress 3. Volunteering: Recruit and organise parent help and support 4. Learning at Home: provide information and ideas to families about how to help pupils at home with homework and other curriculum-related activities, decisions, and planning 5. Decision-making: Include parents in school decisions, developing parent leaders and representatives 6. Collaborating with the community: identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen school programmes, family practices, and student learning and development THERE IS NO ONE WAY OF INVOLVING PARENTS IN SCHOOLS AND EDUCATION!

What is involved? Form an Action Team for Partnerships with family members, pupils, staff, members of the local community, family link workers, etc Take part in Connect training sessions Write an Annual Plan setting one or two goals for learning, health & wellbeing and partnerships Think about how you will evaluate activities

Co-produce activities for each goal Set 1 - 4 goals Goals for learning, health & wellbeing, partnership Co-produce activities for each goal Evaluate – are you making a difference? Identify learning Celebrate progress and share Set priorities for next year

Maisondieu Minds Together Year 3 goal targeted wellbeing Action Team developed a three-year Wellbeing Plan Aimed to raise awareness of mental wellbeing and equip pupils, families and staff to support themselves and others

Maisondieu – Ask Once; Get Help Wellbeing evening and café Library of resources Training opportunities for parents to train more families Training suite for staff with the help of external partners Shared language of wellbeing, feelings and emotions across school community

St Francis Primary, Glasgow Year 3 goals – team continues to improve relationships with families and the wider community Focus on improving opportunities for parents, eg training, qualifications Workshops on STEM, numeracy, phonics have increased parent’s confidence in supporting learning EAL parent and child workshops Parents helped develop maths homework packs

Carrongrange High School, Grangemouth Secondary school for pupils with moderate, severe and complex additional support needs Improving understanding of family challenges Team has made significant improvements to their website and has developed their social media presence Developing a family support area and a mindfulness programme Making a film about parents night and the classroom environment to encourage more parents to engage Explore skills parents may offer to the school

Secondary schools – a hard nut to crack? Currently working with six secondary schools in Glasgow, North Ayrshire and Stirling Have engaged with more secondary schools but many have disengaged from the programme Engaging parents in partnership work is a challenge – do they change their perception of how they should be involved? Challenge of changing relationships

Secondary schools – what works? Engage young people – what support would they welcome? Focus on family support, eg community hub being developed at Stirling High Parent to parent communications, eg creating films about different subjects and skills in North Ayrshire Parent Council should have a role in school improvement - allocate them a specific task

How could your school get involved? Edinburgh and Fife – get in touch! East Lothian, Midlothian and Borders think about hosting the Helping to Support your School session – get in touch!

Eleanor Coner Connect Partnership Development Officer Tel: 0131 474 6177 Email: eleanor@connect.scot