Parents Corner – Initial Analysis of Parental Engagement ... EU Analysis final.pdffield, including the expertise of the school Aleksa Santic from Sarajevo, which was running an ongoing

Parent’s Corner 2015-1-PL01-KA201-016992

Parents Corner – Initial Analysis of Parental Engagement with Schools

Background

Over the past twenty years, parental involvement in education has become an important topic for policy makers, educators and researchers across Europe and beyond. A number of studies have confirmed that parental involvement is very important for children's future achievements. As the Parents Corner Erasmus Plus consortium, we believe that most parents want to get involved with their children's learning but often need support in how best to help their children. The partners in the project have extensive experience in the field, including the expertise of the school Aleksa Santic from Sarajevo, which was running an ongoing set of activities in developing a virtual and physical parents corner at their school for the last two years. The aim of the partnership is therefore to compare the best practices among the partner countries and to become a central point for teachers, headteachers and parents to get ideas of how to work together better and to assist the children to achieve their potential. The extended consortium of partners from 7 different European countries, 7 different linguistic areas and diverse cultural backgrounds share the common values that the homes are as crucial in every child's learning as are schools.

Our first task was to produce a feasibility study defining current statutory requirements for pre/school parent relationships in all of the partner countries as defined in legislation. The second task was to investigate the views that parents, teachers and headteachers hold of their current relationships and what they define as the areas for improvement. In the third part we analysed the results of best practices and summarised them into the most common categories.

The background from each country and/or region:

● Legal framework

● Current types of parents/school cooperation

Key points from the survey

The definition of areas for parental engagement from case studies as well as surveys.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author,

and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. 1


1. The background from each country and/or region:

Legal framework

Parental engagement in schools has its origin in the legislation in all of the partner countries, although the definition and the extent of the regulation varies from country to country.

Portugal:

According to Portuguese Law, the Decree-Law 115 A/98 establishes the right of participation of parents in school life in order to improve the quality of education.

Therefore, according to the Constitution, the Family is a fundamental part of the society, and so the State has a duty to cooperate with parents in the education of their children (artº 67).

Parents have the right to be supported by society and the state - in the realization of their irreplaceable action in relation to their children, including in regard to their education, with the guarantee of professional achievement and participation in the civic life of the country (artº68). In counterpart, the (artº77), consecrates the right to democratic participation, including participation of parents associations in shaping education policy.

Under the Constitution, in which the legislature is based to build all the normative, the principle of State cooperation with the family in raising children involves a convergent action between school and family. In addition, the consecration of the right of parents associations intervene in the definition of education policy is justified as a way of realization of the right to democratic participation in education. In the Education Law (Law No. 46/86) the participation of parents and other community representatives is to ensure the school's integration with the society. The interconnection with the community is an objective that runs through the education system, at all levels, and for this to be ensured, the education system "must be provided with administrative structures of national, autonomous regional, regional and local levels" (Artº43 - 2, 44, 45, 46). The Ministry of Education motivations regarding the gradual insistence on the need for greater interaction school / family, held in legal documents and others produced by the bodies of Educational Administration, are clearly summarized in the RAE (RAE, IV.B Notebook - Parents and Guardian - published by the Office for Launching and Monitoring the School Year of the Ministry of Education). In short, according to the legal documents referred to above, the school / family relationship is expressed in terms of cooperation between teachers and parents and the participation of Parents' Associations. Cooperation is, on one hand, support for learning by Ana Cristina Andrade Abreu 24 joint monitoring of teachers and parents of school life of students, which implies open dialogue between parents and teachers, promoted by Class Directors. On the other hand, is the participation in school, which implies the creation of hours of operation conditions of the educational establishment of the organs compatible with the life of the




parents/guardians.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

The general Law on Primary and Secondary Education in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Section IV of Article 22 to Article 28 gives the basic assumptions of obligations and rights of parents in terms of child care and education.

