Parents' views on improving parental involvement in children's education

The Scottish Executive Education Department, (SEED) recently commissioned research to find out how parents are involved in their child's education and what made some parents reluctant or unable to get involved. It's a shame they didn't ask us - the conclusions from this research reflect what SPTC has been saying for years!

Key findings from this research include:

Parents are primarily concerned for the welfare of their own child.

Parents are involved in many different ways and are most likely to be involved in informal activities requiring a lesser amount of commitment and time.

There is scope for improving the channels of communication especially at secondary school level.

There is an issue concerning the language used to communicate with parents by schools, local authorities and SEED.

Parents' most important requirements are ongoing feedback about their child throughout the school year, feedback about performance and behaviour on a more regular basis, and immediate contact if there is a problem.

Parents perceive the school as presenting a number of obstacles such as lack of encouragement, not informing parents of what they can do and too few flexible forms of involvement to fit in around busy working and family lives.

None of this comes as a surprise to those at SPTC!
If you would like to have a look at the full report go to: www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk