Connected Education - Engaging families to raise achievement

Connected Education is a model that helps schools better engage with families. We work closely with schools to:

Engage parents and young people in school improvement planning
Minimise barriers and increase parental interest and involvement in children’s learning
Develop strong and sustainable relationships with parents and carers
Reach the least engaged parents and young people

The Connected Education model works in two stages

Stage One engages parents, young people and practitioners to identify and explore issues and solutions. Parents and young people work as peer researchers to gather the views and experiences of the wider school community. We provide thorough analysis and feedback to enable practitioners, parents and young people to reflect upon current practices and plan for improvements that will really make a difference.

Our model provides schools with real, in-depth insight into the lives of families. It ensures that future initiatives and resources can be most effectively targeted according to the different needs of families.

For example, in our East Sussex project we looked at the experiences of families:

In which the children were entitled to Free School Meals
In which a child had special educational needs or disabilities
In which parents had only limited engagement in education themselves
In which parents lived apart from the child
In which the parent had been a teenage mum or dad

Stage Two – Building on the research from Stage One, we bring schools and parents together to set up financially self-sustaining partnership projects.

We promote an active, participatory culture, in which the underlying ethos is that every member of a school community has something worth giving, and every member of a school community can benefit.

Examples of partnership projects could include:

Parent Peer Mentoring
Intergenerational Learning
Bridging Transition
Community Timebanking
Extended Day services
Parents as an extension of the school workforce
Parents and young people as volunteers

All partnership projects are bespoke and designed with sustainability in mind.

In both stages parents, young people and practitioners are facilitated to co-design the process and take ownership of the outcomes.

The most successful schools recognise and invest in parent partnerships as key to improving outcomes for children and young people.

The recent schools White Paper, The Importance of Teaching, and the proposed Ofsted framework for 2012, are encouraging schools to work more closely with parents, families and the community to build a positive learning environment for all.

Evidence shows that engaging parents to become more involved in their child’s learning has significant benefits for the child, the parent and the school, including:

Higher pupil attainment
Improved literacy and communication skills
Raised aspirations
More positive attitudes to school and learning
Better attendance
Lower levels of exclusion
Fewer instances of disruptive behaviour
Stronger parent peer support networks
Improved cognitive development and learning skills

A recent National College publication entitled ‘Leadership for Parental Engagement’ states that

‘It is the power of face-to-face conversation, building relationships based on trust and integrity that makes the biggest difference. All of this takes time, commitment and patience. Real and deep listening, responding to what parents say and keeping promises are key factors in building the trust that seems to underpin a genuine partnership ,,, finding ways to identify what parents want – what it would take to engage them in dialogue and partnership – is also challenging’.

It is easy to get parental engagement wrong

The quality of the relationship between school and parent shapes parental capacity for involvement in their child’s learning. Yet

Parental engagement strategies tend to be designed by schools not parents, so can end up being tokenistic or perceived as ‘failing’
Many parents feel increasingly isolated from schools and from their children’s learning as children grow older and more independent
Parents who have had negative experiences in their own school lives may be anxious about engaging with schools
Parents can feel intimidated by the language used by teachers
Parents can feel bewildered by the systems and processes in schools
Schools often don’t know where to begin with reaching the least engaged parents, yet it is generally the children in these families that stand to benefit the most
Those parents labelled as the hardest to reach often feel that the school itself is hard to reach
There is usually no method available for researching the views of parents beyond simple questionnaires that many don’t fill out
Parental engagement often has a lower priority than other initiatives, for the simple reason that it is hard work and requires sustained momentum.

Our promise to schools - no more box ticking

Using our Connected Education model you can overcome the obstacles and inspire parents, pupils and teachers

We engage parents as peer researchers and therefore reach those parents most in need and least engaged with the school.
We build leadership capacity with practitioners, parents and young people by increasing knowledge, skills and confidence.
We give a voice to parents and young people, enabling them directly to define and influence the development of school policy and practice.
We raise parental esteem through the valuing of parents as their child’s first and most important teachers. We recognise parents and young people as ‘experts by experience’.
We facilitate schools and parents to set up partnership projects that benefit the school community.
Our model is flexible and can be tailored to meet the requirements of individual schools or clusters of schools.
We offer a rigorous framework for measuring impacts and outcomes.

To find out more about our Connected Education model please contact:

Becky Surman, Head of Connected Education

Telephone: 07854 238 343

Email: Becky.Surman@turning-point.co.uk