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Parental involvement
in multi-ethnic schools
Communication
with parents
Requiring greater resourcefulness and imagination than in other schools
Most discussions, whether with parents or teachers, centred on the systems
of communication set up by schools to enable parents to participate more
fully in their children's education. It was clear that for a variety of
reasons, systems of communication in multi-ethnic schools required greater
resourcefulness and imagination than they did in other schools. Strategies
for communicating with parents which apply to all schools generally, include
letters, telephone calls, students' reports and open or parents' evenings.
The best schools had developed good 'front desk' reception practice, which
showed awareness of minority ethnic group needs and sensitivities (including
bilingual office staff where needed).
Most of the schools in our study also had regular newsletters which went
out to parents to inform them of current and forthcoming events in the school.
Schools also made efforts to translate information for parents. One produced
its entire prospectus in Bengali as well as English, whilst another linguistically
diverse school had the prospectus and standard letters available in each
of the major languages. This school's newsletter also went out to parents
in all major languages, every six weeks. One primary school had translated
its parents' guide to reading with their children into a number of languages.
Northern Infants paid for a translator so that letters could regularly be
sent home in Bengali. At one secondary school, all communication with parents,
including the school prospectus, was in both Urdu and English.
However, the letter was not generally seen as the most efficient system
of communication. There were problems of letters getting lost, not being
delivered by children, or being intercepted by children and so never reaching
the parents. There was also the problem that parents might not be able to
read. Parents told us that this was not their preferred method of communication.
African-Caribbean parent: "They tend to send you a letter with the dates
of things happening for a whole term. Now that piece of paper could go missing.
Or they'll send you a letter the day before asking you to come into school."
Bangladeshi parent: "I think an approach that would be better than writing
letters would be to give them (parents) a quick call, a personal call on
the phone, 'We need you here at 2 o'clock'. That type of approach would
be better than just dropping this paper into a five-year-old's hand."
Most schools found that the personal phone call was the method most appreciated
and therefore most effective for communicating about individual children.
In some schools the telephone was generally used to inform parents about
a student's absence, a disciplinary issue, and in some situations to commend
a student for his or her achievements. As parents could come to expect a
telephone call from their child's school to be bad news, some schools went
out of their way to ensure that where individuals had done something good,
parents were informed personally by telephone and the child given a letter
of congratulation.
Secondary teacher:
"We had an African-Caribbean boy who was quite difficult
and challenging. He lived with his grandma. The school gave a party for
the old folks in the area and the students hosted and entertained the
old people. This boy just took control of the party and made it a huge
success. At the end, the grandma was phoned and was heard in the background
saying, 'I hope you are not in trouble again!' Grandma was over the moon
when she heard about what he had done and the fact that the party had
been such a success had been down to him."
This teacher was of the opinion that there were important lessons to be
learnt about how to communicate with parents from minority ethnic groups.
She thought that some groups (and in particular the mothers) might consider
that a letter to the family about a child was a comment about the whole
family and how the child was brought up. It was important to make sure that
parents knew that judgement was not being passed on how they brought up
their children.
There were other issues which parents thought could be better communicated
at an organised meeting of parents rather than through letters. The question
of extended leave was one example, and sex education was another.
Schools paid attention to dietary needs. A menu for the week was displayed
outside the canteen at Midlands Primary, and Muslim parents in particular
found this very useful. One explained how she could plan with her child
what he was going to eat, and so was sure that he was eating appropriately.
For Muslim parents, the importance a school gave to making menus clear,
and making it easy for students and, for primary children, their parents
to signal choices easily, was taken as an indication of respect.
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