1. Wednesday 23 rd November 2011

2.  Update on AfA work being done in schools  Effective Partnership with Parents – Trevor Folley, One Learning Journey Ltd  Jo Emmerson, RBWM Family Learning Coordinator  Action planning

3. www.onelearningjourney.com

4.  Materials from today’s training will be uploaded on to our wiki website.  There will also be additional materials that you may wish to reference in relation to your work on parental engagement, for example Dr Jo Lyons’ notes on “Best practice methods to engage parents to raise aspirations across the family unit”. http://achievementforall.wikispaces.com/%E2%86% 92++Achievement+for+All+-+DAY+2

5. PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT Parents taking part in school based or school related activities that may not be directly linked to learning. A parent could be very involved with the school, but not be influencing their child’s learning. Worthwhile in terms of community relations. Unless these activities directly relate to student learning, there is little evidence to show that they have an impact on student achievement. (Ho Sui-Chu et al. 1996) PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT Activities that parents engage in that support their child’s learning. A parent could never be in contact with the school, and never attend parents’ evenings, but be highly engaged with their child’s learning. Activities linked directly to student learning. The attitude of the parents towards learning in the home has the greatest impact on achievement.

6.  Think about the occasions when you talk to parents.  What are the purposes for these conversations?  Praise?  Sharing concerns?  Passing on information?  …?

8.  This document includes some useful ideas and approaches regarding conversations with parents.  It begins with an outline of the rationale behind the structured conversation with parents, citing research findings from Harris and Goodall and also the Lamb Inquiry.

9. jo.emmerson@rbwm.gov.uk

10. Senior Leaders’ Network Meeting – Tuesday 24 th January 2012 Moor Hall Conference Centre, Cookham

11.  10 minute update on the work done so far on your Achievement for All project.  Think about pairing up with a school working on a similar area, so you can do a joint presentation.  You may wish to include information on:  your chosen area of focus / priority group;  your baseline data;  what you’ve done so far;  interim evaluation of impact & next steps.

12. Following today’s session:  what will you do straight away?  who do you need to talk to?  what will you want them to do?  when…timescales?  what will be the first signs that a difference is being made?  how are you going to evaluate the impact of what has been done?  where can you get help?