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Parental involvement
in multi-ethnic schools
Parent/teacher
consultations and open evenings
Breaking through
barriers between home and school
All three primary schools in our case studies recognised parents' desire
for their children to succeed. They focused on listening carefully and
being responsive to parents. As a result, very good relationships had
gradually been built up with parents, who in return had become very supportive
of the schools. Most of the primary schools studied reported at least
90% turnout for parents' evenings, even though some parents were unable
to speak English. This was a result of some effort on the part of the
schools initially to break through barriers between home and school, and
to make parents feel welcome partners in the education of their children.
Northern Infants had set up a Parent Interview project, which had been
running for several years. Initially, the Home-School Liaison Teacher
visited homes individually to invite people to interviews, with a leaflet,
and went round again on the day before, asking "Will you come?". She recalled
that talking with parents in their homes was "like a dress rehearsal",
so they knew what teachers would be likely to ask when they came up to
school. The school fixed appointments on certain afternoons for different
language speakers, and booked an appropriate interpreter for each session.
As this had been successful, the school then decided to release a class
teacher every Wednesday afternoon for consultations, and notes were sent
home giving appointments. Interpreters continued to be provided.
As well as discussing issues raised by parents, parents were given advice
at these meetings on ways of helping their children; for example by using
libraries, giving children quiet space and time, if possible, for reaching
and encouraging school work and learning to carry on at home. Special
needs issues were also raised with parents where necessary. The child
joined the meeting for the last five minutes to discuss the targets that
had been set with the parents, and, importantly, to see that the parents
and teachers were in agreement on these targets. The school had a strong
commitment to maintaining this highly successful one-to-one encounter
between parents and teachers. The Head commented: "If we have to stop
everything else, this stays; parent interviews have been the most important
thing in raising achievement."
All agreed that the one-to-one consultations at a parents' evening (or
open evening) were the single most important event which focused the attention
of the parents and teachers on the progress of each child. Whilst the
purpose of these meetings was supported by all, the way they were conducted
and the effects they had on some parents were the source of either amusement
or frustration to parents in our focus groups. For some parents, the open
evening was at best a wasted opportunity and at worst a waste of their
own time. Experiences of open evenings were recounted by parents with
some amusement.
Pakistani parent: "There's a whole queue right outside waiting for you to have your
say and get out so they can get in, have their say and then that's it
until the next one comes in... 'Oh, your child's fine', that's it, off,
next one..."
Pakistani parent: "The people who can't speak English, they are just asked to check their children's work, sign a piece of paper, and if they [seem] satisfied,
she just says that your child is very, very good, takes the paper, looks
at her watch..." (laughter from rest of group).
The apparent amusement hid some deep concerns not only about the conduct
of open evenings, but about the relationship that teachers had with minority
ethnic group parents and students. This was discussed in an earlier chapter
on parental views. Most of all, they felt that they wanted to be treated
with respect and for teachers not to assume that language or culture rendered
them incapable of understanding or deciding what was best for their children.
The discussions about open evenings exposed some of the weaknesses of
a system that is considered by many to be an important area of parental
involvement in children's education. Most parents felt that there needed
to be more flexibility in the arrangements for parents to meet with teachers.
Some parents were unable to go to the school at the time allotted to them
and felt unsure about how welcome they would be if they arranged to go
to the school at a different time. Some did not feel confident enough
to make these arrangements and thought the school would consider this
to be an imposition. In many instances, it seemed to them that teachers
measured parents' interest in their children's education by the parents'
attendance at open evenings. It was common to hear teachers say, "It's
those parents who we really need to see that don't turn up". However,
in some schools, meetings seemed fixed in a way that took no account of
working parents.
African-Caribbean parent:
"They give you three choices [of appointment times]. I filled in
the choice that was best for me and I wrote to say why, because I'm
at college, but then, on the Friday, they just sent a letter back with
the children, saying that this is the time, this is the date... I am very
concerned about that because I am at college that day and I wouldn't
like to give the impression that I'm not interested in my child because
I am very, very interested in what my child is doing."
Timing meetings is difficult: some cannot leave children alone at home
in the evening, some work days, others work shifts, some parents fear
being out after dark. Smalltown Primary varied the timing of its termly
'consultation evenings' from after-school to early evening, in order to
reach parents with different needs at some time over the year at least.
It was important to realise that most parents cared deeply about their
children's progress, and to find different strategies for reaching them.
Other parents worried about attending open evenings because they thought
language might be a barrier and were unsure of the arrangements for interpreters.
Alton Primary took care to let all parents know that interpreters would
be present. The primary schools we visited arranged a number of opportunities
to communicate with parents about their child's learning: termly consultation
meetings, after-school open-door sessions on set days of the week, briefing
sessions on school curriculum issues, the sending of curriculum outlines
home each half-term, curriculum outlines written up on posters outside
the school door, and home-school reading diaries.
In relation to the general concerns of parents, it was clear that what
parents wanted was useful information about their children - information
which gave them an understanding of what their children were doing, how
they were doing and what parents could do to help. The opening evening,
if organised well and parents' interest in their children taken seriously,
was a good opportunity to discuss this.
One black Headteacher at a focus group meeting summed up well some of
the concerns of minority group parents:
"There's an issue that comes up constantly, you know about choosing
schools for their boys and all the worries the parents have about where
they might end up and whether they'll follow their peer group."
With poorer families, "... it's issues about affording things, you know, having the vouchers to buy the uniform."
With refugee parents:
"... There's a real issue of disconnection from their children... You
get parents coming in, almost bewildered because they don't know what's
happening to their children. You get the boys starting to absent themselves
from school. They spend their time in the snooker hall, they gamble,
and I suspect [have] quite serious connections with drugs. I think the
gap you get between the parents and the children can be enormous because
if you don't speak the same language as your child, there's a real issue
about how you see the world, isn't there?"
Parents did not only want consultation on academic achievement. There
were fears expressed about their children slipping away from their control
and becoming involved in sub-cultures which were detrimental to education.
Parents expressed disquiet about the cultural gap that occurred between
themselves and their children when their children reached adolescence.
They wanted opportunities to discuss what was happening with teachers
and for teachers to share with the parents the privileged information
which they had about young people in Britain today. Teachers, it was felt,
had enormous influence on the children because the children spent so much
more time with their teachers than they did with their parents. The teachers
were more likely to know what the children were up to during the day than
the parents.
Bangladeshi parent:
"In our community, when the children are 12, 13 years, they are taking
drugs, they are smoking, they are bunking school... Schools and parents
and teachers and parents should communicate about that. Schools can
take the initiative... The parents are not educated to know what is their
responsibility. They don't know what their children are doing, whether
their boys or girls were in school that day or gone somewhere taking
drugs."
The issue of homework was another issue on which parents wanted to be
kept informed.
Bangladeshi parent: "When the children go home the parents should know what they do in
school, what subjects they are doing, if they had a test, what grade
they had. The parents and the teachers have to work together..."
Parents did not think that important issues like children not doing their
homework, or not coming to school, or misbehaving, should be left to the
annual or biennial meeting, but that parents should be informed at once,
via the telephone wherever possible.
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