Raising Achievement, parents and community

Ofsted say, "As a result of the increased interest in the quality of food provided for children in schools and childcare, Ofsted has looked at whether children in the paid daily care of others receive good quality meals and whether they learn at an early age the benefits of a healthy diet. This report is based on analysis of a short survey of ‘healthy eating’ carried out at 110 settings across England during the last two weeks of February"

The report was very favourable, with the large majority of registered childcarers providing a balanced and nutritious diet for children in their care.

Index of Achievement

It would be good if this UK site reflected a real desire from UK government to return to a wider, more holistic education in the UK rather than the obsessively narrow focus which there has been over the last 10-15 years.

The site looks useful in helping re-focus education

It claims:

"All schools are about to embark on a new era which will see their desire to provide a more effective range of support to children, young people and their families become a reality. They will find themselves playing a new and central role in the “Change for Children” agenda, working with a range of support agencies to improve the range and quality of the educational experiences they provide for the pupils in their care. This reflects an increasing recognition nationally that the narrow concept of school success that has prevailed in recent years has gone too far and it is time to support all schools in restoring the broader balance in pupils’ education to make it as rounded as possible."

Tool Kit for Parents: Tips for Helping With Writing Tasks

This helpful article is part of a series for parents, on the LD Online site, from Regina G. Richards. Useful for all those involved with a student's education, not just parents.

Increased flexibility programme- improving work experience

From Ofsted, May 2004.

From September 2004 there will be a statutory requirement for schools to provide work-related learning for all Key Stage 4 pupils. This report indicates ways in which work experience could be improved. Better communication between all involved features prominently. Worth a look, although some of the recommendations don't quite tie-in with current moves to reduce teachers' workload.

Involving Parents, Raising Achievement

This booklet is a summary of research and information available on the subject of home-school relationships. Written by Professor John Bastiani, edited by Sheila White.

The booklet (on the TeacherNet site) summarises some of the practical ideas to help parents become actively involved in their children's school lives. The benefits of increased involvement include progress which is 15% more in maths and reading between 11 and 16 years than where parents are less actively involved.

Rochdale family literacy programmes

Part of the National Literacy Trust site, this section explains how Rochdale local education authority has pioneered family literacy programmes to suit particular contexts and communities.

Rochdale is an industrial town in the northwest of England which has a significant ethnic minority population, mainly from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Since the 1980s the family literacy programmes have retained an essential vision of enabling parents and children, separately and together, to celebrate their talents and enjoy learning.

New Thinking on Children, Poverty & IQ

This article, on the Connect for Kids site, summarises research which finds that for families at the very bottom of the socio-economic scale, environmental factors have a much greater impact on the variations in children’s IQ (Intelligence Quotient) than genes.

The Durham Trial

Durham LEA commissioned this study to examine the effects of fatty-acid supplementation on children's behaviour and learning. The trial finished in terms of data collection in August 2002. When results are available this site will feature them. Meanwhile, details of the trial are on the site.

The Impact of Parental Involvement, Parental Support and Family Education on Pupil Achievement and Adjustment

This review of English language literature ( by Professor Charles Desforges with Alberto Abouchaar) on the DfES site, was conducted to establish research findings on the relationship between parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment in schools.

"The most important finding from the point of view of this review is that parental involvement in the form of ‘at-home good parenting’ has a significant positive effect on children’s achievement and adjustment even after all other factors shaping attainment have been taken out of the equation."

How schools can contribute to area regeneration

This JRF (Joseph Rowntree Foundation) research (carried out by Deanne Crowther, Colleen Cummings, Alan Dyson and Alan Millward of the University of Newcastle) focused on the contribution schools can make to the regeneration of their areas. The study investigated the contribution to wider regeneration initiatives made by three secondary and six primary schools serving two disadvantaged areas in the north of England.

One finding was that, "There was some good evidence that schools were able to make some differences to the lives of individual pupils, offer some support to families and extend the resources available to communities" but that "that schools often remained disconnected from wider regeneration strategies."

A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement

From the U.S. Southwest Education Development Laboratory, this research shows that when families of all backgrounds are engaged in their children’s learning, their children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and pursue higher education.

Studies that look at high-achieving students of all backgrounds found that their parents encourage them, talk with them about school, help them plan for higher education, and keep them focused on learning and homework. The continuity that this constant support provides helps students through changes of school, program, and grade level.

By Anne T. Henderson and Karen L. Mapp.

Towards the development of extended schools

From NFER this research paper summarises research (involving 160 schools) which looked at the effectiveness and extent of of the ‘extended school’ model in England, i.e. schools which provide some form of extended provision often involving the local community and other agencies.

School Uniform Improves Behaviour and Standards

This DfES survey (May 2003) found that a majority of the nation’s parents say that school uniform improves discipline, raises standards and reduces peer pressure and bullying. (The above link is to the Press Release, look here for more.)

School-based support work for children whose parents have separated

From the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, this project compared the acceptability and impact of individual and group-based support for sixty-nine children in seven primary schools.

Learning, Family Formation and Dissolution

This report, by Louisa Blackwell and John Bynner comprises a literature review of research concerning the effects of education and more generally, learning on the family.

From The Centre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learning

Making Connections Between Home and School.

From the George Lucas Education Foundation this report tells of a successful method of helping parents become more involved in their children's education in Sacramento, California.

