1. Parental Engagement to Enhance Children’s Learning
2017
Janet Goodall

2. My work in this field Parental Engagement with Children’s Learning
Engaging parents to raise achievement
Helping parents support their children (literature review)
Best practice in parental engagement (literature review)
Impact of faith on parental engagement
Parental engagement in Jewish families
Toolkit for parental engagement
Parental Engagement and Maths
Super Shoppers

3. Keep in mind… Three questions… What are we already doing?
What can we do better?
What can we start doing?
Image from

4. Why we need this research
Over 11% of children in Ireland live in poverty
That’s one in 8

5. One child in ten leaves primary school with literacy difficulties.
This rises to one in three in disadvantaged communities.
Still means that many students not in poverty experience difficulties
E. Eivers et al (2005), Literacy in Disadvantaged Primary Schools: problems and solutions, Educational Research Centre: Dublin

7. Not down to schools alone to solve
Research has shown that around 80% of the difference in how well children do at school is dependent on what happens outside the school gates
Rabash et al, 2010 and Save the Children, 2013

8. This is not about parent-blaming
Or blaming schools
The problem is systemic
But the solution is local AND systemic
We need to be the local face of the solution

9. The missing link in supporting learning
Parental engagement in children’s learning
“Parental involvement in their child’s learning was the only area reviewed with sufficient evidence to meet the four criteria for a robust causal model....” (Gorard, See and Davies, 2012)

10. Parental engagement in ‘supporting learning in the home’ is the single most important changeable factor in student achievement. Harris and Goodall, 2007

11. “For all children, the quality of the home learning environment is more important for intellectual and social development than parental occupation, education or income.
“What parents do is more important than who parents are” (Sylva et al, 2004)
We own these shutterstock photos – this slide and the next

12. So, what is it that parents do?
What’s a 5 year old’s favourite word?
Creating an atmosphere that supports learning
Example:

13. What comes next? Oh, the grand old Duke of York…..
Mary, Mary, quite contrary….
Little Jack Horner….
Singing nursery rhymes, reading the same book over and over again – these are all related to literacy – but many parents may not realise their value

14. Parental engagement with learning
Can have positive impacts on
Behaviour
Engagement with school/schooling/school work
Homework
Outcomes and achievement

15. The research is clear
What makes a difference is the attitude toward learning in the home
So the question becomes – how can schools support that?

16. What do we want….
Involvement….
Or engagement?

17. Parental involvement with schools
Reading in class
Going on Trips
Parents’ Evenings

18. Parental involvement with schools Parental involvement with schooling
Reading in class
Going on Trips
Parents’ Evenings
Parental involvement with schooling
Helping with homework
Keeping track of coursework

19. Parental involvement with schools
Reading in class
Going on Trips
Parents’ Evenings
Parental involvement with schooling
Helping with homework
Keeping track of coursework
Parental engagement with children’s learning
Moral support
Interest in learning
Guidance

20. So much has been added to our existing model of schools that we've run out of attachment points for new ideas; we need to stop bolting things on to the outside of what we're already doing and go back and rethink - retool - regrow - the basics. We need to get radical. (Goodall, 2013)

21. Change the emphasis From schooling To learning Learning Education

22. Stop talking about school improvement
And start talking about improving LEARNING
Stop focusing on the school
Start focusing on learning (everyone’s learning)

23. What are parents’ evenings for?
What if, rather than being focused on results, the event was focused around a partnership between parents and the teachers to support learning?
What would parents’ evenings be like if they were not about reporting, but rather about learning?
What are parents’ evenings for?

24. Barriers to engagement
15 minutes’ conversation a week w/teenagers, about social media, movies, etc. has been found to be correlated to engagement in literacy
Parents need to know that they make a difference, and how
Parental experience of education
Parental self efficacy
Practical issues
Time
Child care
Transport
Cost

25. Parents means Dads, too Too often, “Parent” means “Mother”
Have a look around school/setting – are there pictures of fathers, grandparents, with children?
Be aware of language – fathers aren’t “babysitting”, they are parenting
Too often, “Parent” means “Mother”
(Women’s unpaid labour…)
Paternal engagement very important
“Parent” in this sense can also mean grandparent, aunt, uncle….

26. Helping with Maths Learned helplessness – socially acceptable
Maths often seen as TIRED (tedious, isolated, rote, elitist, de-personalised)
Can be ALIVE (accessible, linked, inclusive, valued, empowering)
(Johnston-Wilder, Lee, Brindley, & Garton, 2015)

27. Helping with Maths - Tips
“I don’t understand this – YET”
Different /= wrong – BUT – find out how child needs to show they’ve worked things out
ASK : your child, their teacher, to show you
Not knowing IS FINE – model learning for your child
Practice, practice, practice: environmental maths

28. The toolkit project …in collaboration with Wiltshire Local Authority
Asks schools to go back to basics, examine their beliefs, ideas and processes…
….and work toward partnership with parents around learning

29. What the project is about
Evaluation of engagement of parents
Changes in practice/underlying beliefs
Evaluation of school changes and leadership to support engagement of parents

30. What schools are doing now
Tip of the week – on newsletters to give parents advice on engaging with their children at home with learning  
Thank yous/staff member of the week on newsletters
Build on existing good practice and be brave to keep trying new ideas
Expanding on Structured Conversations

31. Bacon butties and books
Books and Bacon
Year 7 proud letters from parents to children
Texting parents with photos of good work
‘All about me’ form for new starters
 Offsite meetings

32. Outcomes Parents more likely to talk to staff – more confident
Staff more confident working with parents
Increased conversations around learning in the home

33. What we found
Schools are – slowly – shifting their emphasis from involvement with school to engagement with learning
Schools recognise the need to change systems, not just interventions – systemic change
Schools sharing good and innovative practice

34. Key insights
Schools need support to change perceptions of what effective parental engagement is
So that they can change practice
So that practice becomes embedded

35. Some of the most effective practice has come from the integration of the milestones chart into the school’s development plan
Teachers need to see results before they change beliefs (Guskey 2002)

36. What parents do… Message to parents:
What matters is that you care about your children and their learning
You don’t need to know the answers
You need to care that the answers get found

38. Most importantly
PEwCL can help break the cycles of poverty and underachievement
But only when based on the foundations of respect and trust
Between Schools & Parents
Between Schools & Communities

39. Need to go beyond giving information to working together, in partnership
Will only happen when the emphasis shifts from the school to learning

40. Contact me:
@janetifimust

41. Final comment
Consequently, schools need to place parental engagement at the centre rather than the periphery of all that they do. Parental engagement in children’s learning makes a difference- it is the most powerful school improvement lever that we have.
Do Parents Know They Matter? p. 70