In March 2013, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning announced that there was a requirement to constantly improve the quality of information being offered to parents. From the evidence available, parents are more likely to become involved and engaged in their child’s education if they have the right information, not just more information.
The Cabinet Secretary identified the need to have a website that helps parents make sense of a rich range of materials and information.
Education Scotland, the national improvement agency for Scotland undertook the task of bringing together the previous Parentzone and Scottish Schools Online websites to form
Parentzone Scotland. Information on the refreshed Parentzone Scotland website is managed by Education Scotland and it now forms a single one stop shop for parents.
Parentzone Scotland has six high level sections (or page s). These are ‘My school’, ‘My child’, ‘Learning in Scotland’, ‘Learning at home’, ‘Additional Support Needs’, ‘Getting involved’. The six high level sections contain information on:

My Child - information on the particular stages of a child’s educational journey, supporting your child through transitions and keeping them safe.

Learning in Scotland – information about the curriculum from early years to beyond school.

Learning at home – helpful hints and tips on how parents and carers can support their children’s learning at home including literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and science.

My School - contact details for every primary, secondary and special school in
Scotland, information on school awards, links to school websites.

Additional support needs – identifying needs, planning support and useful information about specific additional support needs.

Getting involved - how to get more involved in your children’s school, Parent Councils and information from the National Parent Forum of Scotland.
Extensive consultation took place on the design and format of the Parentzone Scotland website to ensure that it is accessible to as many parents and carers as possible including those with additional support needs, both genders, and ethnic minority communities.
Since going live in December 2014, the Parentzone Scotland website has been accessed by countries outwith the United Kingdom (see Graph 1). These countries include: United States of America, India, Australia, Ireland, Span, Germany, Canada, France and Poland.
Monthly visits (sessions) to Parentzone Scotland since the website went live, fluctuate with the lowest (apart from December 2015) being 21,209 in July and the highest being 48,000 in
March 2015. There is a notable surge in traffic at specific points in time when new information, such as the performance data, is released and also when there has been media
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 1

coverage on certain issues. Further information is available in Graph 2. Average daily visits
(sessions) to the website since December 2015 is 1,288.
Users predominantly arrive at the Parentzone Scotland website from an organic search (77%) through a search engine such as Google (Graph 3). This is common across all websites and not specific to Parentzone Scotland. Visits to the website have also come from users who:
 were referred to Parentzone Scotland by clicking on links on other website pages
(13%)
 took a more direct route to Parentzone Scotland eg by clicking email links, using browser bookmarks, copying and pasting the URL into the browser address bar (9%)
 have clicked links to Parentzone Scotland from within social platforms like Facebook,
Twitter etc (0.7%).
The devices used to access Parentzone Scotland include desktops (52%), mobiles (30%) and tablets (18%).
The top ten pages visited by users include: Find a school - My school, Home page, My child,
Glossary, Primary, General school information, Understanding inspection and review,
Secondary, Learning in Scotland, Learning at home.
The most popular downloads during the period December 2014 to September 2015 were:

Attendance and absence background

 notes
Performance data technical information
Attainment and staying on rates

Reading tips primary

Reading tips early years

Leaver destination background notes

CfE briefing for parents

Information for parents and carers

P7 profile learners
There are currently 17 video clips available to view on Parentzone Scotland. Video clips vary in duration from 0:39 secs to 4:30 secs. Feedback on the content and relevance of the video is very positive. Despite this, the videos have not been well utilised by users. Four of the 17 video clips have never been played (see Graph 4). There is no pattern to suggest that the longer video clips have higher drop-off statistics nor that the shorter clips have been viewed for longer periods of time. Video consumption would appear to be dependent on topic.
Parents who had viewed some videos on Parentzone Scotland described these as being a very useful resource which were not patronising for viewers and were necessary for those who may have literacy difficulties. A suggestion was made that videos should be put on
YouTube with a view to bringing users from that website back to Parentzone Scotland. Some parents who attended the focus groups felt that YouTube would be an initial starting point for visual resources rather than Parentzone Scotland.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 2

Two workshops were held during August 2015 with Education Scotland staff who have responsibility for contributing to the content of Parentzone Scotland, the National Parent
Forum of Scotland (NPFS) and the Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network (SPION).
The workshop was held with a view to allowing Education Scotland staff to:
 hear from parents about the topics they would like to see on Parentzone Scotland and about the format that is most appropriate for parents
 hear from practitioners in the local authorities about the way they use Parentzone
Scotland as a resource for them to support parents
 have an input from the online team regarding guidance and style when writing new content for the website
 realise the potential of Parentzone Scotland for the various areas of work
 be aware of each team’s responsibility to ensure that information for parents is current
 review the proposed quality assurance protocol for Parentzone Scotland
 discuss ideas on the range of topics to be added to the site over the coming year and consider good practice examples to sit alongside relevant topics
Feedback from representatives of the National Parent Forum of Scotland (NPFS) and potential topics for future included:

