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Parents as Partners in their Children’s Learning A guide to the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006. Ambitious and Excellent. ‘Schools need the support of Parents to be truly ambitious and excellent’
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Parents as Partners in their Children’s Learning A guide to the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006
Ambitious and Excellent ‘Schools need the support of Parents to be truly ambitious and excellent’ Peter Peacock, Minister for Education and Young People
Parents as partners in children’s learning Successful learners Confident individuals Involving parents to enable all young people to become Responsible citizens Effective contributors
Why parental involvement? Where parents are involved, children do betterand achieve more
What difference do parents make? Children spend only 15% of their time in school
What difference do parents make? 85% of the language we use as adults is in place by the time we are five years old and 50% is in place by the time we are three years old.
What difference do parents make? Most differences in achievement by 14 year olds in English, Maths and Science are due to home influences.
What difference do parents make? When parents are actively involved in reading with their children at home their children’s reading scores improve, on average, by between 12-18 months.
What difference do parents make? Doing homework regularly through their years at school has roughly the same benefit as an extra year’s schooling.
What do we mean by parental involvement? Three elements • Learning at home • parents as first and ongoing educators of their own children • Home/School Partnership • schools, parents and the community working together to educate children • Parent representation • parents have an opportunity to have their views represented
Purpose of the Act • Modernise and strengthen the framework for supporting parental involvement • Engage parents meaningfully in the education of their children and in the school community • Support parents and staff to work in partnership
Duties • Duties on Ministers and Education Authorities to promote Parental Involvement • Education Authoritiesto: • prepare strategy for parental involvement (to include reference to equal opportunities and looked after children) • give advice and information to parents • promote and support Parent Councils • establish complaints procedure
Parent Forum and Parent Council • Every parent with a child at the school is a member of the Parent Forum. • Parent Forum can choose to have their views represented through a Parent Council • Parent Council • smaller body that can represent parents views to the school, local authority and HMIe
Implementation timescale • Sept 06 Duties to promote parental involvement and prepare for setting up Parent Councils • Aug 07 Duties to prepare strategy and complaints procedures; Parent Councils come into being
Resources to support parental involvement • Guidance • Toolkit and model constitution • “Making the Difference” leaflets • CD-Rom examples of good practice • Parentzone website www.parentzonescotland.gov.uk
“A once in a generation chance to take a fresh look at how parents are involved in their children’s learning and in schools more generally” Robert Brown, Deputy Minister for Education and Young People