Exploratory study of the Home-School Partnership Programme: Numeracy

1. Exploratory study of the Home-School Partnership Programme: Numeracy Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill (NZCER) Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

2. HSP Numeracy programme Setting Methodology Findings Discussion Further exploration Agenda Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

3. HSP Numeracy Philosophy (Kaupapa) Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora te iwi. With your food basket and my food basket, everyone will have enough. He aha te mea nui o te ao?He tangata, he tangata, he tangata!What is the most important thing in the world?It is people, people, people! Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

4. HSP Numeracy Outcomes • Reinforce the fact that parents and families are one of the greatest influences on children's learning and development and are essential to their success at school; • Endorse what families and teachers are already doing for children's numeracy development; • Share ways in which families and teachers working together can make an even greater impact on children's numeracy development; • Increase parents' and families' understanding of numeracy and practical ways of helping children learn; • Establish a caring working partnership between school staff and the community. Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

5. HSP Numeracy Structure • 3-4 Training workshops for lead parents and lead teachers (lead team) • 6 community sessions for parents (and families) led by lead team • Facilitator support in community sessions • Initially Pasifika, bi-lingual, now all families • Key messages are already translated into many languages • Optimally, ongoing school-wide programme Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

6. Setting • Parents As First Teachers (1991- ongoing) • Pacific Island School Community Parent Liaison (1996 – ongoing) • Parent Mentoring Initiative (2002-2005) • Numeracy project (2002 – ongoing) • Report of the Literacy Taskforce (1999) • The Complexity of Community and Family influences on Children’s achievement in New Zealand: BES (2003) Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

7. Methodology • Qualitative study • 3 case study schools (plus interview and workshop observation at a fourth school) • Initial visit to community sessions • Meet and observe • Second visit to community sessions • Meet and observe • Informal discussion with parents • Interview lead teacher • Interview lead parent • Group interview with 3-6 parents • Survey all HSPN facilitators • Attend facilitator workshop Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

8. Methodology Research focus on the … • Delivery of intended outcomes to parents and families • Perceived impact on the students' attitudes and learning of mathematics in and out of school • Impact on the partnership between the school and parents and families • Key areas for further exploration or evaluation Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

9. Findings The training workshops • “Talked about activities then tried them – model for community sessions” LT • “ Provided a general shape for the workshop…but let teachers adapt/modify” LT • “Prepared very/extremely well for the community sessions” LT&LP • “Focussed on how parents can help their children” LP • “Shared knowledge and skills with other schools” LT • “Some parents didn’t understand the links to the stages” LT • “Pitched quite high” LT • “LP still need more preparation (half day)” LT Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

10. Findings The community sessions • Communication to parents • Why did they come? • What worked well? • Organisation • Issues Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

11. Findings The roles of parents, teachers and facilitators • Facilitator’s role • Lead parent’s role • Lead teacher’s role “Responsibility (for the community session) is ideally with the LP but they found it too hard to speak in front of other parents…LT ended up teaching”. Issue: Growing leadership in the lead parent. Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

12. Findings Numeracy maths • Numeracy maths is different • Numeracy activities are fun and social • Parents can learn about Numeracy development stages • Alignment between the community understanding and school understanding of maths in NZ, 2006. • Parents feeling more comfortable doing maths with their children Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

13. Discussion • Flexibility of the programme • Partnership? • What kind of partnerships do we form in our own work? • What are the attributes of a real partnership? • Sustainability • Selecting the programme and the people to run it • Empowerment of the LP • Students … Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

14. Discussion Students The response from parents was a mixture of • improving attitude • "happy to do maths now" • very big improvement • these games improve their knowledge • activities make maths easier (as does the context) • children working more easily now • having more discussion about maths, and cautiously, • harder to know if they're doing better • still problems with their times tables. The response from teachers was more positive: • huge improvement • definite improvement on attainment • better attitude • improved self esteem • less fear of making a mistake Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

15. Discussion Other ideas • Two sessions in one day to cater for different work times • Work with the RMS • Start earlier/ when school set their plans/budgets • The English barrier – spoken as well as written for oral cultures • Sharing is important – clustering for support? • Whole school involvement in the programme • Learning stations with children at respective stages Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

16. Discussion Evaluation against outcomes • Reinforce the fact that parents and families are one of the greatest influences on children's learning and development and are essential to their success at school; • Endorse what families and teachers are already doing for children's numeracy development; • Share ways in which families and teachers working together can make an even greater impact on children's numeracy development; • Increase parents' and families' understanding of numeracy and practical ways of helping children learn; • Establish a caring working partnership between school staff and the community. Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

17. Further exploration • Continue to explore the impact and implementation of the HSPN in the subsequent year. How is the partnership developing? • Explore the impact and implementation of the HSPN in New schools for 2007 • Interview with the principal • Survey all historical and current schools involved with the HSPN – completed or not • Very brief survey of the children • Very brief survey of the parents (all and flagging those that attended) • Collect assessment data for all students of invited parents group and flag attendance. • Parents understanding of Numeracy maths Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill

18. Fin Jonathan Fisher and Alex Neill