Parentzone Scotland is a very accessible and responsive website which contains a great deal of quality information for parents and is parent friendly. The website contains good links to a variety of sources and information. There is more work required to add other content on a range of topics but also to provide practical information about how parents can contribute an d support their child’s learning. More interactive content would be good. Consideration should be given to: raising awareness about the website across Parent Councils, Local Authorities and parents; the use of cookies; continuing to ensure that content is concise and does not contain jargon; more use of social media eg Twitter/Facebook/Blogs; the issues which arise for parents at the different times of the year.
The Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network (SPION) undertook their own review by reflecting on the legislative requirements (Parental Involvement Act 2006), who Parentzone
Scotland was for, the purpose and intention of the website, the need to continue to raise attainment and achievement. Reflective questions discussed by SPION included:

How good is our Parentzone

Areas for change.

Topics which require further Scotland?

Is Parentzone Scotland a useful resource from parental and
 information.
Do parents value Parentzone practitioner perspectives?

Three things practitioners
Scotland and does it have a positive impact? liked/disliked about the website.
Feedback and evaluation of Parentzone Scotland by SPION in response to the above reflective questions were:

Parentzone Scotland is an easy to access website which contains very good information on one site. The website is ‘uncluttered’, has good links to information and documents, has reference to Parent Councils and the Parental Involvement Act.
A dislike of the site from one person was that it could be quite wordy. Further clarification and/or examples would be required to address this for future. It was felt that parents should be asked directly about topics for future.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 3

Ideas/comments for the way ahead were:

Continue to keep it clean and tidy. More awareness raising of the site with local authorities, Parent Councils, through school handbooks, social media. Share good practice examples of working together. Celebrate success – good practice/case studies. Continue to engage with parents. Role for SPION and other organisations to work with parents on Parentzone Scotland and to contribute eg Pathfinders.
Remember Parentzone Scotland is about the national messages but the audience for is wider than parents. Consider a blog on Parentzone Scotland and using widgets for videos.
Impacts and benefits of Parentzone Scotland:

More information about their child ren’s education. Builds parents’ knowledge and confidence. Positive relationship between parents/schools. Reassurance that parents are at the heart of children’s learning. The website is being used by parents to check if Local Authorities are compliant in areas.
 Learning is not a spectator sport so let’s play!
Comments and suggestions were invited from users on the existing and future content of
Parentzone Scotland through a short online survey. A total of 37 responses were received from the survey which ran from 21st August 2015 to 11th September 2015. Of the 37 responses, 20 respondents had not visited Parentzone Scotland in the last 6 months compared to 17 respondents who had visited the website. Respondents were asked to identify what information they had been looking for. Responses included:

General information (7 users)

Parent Council (6 users)

National Parent Forum of Scotland (5

Additional support needs (2 users)

Scottish Parent Teacher Council (2
 users)
Assessment and achievement (3 users)

Parent forum (2 users)

Early learning and childcare and/or
 users)
Reporting to parents (3 users)
 How to get involved in child’s school
(3 users) school inspections (1 user)

Other: British sign language; assessment different levels; new exams
Users were asked to identify (from a pre-defined list) what information they would like to see included on Parentzone Scotland in the future.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 4

Responses included:
 Children’s rights (11 users)

Building stronger relationships with your child/young person (16 users)

Other curricular areas (11 users)
 Information about children’s development from pre-birth (3 users)

Information to support your young person beyond higher education (13 users)

Other additional support needs (9 users):
 How to teach your child to read and write – to reinforce what is taught in school
 Information on the named person and how it will work
 Guidance on education for children and young people unable to attend school due to ill health, for parents, by parents
 Parents
’ rights and what parents can do to get help. Points of contact.
In addition to the workshops above, focus groups were held with parents in primary and secondary schools across six local authorities in Scotland (South Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire,
Angus, Argyll & Bute, Scottish Borders and Inverclyde). The purpose of the focus groups was to work with parents to help review and refresh Parentzone Scotland content. The focus groups looked at the:
 existing structure of Parentzone Scotland
 possible new topics for the website
 the presentation and impact of the performance data presented on Parentzone
Scotland
Fifty nine parents attended the focus groups. Headteachers from each school were also present at the focus groups. Representatives from the National Parent Forum of Scotland
(NPFS) and the Scottish Parental Involvement Officers Network (SPION) were invited to attend. One representative from the National Parent Forum of Scotland attended one focus group. A representative from the Scottish Parental involvement Officers Network attended two focus groups.
Parents who attended the focus groups had children and young people from across all stages of education including early years, primary, secondary and university. Nineteen parents identified themselves as being Parent Council members.
Feedback on the contents of Parentzone Scotland are provided below by section.
‘My child’
There was a general consensus across all focus groups that this section of the website was clear and contained the right information. Information on transitions and internet safety was well received. Suggestions and comments were:
 Would it be possible to add in age ranges after the titles ‘Early years’, ‘Primary’ and
‘Secondary’.
 The term ‘early years’ is not known to everyone - should this be in the language of the user or shown as the known term?

