Families as Partners in Learning
Principals and teaching staff
Why are partnerships important?
The National Context
Commitment to Action: Developing stronger partnerships
“Parents, carers and families are the first and most important
influence in a child's life, instilling the values that will support young
people to participate in schooling and contribute to broader local and
global communities.”
(Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth
Affairs, December 2008)
The Victorian Context
School – Community Integration
“Parental and family involvement in schooling and learning is a key lever to
improving outcomes”.
“Through integration with parents, the local community, business, government
and community organisations, schools can lift outcomes for their students”
(Minister Dixon’s Victoria as a Learning Community presentation, November 2011)
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We need a change in focus
From:
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Involving families only when it suits the school
The attitude: “this is the way we’ve always done it”
Family engagement is just helping with homework
“Parents in this school are not interested in their child’s education”
To:
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All families can play a role in their child’s learning throughout their
school years.
Family engagement in learning can take many forms and includes:
asking their child to explain what they are learning
ensuring their child has a space to study
helping their child access sporting or community based programs
ensuring the child is getting adequate rest.
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“…if educators make use of the informal learning
that occurs in the homes and communities of
students, the achievement gap between
marginalized students and mainstream
students can be reduced.”
(LIFE Center – University of Washington, Stanford University & SRI
International supported by the National Science Foundation)
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Life-long and life-wide learning
Source: LIFE Centre: http://www.life-slc.org/life-center/about
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The research in unequivocal…
• Family involvement can have a major impact on student
learning, regardless of the social or cultural background
of the family
• High performing schools have high levels of family and
community involvement
• Family participation in education has been found to be
twice as predictive of students’ academic success as
family socio-economic status
Benefits for children & young people
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Improved literacy and numeracy outcomes
Higher self-esteem
Improved social competence and language skills
Increased retention rates
Increased enrolment in post-compulsory education
Improved attendance and homework completion
Improved connection to culture and sense of pride
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Benefits for families
• Their children do better and achieve more
• More aware of their children’s social, emotional and
intellectual developmental needs
• Better able to help & encourage their children
• Have more information about their children’s education
• Build their own confidence & skills
• Improved relationships with school staff
• Concerns are quickly addressed when parents have a
positive relationship with staff
Benefits for staff
Improvements in:
• communication to and from families
• community support
Additional support from families by:
• bringing skills which complement the teacher’s skills &
expertise
• reinforcing the learning from school at home
Which ultimately lead to better:
• student behaviour
• student achievement
Barriers to the formation of Partnerships
Parent perspective:
• Feel they have little to offer
• Embarrassed about own education level / linguistic abilities
• Feel unwelcome / intimidated / talked down to by the school or
its parent organisations
• Have little time during the school day to come into the school but
no other avenues of partnership offered
• Teacher's assumptions of parental disinterest or inability to help
with children's schooling
• Have negative memories of their school years
Barriers to the formation of Partnerships
School perspective:
Perception that families:
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don’t understand the school or the education system
don’t care about their children/don’t know how to parent
are too demanding and interfere too much in the school
Other factors:
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Lack of knowledge of research on the value of family partnerships
Little understanding of how to effectively engage with parents
Structural constraints e.g. lack of child care, access to transport
Schools only contact families when something is wrong
Language & cultural differences
Leadership is critical
• School leadership
– Principal critical in signaling intent to engage families
– Need to role model effective engagement with families
– Encourage whole of school approaches
– Provide orientation / training for parents
• Parent leadership
– Schools tend to rely on pre-existing capacities of a small
number of parents
– Alternative is to increase capacity of larger number of
parents – eg via training and support
So what does this mean for our school?
• 1:3:6 discussion, consider:
• What does this means for our school?
• Where might be opportunities for exploring, commencing or
building partnerships?
• What barriers might exist?
• What are the implications of not doing anything to advance
family-school partnerships?
• Be prepared to share your responses with all staff
Families as Partners in Learning website
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For early childhood services and schools
DEECD’s vision of family partnerships
Provides information on the importance of family
partnerships
Summarises the research and evidence around
effective family partnerships
Outlines the benefits and challenges to effective
family partnerships
Resources for Schools section
• Conversation starters for staff and families to raise awareness
• Identifies 7 dimensions of Family School Partnerships and provides
for each:
• Examples of success including case studies of effective
practice
• Links to other DEECD resources
• Tools
How to get started…
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The website is a tool that you can dip into at your own
pace
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Schools are not required to implement every strategy
across each dimension
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The website contains a number of surveys to help
schools reflect on their family-school partnerships.
These include:
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Understanding family engagement in your school
Teachers beliefs about family involvement
Teacher reports of invitations to parental involvement
Teacher beliefs about the importance of specific involvement practices
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Preparing for family-school partnerships
For further information
• Families as Partners in Learning website, DEECD
(www.education.vic.gov.au/partnerships)
• Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau
(www.familyschool.org.au)