High Stakes: Time Poverty, Testing and the Children of the Working Poor

This research, funded by the U.S. Foundation for Child Development, New York, outlines the conflict caused by the twin demands of a move towards greater parental involvement and those associated with welfare reform and increased costs of living which force parents to spend more time and work away from their families. The authors believe that the combination of the two demands is leading many working poor families into a pressure cooker environment of competing demands on their time which have proven difficult even for middle-class, dual worker households to manage.

Although the research is American it would seem plausible that the situation in the UK is not that much different. It is something schools should bear in mind when seeking increased parental involvement.

KeepKidsHealthy.com

This US website offers lots of advice to parents about their children. As well as medical information it also contains useful parenting ideas and strategies for students who lose motivation or who are just not succeeding at school. the section on school performance problems is particularly useful.

Pathways to Parent Leadership

This article, on the Action Alliance for Children website, originally appeared in the January-February 2002 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children. It details how parents of students at Longfellow Elementary School in El Monte, California, have been helped by the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE) to get more involved in their children's education.

Contains pointers which may be valuable in the UK situation.

Parental Involvement in Education: Practices that Work

(I can no longer find this document on the Casey site but have left the details in case you can.)

Casey Family Programs provides an array of services for children and youth, with foster care as its core. This is from the November 2000 issue. It suggests that,

"Parental involvement in their child's education means providing an environment that helps develop a child's intellectual and creative talents, supporting homework, and communicating with the child about classroom activities. At school, parental involvement ranges from regular communication with the school to volunteering and attending conferences and other functions."

Although it has a strong U.S. flavour, the key points make a useful checklist here in the U.K. of what schools can do to encourage parents to take an active part in their children's education.

Children’s Understandings of Parental Involvement in Education (Link updated 15/8/04)

The Children’s Understandings of Parental Involvement in Education project is a two-year UK research project, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under its Children 5-16: Growing into the 21st Century Programme. It aims to hear children's and young people's views about a key contemporary issue in education policy: home and school, and relations between them.

DfES Neighbourhood Renewal Website (Links updated 15/8/04)

In January 2001 the UK Government launched 'A New Commitment to Neighbourhood Renewal: A National Strategy Action Plan'.

"The Action Plan focuses the resources of key Government Departments on tackling and overcoming disadvantages in the most deprived communities. DfES is one of those key Departments."

Look particularly at Chapter 2 and Annex F of the Action Plan for details of "Success and Good Practice."

Reasons for Suspension lie at home

From the New Zealand Herald, this feature describes the way many schools in New Zealand are working to offer students a range of health and social services as means of trying to reduce the number of students who are excluded.

Common Elements of Effective Schools

As part of their "School Issues" series, the U.S. Education World reports on the strategies educators at KIPP Academy Charter School, Mother Hale Academy, and Crossroads School are using to break the cycle of failure for students living in some of New York City's most disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Education Action Zones- commentary on the first six zone inspections (.pdf file)

This is the Ofsted report on the first six of the UK's Education Action Zones (EAZ). They are:- Blackburn with Darwen, Halifax, Kitts Green and Shard End (Birmingham). North Southwark, Salford and Trafford, Weston-super-Mare. The DfES note that,

“Exam result improvements for 7 and 11 year olds in the first 25 EAZs exceed the impressive increases seen nationally. Some zones have achieved particularly impressive results. The OFSTED report for North Southwark EAZ shows that since 1998 results of pupils aged 7 have increased by over three times the national rate of progress." (DfES Press Release 05/03/01)

Inviting the Community Into the Classroom

From the University of Texas at Austin, the TENET web has here provided "Project ideas, studies and sample volunteer task descriptions, and links to other resources to help teachers and school administrators involve volunteers in the classroom." Some really useful leads to follow.

What works in Urban Education

A report from the Council of the Great City Schools. It features descriptions of programs and projects in Urban Schools that improve student performance in urban schools in the U.S.

Working Towards Inclusive Education: Aspects of Good Practice for Gypsy Traveller Children

This research, commissioned by the DfES, focused on effective practice in relation to the education of Gypsy Traveller pupils.

Links between school, family and the community

"There is a long tradition in the UK of schools developing strong links with the families of their pupils and with the communities they serve. These links have come to seem even more important recently as means whereby schools can drive up standards of attainment and as an important contribution which schools can make to addressing the problem of social exclusion. In 1998, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation commissioned a report, School Inclusion, which described the current nature and extent of these links. To supplement this report, the present study reviewed the UK literature in this field since 1988. It focused particularly on evaluative literature reporting effects and the effectiveness."

Creating the School Climate and Structures to Support Parent and Family Involvement

Evidence shows a strong connection between parent and family involvement in schools and children's academic achievement, attendance, attitude, and continued education. When schools create a positive school climate by reaching out to families and providing structures for them to become involved, the result is effective school-family partnerships. This paper from the U.S. NCREL presents strategies which may help to develop this desirable partnership. A must-read.

Excellence in Cities Annual Report

The EiC Annual Report 1999 - 2000 reports on the progress in implementing Excellence in Cities in the 1999/2000 academic year - the first full year of implementation. Its focus is on the progress made in secondary schools in the first 6 EiC conurbations, which entered the programme in September 1999.

Schools Plus Policy Action Team: Final Report

The Schools Plus Policy Action Team was one of eighteen teams set up by the Social Exclusion Unit here in the UK in September 1998 following its report on neighbourhood renewal. The Team’s remit was to identify the most cost-effective Schools Plus approaches to using schools as a focus for other community services, and to reducing failure at school.

Lifelong Learning

The SRB section of this DfES site provides very useful examples of the way the SRB is being used to improve learning

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