More information on: deferred entry; two year olds entitlement to starting an early learning and childcare setting; entitlements when starting eg school meals, reports, class sizes, explain the curriculum framework; school catchment areas; choices; dates to apply to an early learning and childcare setting; what children need to know or do
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 5

themselves eg put on their coat and shoes; additional support; transitioning from another country eg Armed forces families (or links to another page with this information); childminders and a link to the Family Information Service; useful questions to ask your child to find out about their day at school.

Internet safety – add in information for parents about YouTube; split internet safety down by age; social media (coming soon).

Could there be more movement (of objects) on the landing page to make this more eye catching i.e. ticker titles? The page is quite static.
‘Learning in Scotland’
‘Learning in Scotland’ was believed to be an appropriate and clear title for this section.
Suggestions and comments were:

It would be good to have age ranges in the title s ‘Learning in the early years’, Broad
General Education’ and ‘Senior phase’.

Need continuity of terms junior phase / senior phase.
 Change bereavement title to ‘grief / loss / bereavement’.

More information on assessment and achievement.
 Provide examples of questions that parents can consider when attending Parents’
Meetings to help build confidence eg Where is my child in relation to the rest of the class? What is my child’s reading age? What testing is happening in school?
Reporting to parents? What does best practice for parents ’ night look like?

More information on what is taught in the various subject areas.

Provide information on the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study.

Add in assessment examples from across Scotland or links to schools.

Could more information be provided on university applications eg deadline dates; personal statements; UCAS forms.
‘Learning at home’
Feedback on the ‘Learning at home’ section from parents was extremely positive.
Suggestions and comments were:

Additional information needed on: the named person; advice for parents who see other children who are vulnerable; videos/booklets to show parents how to do calculations etc in numeracy (coming soon); links to Read Write Count; clarification on
‘close reading’; parents who struggle to help with homework; supporting your child without waiting for the school to provide information; recognising anxieties in your child and how parents can support them.

Can links be made: to Smithsonian from the science pages; from literacy to the dyslexia page; to school websites for examples on supported study; between general bullying behaviours and additional support needs bullying; additional links from supported study to the various curricular areas.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 6

My school
Overall, this section was well received. Suggestions and comments were:
 Could questions be added in for parents when attending Parents’ meetings?

Most parents are not aware of Glow, neither can they access it.

Could the title be changed to ‘Glow Schools IT’?
‘Additional support needs’
The comprehensive information and clarity on additional support needs and links to legislation in one single place was very well received. Suggestions and comments were:

Additional information needed on: confidence building for ‘shy children and young people’; attainment gap between boys and girls and the links with gaming; dyspraxia; dyscalculia; new complaints; entitlements for children who cannot access national examinations; medical conditions, disabilities, chronic illnesses; medicine administration; entitlement to additional examination time for dyslexia pupils; supported study for children with additional support needs; the role of Educational psychologists in Scotland; information for Armed forces families (or links to another page with this information – see above).

Clarification that this section is not just about additional support needs for learning.
 Need to make the information on ‘highly able pupils’ more visible or make the explanation clearer.
 Would parents look for information on ‘bereavement’ under social and emotional factors?
‘Getting involved’
The ‘Getting Involved’ section did not raise many concerns from parents at the focus groups.
The information on Protecting Vulnerable Groups was well received. Question raised included:

Is there additional funding for Parent Councils in areas of deprivation?
 If children’s rights are being taught in schools, parents should know what these are.

Can information on the National Parenting Strategy be added in?

Can the accounts and fundraising text be moved?

How do parents find out about Parentzone Scotland?

