This is the presentation from Paul Campbell and Susan Liveston, delivered during the NPFS annual conference 2012.

1. Paul Campbell – Clarkston Primary
School
Susan Liveston – Hyndland Primary
School

2. But we don’t claim to
have a panacea, to
know everything Provocative and
about effective challenging
parental partnership ideas/questions?
in learning or to have
all the answers to the We can promise that.
questions we are
raising.
- Japanese Proverb

3. • Commitment to the area of working with families.
• Recognition and understanding of wider policy area and implications
on practice.
• Focus for practice, professional learning and development and under
continual review.
• Engagement with the wider education debate.
• Share, discuss, challenge ideas, engage with a wider demographic
of partners in education.
• Share what we see as important and key next steps for progression
and improvement.

4. • Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) – Building the Curriculum
• Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC)
• Advancing Professionalism in Teaching – McCormac
• Teaching Scotland’s Future – Donaldson
• Commission on School Reform
• Quality and Improvement in Scottish Education Report
• Curriculum for Excellence Impact Reports

5. WHAT?
WHO?
HOW?
• The Journey from Good to Great to Excellent
• Involvement, expectations and rights of the relevant partners in the
education and learning of our children and young people

6. • Time
• Family circumstances
• Geography
• Lack of confidence
• Unfamiliarity
With barriers come ideas and approaches that can
overcome them. But it takes time, as well as active and
sustained dialogue between relevant stakeholders with a
practical focus on improving experiences, achievements
and outcomes of all learners.

7. • System wide variation:
Healthy but practically there are wide unfortunate
variations.
How do we embed the key elements – agree the key
elements?
• Agreed broad national framework to allow for local
interpretation:
Positive and necessary but can be a potential challenge.
• Sharing local innovation.
• Redefining the policy-maker.

8. • What is parental involvement?
Consider the following reflective questions in groups of 2-4.
1. What do you consider to be effective parental
involvement and in what way does it happen in your
establishment/ associated educational setting/ sector?
2. How are you supporting/ encouraging effective and
meaningful involvement of parents in their child’s
learning?

9. Effective partnership and involvement has to start with communication.
Communication is key to having effective and meaningful partnership with
parents.
It takes a tailored, relevant approach agreed by all involved.
This can be done in a variety of ways:-
• Face-to-face appointments
• Chats at the gate
• Letters/notes
• Phone calls
• Class blogs
• Twitter/ Facebook/ GLOW page and updates
• Drop in sessions
• Open mornings/afternoons
Considerations (not exhaustive):
communication preferences, time commitments and constraints, personal
and social circumstances, required tools/ input, expectations

10. • Establishing effective practice at local levels with mechanisms to
collaborate a share between professionals, parents and community
partners, devised, developed and sustained locally.
• Broader range of communication tools and mechanisms advocated and
in place; harnessing the full potential of technology and social media.
• Greater involvement of the ‘everyday, busy’ parent and teacher
(children’s learning, school life, policy development and decision
making)
• Move beyond the ‘call for evidence’, ‘opportunities to respond’,
‘representatives from all parties’ to a model of localised community
partnership working/implementation (and interpretation)/review groups
(e.g. curriculum, qualifications, assessment, reporting, partnership
mechanisms)
…with regular meaningful opportunities for feeding back to national
groups/bodies.

11. • We know it’s right.
• Our children deserve the best; better than we are doing.
• The school as the community hub.
• Reconceptualising the learning process – there is still
work to do. Not just at policy level, but practically and
meaningfully.
• Valuing what our children and young people value.

12. • Curriculum News / Newsletters and updates
• Homework Log – tips/hints and two way communication
• Letters communicated to and from parents
• Being available to talk to parents outside at the end of the day
• Appointments to talk to individual parents
• Open door system for all
• Open days
• Meet the Teacher
• Display of Work
• Parent helpers
• Class Blogs
• Shared Learning Journals
• Personal Learning Plans
• Peer-initiated and led professional learning networks
• Openness to new ideas and approaches
• Engagement in the wider policy debate
• Commitment to career long professional learning and development
• Commitment to engaging with parents, families and community partners to
ensure the best experiences and achievements possible

13. • Complete the table by identifying all the parental
involvement opportunities that are offered by your school
or establishment.
• On a scale of 1 to 6, grade their success in terms of (for
example) raising achievement, positive pupil attitudes,
behaviours and attendance, and encouraging parental
participation (with 1 being the least successful and 6 the
most successful).
• Identify what made it successful.

14. There isn’t a panacea, Reflection.
there aren’t answers Ideas.
to all the challenging Communication.
questions. But there Evaluation.
are actions to go with Revolution.
visions. Transformation.
- Japanese Proverb