The Scottish Government

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.1.1 Involving Parents

The consultation paper Making the difference - improving parents' involvement in schools: a consultation on a draft Bill said "Children do better when parents are actively involved in supporting and helping their child's learning. Parents who encourage their children to learn and actively support that learning will significantly improve their child's chances of success" ¹. Indeed parents, carers and family members are arguably the most important influences on children's lives; between the ages of 5 and 16 children spend only 15% of their time in school. Research shows that when parents are involved in their child's learning, children do better at school and throughout life ².

1.1.2 Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006

In 2006 the Scottish Parliament passed the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act to help parents and schools work together as partners in children's learning and to encourage and support more parents to become involved. Because parents have such a vital role to play in their children's education, the Act aims to make it easier for parents to become involved in their own child's education and in their school. Many authorities and schools are already working very hard to involve parents, but the Act makes this a priority for every authority and every school³.

1.1.3 Making the Difference Series of Leaflets

One of the main messages from the National Debate on Education was that communication and partnership between schools and parents could and should be improved. In order to meet this objective, one approach which the Scottish Executive has taken (in collaboration with the Quality in Education Centre [University of Strathclyde] and Children in Scotland) is to produce a series of leaflets for parents with the aim of helping them to become better involved in their child's education. Under the banner Making the Difference, the purpose of the series is to highlight the real difference parents can and do make to their children's learning. The aim is for parents to use the leaflets, together with the local advice they will have on the arrangements in their child's school. To date, twelve leaflets have been produced which are: ⁴

1. Homework - Published in November 2004. This leaflet outlines the importance of homework in terms of how it benefits the child. It refers to the roles played by the parent, child and teacher and promotes homework clubs and supported study;
2. Sharing Information - Published in March 2005. This leaflet stresses the importance of sharing information between schools and parents/carers to enable a good understanding of how they can help their child learn. For example, parents making the school aware of things they know about their child and what they are doing out of school can be helpful to teachers;
3. Parents' Evenings - Published in March 2005. This leaflet discusses the purpose of parents' evenings and sets out the improvements made to make it easier for those who find it difficult to attend. The leaflet also offers advice on how parents can get the most out of these evenings;
4. School Holidays - Published in May 2005. This leaflet gives guidance to parents on how their child can get the most out of school holidays and make it a learning opportunity. The leaflet suggests, for example, participation in activities such as play schemes, courses and events and outlines the benefits of these;
5. Starting a New School Year - Published in May 2005. This leaflet recommends parents/carers gather as much information as they can to help their child move on smoothly to the next stage in their education (e.g. school handbook, information about support, etc.). It also offers advice on what parents can do throughout the school year and advice on helping their child settle in;
6. Out of School Learning - Published in October 2005. This leaflet promotes and outlines the benefits of the various types of out of school learning activities. It also gives guidance to parents on the informal ways their child can learn out of school; for example getting them to talk about what they have done, using the internet, helping with food shopping, discussing something on TV etc.;
7. Healthy Choices - Published in October 2005. This leaflet discusses the parent's role in their child's physical, social and emotional health and well-being. It informs the reader what schools are doing to promote health and outlines the benefits of a healthy lifestyle;
8. Enterprise in Education - Published in January 2006. This leaflet advises parents/carers to encourage their child to take a positive approach to learning, thus becoming more confident in their abilities and more motivated to succeed. By becoming 'enterprising', children can develop their own strengths, talents, skills, attitudes and knowledge to become more successful in life;
9. New Technology in Learning - Published in January 2006. This leaflet suggests parents/carers can support their child's learning by encouraging them to become comfortable and confident with new ICT (e.g. computers, MP3 players, digital cameras etc.) from an early age. The benefits to the child are described together with suggestions on what parents can do to help their child learn about technology;
10. Getting Involved in your Child's School - Published in May 2006. This leaflet offers guidance on how parents, carers and family members can become involved in their child's school. This could be during the day, evenings or at weekends and the leaflet lists numerous associated benefits;
11. Personal Learning Planning - Published in May 2006. This leaflet encourages parents, carers and family members to talk to their child about what they are learning; their progress and goals etc. Personal Learning Planning is a process between parent, child and teacher which records these aspects in a variety of different formats in order to benefit the child;
12. A New Law to Support Parents - Published in September 2006. This leaflet sets out some of the key points from the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 and what it means for parents, schools and local education authorities.

1.1.4 Dissemination Strategy

The dissemination strategy for the leaflets has been to send three copies of newly produced leaflets to all headteachers of primary, secondary and special schools, who then have the opportunity to request more leaflets if and when required, in a variety of different languages.

With this approach, headteachers are encouraged to consider alongside their School Board (and in future, Parent Council) and Parent Teacher Association how to make the best use of leaflets in their own school context. For example, tying in the distribution of relevant leaflets with local events (such as making use of the Healthy Choices leaflet during a health promotion week); specific times of the year (such as distributing the School Holidays leaflet before the long summer break) or before a school event (such as distributing the Parents' Evenings leaflet before this takes place). To date almost two million leaflets have been requested by schools and local authorities.

1.2 The research project

The importance of the Making the Difference series in trying to aid and develop parental involvement highlighted the need for the leaflets to be evaluated. In January 2007, the Scottish Executive commissioned George Street Research to undertake an evaluation of the Making the Difference series of leaflets for parents and associated materials for schools.

The specific objectives of the research were to:

• Explore parents' views on how helpful the leaflets as a series are, whether there are particular leaflets that have been helpful or unhelpful, and if they have made use of them how have they done so; together with awareness and use of the Parentzone website in getting involved in their child's learning;
• Explore parents' levels of awareness of the leaflets, how they became aware of them (where appropriate), how easy they have found them to access, and how effective the school's dissemination approach has been;
• Explore parents' views on the format, presentation and tone of the leaflets;
• Explore parents' and schools' views on the impact of the leaflets on parents' involvement in the school and with their child's learning;
• Identify whether headteachers are satisfied with the Scottish Executive's approach to distributing the leaflets to schools;
• Identify how schools are distributing the leaflets to parents, why that approach has been chosen, and whether they believe it has been effective;
• Identify whether parents and schools think the right topics have been covered by the leaflets, and whether there are other topics that should be addressed in further leaflets;
• Identify reasons why particular areas or schools have not requested any further leaflets;
• Explore how useful schools have found the supporting materials for staff on the Parents as Partners website, and how they have used them;
• Identify the awareness and views from education authorities to the series, what use if any has been made of them, whether the topics were useful, and whether they find the distribution method effective or would see a role for themselves in supporting use of the leaflets.

The following chapter examines the approach adopted for this research and chapters 3 to 10 examine the findings that have emerged.

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