Video with parents talking about their story/journey of how they became involved in
Parent Councils – the personal benefits of getting involved.
Performance data on the attainment and destinations of school leavers across Scotland was released in March 2015. Consultation was carried out with parents and school staff in four local authorities, colleagues and relevant stakeholders regarding the narrative and presentation of the data. Further more recent consultation with parents was undertaken with the above six local authorities on the narrative and presentation of the data.
The narrative and presentation of the data continues to receive very mixed reactions.
Comments on the narrative and visual presentation (graphs or tables) are clearly divided by user preferences, current understanding of the curriculum, stage of their own child/young person, (personal) additional support needs, Parent Council involvement and interaction with
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 7

the headteacher/own school, interest in statistical/background information, geographical area, personal background and occupation.
Parental views were also divided as to whether this information was for them and if
Parentzone Scotland was the correct place for the data. Parents who lived in remote communities did not have the choice of sending their children to alternative secondary schools in the same way that urban communities did. It was felt by these parents that this data was therefore not of interest to them. For these parents, the effectiveness and reputation of schools within a community were influenced by more than performance data.
Comments on the use of the virtual comparator were evenly divided with some stating a preference for local and national data rather than a virtual comparator. Concern was raised about the virtual comparator changing year on year and this not being a consistent comparison. There was a mixed level of understanding around how the virtual comparator was comprised.
A suggestion was made by one parent that a video clip would be good to explain the performance data to help reduce the amount of text required. Other parents commented that there were too many graphs or that the graphs on their own, without the text, would be sufficient. A few parents requested a paragraph which stated whether the school was doing well or not.
Introductory performance data narrative
Suggestions and comments:

Sufficient length of text to set the context without being too technical, or complicated.

Tooltips are helpful.

Narrative at the start could be separated with the last four paragraphs being available in a pdf downloadable document. A paragraph explaining what data is presented below is all that is required.

Different colours would be visually better.

More simplified language would be good. Text too wordy. This complex information is not of interest to parents. Parents will lose interest quickly if they have to read all the text to understand it. Parents found it easier to understand when verbally explained to them.
Positive leaver destinations
Suggestions and comments:

This graph is sufficient. No need for any more after this.

Text and graphs are fine. Clear to see what the positive destinations are.

First paragraph is hard to understand. Too much jargon.

Like the virtual comparator.
 Virtual comparator doesn’t mean anything to parents. Would have preferred the national and local data.

Would be good to have a breakdown of school leavers into S4, S5, S6 and also have a pie chart showing leaver destinations by further/higher education, employment, voluntary work etc.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 8

Attainment in literacy and numeracy
Suggestions and comments were:

Text is sufficient and understandable to provide an overview of how the school is performing. Additional data (up to 3 years) will help to provide a picture of how the school is progressing.

The data in the graphs will help parents who wish to choose a school.

Lack of understanding or confusion around: the old and new qualifications and how these fit in; the difference between SCQF level 4 or better then referring and national
4s.

Too many graphs and too much text.
Attainment in the context of deprivation
Suggestions and comments were:

Very clear message for schools.
Some text/comment on the school’s performance would be good. Schools need to be able to explain the data to parents.

Schools refer to deciles rather than quintiles and this may confuse parents. If these have been grouped, further explanation would be required

Tariff score is difficult to comprehend and it is unclear what message is being presented. Tariff score definition talks about the process rather than what it is.

Parents may prefer this data to be more clearly linked to catchments in their area.

Data will be helpful for the media.

Would the data be useful for young people?

Information on the factors that give rise to deprivation would be useful.
 ‘Percentage of school leavers’ is unclear.
Overall attainment of school leavers
Suggestions and comments were:

Text is sufficient to explain the data and the graphs. Less text on this page is better.

More information required on: gender, arts, science, literature split; what qualifications are included; how other qualifications get ‘picked up’; vocational qualifications; national comparators.

The Duke of Edinburgh is not included.

Presenting the graphs first then the text might work better.

Tariff scale favours different schools depending on the model being used
– not an even picture.

Might be better to show the overall achievement of schools rather than just exam results.

This data might be of more interest or relevance if your child was struggling with literacy and numeracy but it is only a ‘snapshot in time’.

Many parents in small communities may have attended the local schools and they are content that their child goes there as well. Choosing a secondary school based on the attainment of previous school leavers is not considered.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 9

Awards gained by level
Suggestions and comments were:

The presentation of data in this form is not accessible by parents who may have additional support needs. If this data is required, can the awards be grouped and/or presented in a graph to be consistent with previous pages?

Fourth paragraph is particularly difficult to understand. The table does not need text to explain.

It is hard to compare both tables. Could the data be presented in a graph?

Could the data be presented by subjects?
Attendance and absence
Suggestions and comments were:

Individual school comparisons alongside the local and national figures are really informative.

Is it possible to have the virtual comparator as well?

