1. Narrowing the gap: strong partnerships with parents
Janet Goodall

2. How many of us are parents?

3. As we go through… Think of what you are already doing….
Think of what you want to take away from today

4. “Parents”
Adults with caring responsibility for the child….

5. My work in this field Parental Engagement with Children’s Learning
Engaging parents to raise achievement
Best practice in parental engagement
Helping parents support their children
Impact of faith on parental engagement
Parental engagement in Jewish families
Toolkit for parental engagement
Review of parenting support
Review of the Parental Engagement Fund
The Reader
PEN
Super Shoppers

6. Why we need this research
28% of children in the UK live in poverty
Two-thirds (64%) of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works
And children growing up in poverty do not do as well in our current system

7. Advantaged children, 5 A-C w M&E
FSM children
33.5% of pupils eligible for FSM achieved at least 5 A*- C GCSEs (or equivalent) grades including English and mathematics compared to 60.5% of all other pupils

8. Poverty and underachievement
Children growing up in poverty are likely to leave school earlier
And have lower educational aspirations

9. More problematically These risks are cyclic
Children raised in poverty are much more likely to raise their own children in poverty
Children who do not achieve at school are likely to raise children who also do not achieve

10. It starts early
….by the time they are seven, nearly 80% of the difference in GCSE results between rich and poor children has already been determined.
Save the Children (2013). Too Young to Fail.

11. Research has shown that around 80% of the difference in how well children from different backgrounds do at school is dependent on what happens outside the school
Rasbash et al, 2010

12. 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

14. The missing link in closing the gap
Parental engagement in children’s learning
In a major review of the literature:
“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)
But what does that term mean?

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

16. 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

17. 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
Goodall and Montgomery 2014

18. 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

19. Singing nursery rhymes, telling and retelling stories, are linked to later achievements in literacy (Sonnenschein and Munsterman 2002)

20. “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

21. Parental involvement…
Parental involvement…. constitutes a way for all parents to help their children achieve their full potential. (Borgonovi and Montt 2012)
Yet we know that many parents lack self efficacy and support to engage and that these parents are disproportionately facing economic challenges (Lareau, 2015, et al)
And that not all children benefit equally from the engagement that exists

22. Zadie Smith,
Swingtime

23. How can we better support all of our children?
A systemic problem

24. Important point often missed…
Parents are not just on the demand side of learning
They are also an integral part of the “supply” side – and need to be recognised as such

25. PISA found that these things were beneficial for almost everyone:
Reading books to children
Discussing complex social and political issues
Parents’ example in reading for pleasure
Involvement in schooling: meeting with teachers, being in school, helping with homework (but proactive is probably better than reactive)

26. So much has been added to our existing model of schools in the last few years 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)

27. Need to distinguish terms…. And stop confusing them with each other

28. Learning

29. Learning
Education

30. Learning
Education
Schooling

31. Change the emphasis To learning From schooling Learning Education

32. Current School centred view
Parent
Pupil
We need to move to…

33. Learning Centred View
Parents
Community
School
Learning
Pupil

35. What parents do… Message to parents:
What matters is that they care about their children and their learning
They don’t need to know the answers
They need to care that the answers get found

36. Challenges and moving on
Practical and local
Systemic: national, transnational

37. Practical, local Parental experience of education Practical issues
School staff impressions of parents/assumptions
Parental self efficacy
Practical issues
Time
Child care
Transport
Cost

38. Systemic
Teachers often poorly/not trained to work with parents (OECD 2006, etc…)
Involved parents often unrepresentative of parent body (James et al, 2015; OECD 2006, Crozier, etc…) – more likely to mirror teachers’ backgrounds
Pervasive stereotyping of groups of parents, “culture of poverty” discourse

39. We need to go beyond giving information and asking opinions, to working together, in partnership
Which will only happen when the emphasis shifts from the school to learning

40. What is needed is:
Targeted, responsive, culturally appropriate support for engagement with learning
Designed in conjunction with parents, school staff, young people and researchers
Implemented in partnership with families
Evaluated effectively

41. Parental engagement with children’s learning is the best lever we have for increasing achievement for all of our children

44. Contact me:
@janetifimust