Information on attendance and absence can be misleading to users as it does not explain the variables eg long term absences which can inflate figures by 1 or 2 percent.
 Tooltip definition is needed for ‘authorised’ absence.

Data would be difficult for parents with additional support needs.

Can S6 pupils be included?
Awareness raising – The majority of parents involved in these particular focus groups stated that they had not previously heard about Parentzone Scotland. Parents commented that the website was an excellent resource with credible information in one place and they wished they had known about it previously. This has highlighted the need to raise awareness and the profile of Parentzone more widely. Suggestions to take this forward could include: preparing a pack for distribution to Parent Councils through the Scottish Parental Involvement
Officers Network; preparing text for inclusion in school newsletters/Facebook pages etc; preparing posters for distribution in libraries, doctors ’ surgeries, schools, TV/social media campaign with pupils as parents.
Postcards were produced to promote Parentzone Scotland at the Scottish Learning Festival.
Practitioners were very positive about the website and notified their intention to link from their school’s website to Parentzone Scotland and also to display the postcards in their school reception area.
Parental requests – Other requests received from parents were to: have a Facebook page for Parentzone Scotland to provide a discussion forum; translate the website into other languages; provide the facility to change colours on the graphs.
Video consumption – Parents expressed that there was an appetite and need for videos on the website. Given the figures on video consumption, consideration needs to be given to including these in the future or to relocating these on the website. Producing video clips is time consuming on staffing and resources.
Performance data – Parents continue to question whether the performance data should sit on the Parentzone Scotland website. Acknowledgement has been given to the efforts made in
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 10

simplifying the data and narrative. However, parents question whether this data is more relevant and interesting to senior management in schools rather than them. Some parents acknowledged that the data can be a good starting point for discussion with their headteacher over the performance of their school.
Future focus groups – Consultations on Parentzone Scotland have taken a very structured format with set questions and a particular focus. It may be an idea in future to have a less structured format and hear directly from parents about issues surrounding their child’s learning that they are currently facing, with a view to identifying topics for inclusion in the website.
Content refresh and quality assurance process – There is a need for content to be developed, refreshed and quality assured on a consistent and on-going basis with internal staff across curricular areas and for this to be more embedded into the business planning processes.
This can be difficult to sustain and embed at times given the changes in staffing. Parentzone
Scotland also requires to have information on new national initiatives as they are released. e-bulletins – To date, 1,575 users have subscribed to the Parents and Carers e-bulletin and
5,300 users to the Children and Families e-bulletin (increase from 384 and 4,796 respectively in December 2014). Sign-up to these e-bulletins is from Parentzone Scotland home page.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 11

United Kingdom
United States
India
Australia
Ireland
Spain
Germany
Canada
France
Poland
Rest
Total
Scotland
England
Northern Ireland
Wales
(not set)
Isle of Man
Total
317,458
3,640
1,989
1,595
1,426
1,313
1,182
1,013
713
713
9,974
225,640
88,252
1,745
1,557
169
95
317,458
93.09%
1.07%
0.58%
0.47%
0.42%
0.39%
0.35%
0.30%
0.21%
0.21%
2.92%
71.08%
27.80%
0.55%
0.49%
0.05%
0.03%
100%
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 12

3868 47484 35458 48000 35889 42802 44164 21209 40616 24290
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Mar-15 Apr-15 May-15 Jun-15 Jul-15 Aug-15 Sep-15
Organic search
Referral
Direct
Social
263,125
43,826
31,519
2,533
77.16%
12.85%
9.24%
0.74%
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 13

Graph 4
60
40
20
0
120
100
80
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Clicked play button
10%
20%
30%
40%
14

Videos never played
Early years
Primary
– Down on the Farm
– Birds on Loch Leven
Duration
00:07:02
00:06:26
CfE in action Perth Papers
Kennel Club: In the dog house
00:03:56
00:05:49
*Google Analytics tracks video consumption through events. When the video play button is clicked, the 0% complete event is triggered, when 10% of the video has been reached, the 10% complete event is triggered. There tends to be a drop-off as users progress through the video eg fewer will complete 100% events
(video finishes) than complete 0% events (video starts). Where drop-off in events is less likely to happen is for short duration video where the likelihood of consuming the video through to the end is a good bit higher. Events are not individual users. For example, if a user starts a video and plays 20% of that video then they will b e counted in the 0% complete “register”, 10% complete “register” and 20% complete “register”. Users may well return and play the video again, either in the same visit/session or indeed in a different visit (the following day, for example). On return, users may reach 70% complete. Events are being accumulated/registered for the various interactions with the video, but there is only one user.
Review and refresh of Parentzone Scotland website – October 2015 15