In particular, it should be noted Article 27 which Parents are obliged to ensure their children regularly attend school

during the period of compulsory education. In the case of negligence and irresponsible attitudes towards this obligation, parents are subject to sanctions under the law.

Article 28 of the same Law defines the rights and obligation of parents for regular information, consultations to monitor the educational progress of their children, as well as monitoring and evaluating the work of the director of the school, teachers and other school staff, and the quality of the school as a whole. Parents have the right and obligation, in the interest of their children and through their representatives in the school authorities and bodies and through their associations, at all levels of decision-making, to participate in important school issues and the functioning of the education system in general.

The Law on Elementary Education of Sarajevo Canton ( " Službene Novine Kantona Sarajevo" No: 10/04, 21/06, 26/08, 31/11 and 15/13) in Article 100 prescribed the obligation to form the Council of Parents and operation and activities of the Council of Parents.

Slovenia

Parents can express their opinions and expectations in formal and informal meetings in school. Formal meetings are legally defined. The Act of 1848 “Entwurf der Organisation und der Realschule and Gymnazien Ostereich” (In: Eniko, 2008, 53) states that teachers have to consider parents as part of their obligations. Teachers should give parents information about

how well the skills of their children are developing, how they behave and even what and how they read.

The White Paper on Education in Slovenia (1995, 28) says that it is necessary "to enable parents to have greater insight into the work and life of schools. There must be effective mechanisms for the possibility of their involvement, but it must be clear the boundaries of professionalism are the domain of teachers and school professionals. "

Article 46 article of Law on the Organization and Financing of Education (ZOFVI) mentions that the council of the institution includes three representatives of parents, who are elected to the parents' council. Article 49 states that the headmaster is responsible for cooperation with parents.




Rules on School Order in primary and secondary schools reflect cooperation with students and parents.

Turkey

According to Turkish laws ( Law Number: 2908, Announcements Magazine 29.07.1965, issue: 1363) , parents’ care and assistance is needed for education in schools to be successful and to reach its goals. The school administration has to help parents come together and set up unions and associations in order to receive their contribution to educational settings. By the School Parent Regulation published in 25831 numbered Official Gazette (MNA,

2005), It is an imperative for schools to cooperate with various social units and organizations in order to achieve effective education at schools. In this context, Parent-Teacher Associations (PTA) or School Parent Associations (SPA) as in Turkey, can work closely with the parents, teachers, administrators, and other community members to provide support for the improvement of education and student performance. School Parent Associations are set up to empower relations between parents and school, ensure cooperation and help take measures all together for the success of students.

According to 27th article of the Regulations for secondary institutions of Ministry of National Education it is noted that every student is obliged to have a parent to deal closely with his education and training, teachers cooperate with parents and schools for the success and behaviour of the students and for the social, cultural, educational and academic development of students.

England

In recent years, schools have increasingly recognised the importance of involving parents in their children’s learning. This has been supported by developments such as the emergence of online technology and Parent Support Advisors. Since September 2009 Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education, an organization monitoring standards in schools by regular inspections) has been considering how effectively schools

engage with parents. The focus has been on building positive relationships with parents, the quality of communications, reporting to parents on progress, and the mechanisms for helping parents to support their children’s learning. Evidence from Ofsted suggests that a critical dimension of effective teaching and learning is the relationship between the teacher, their pupils and their parents. It has been recognised that just as the quality of teaching and leadership in schools is the key determinant of educational attainment, so the degree and quality of engagement that parents have with their child’s learning is a crucial factor outside the school environment.




The Schools White Paper (Department for Education 2010) sets out how the Government will improve the outcomes and life chances of all children. It states that schools will be increasingly accountable to parents for the progress and achievement of the pupils. The White Paper presents the Government’s strategy for raising achievement levels, improving pupils’ behaviour, and lowering the attainment gap. The Field Review on Poverty and Life Chances (Field 2010) identifies a central role for parents in meeting each of these goals, particularly in the early years. The White Paper and the Field Review reinforce the need to involve parents in education, and to create a good home learning environment.

It is therefore widely recognised that the more parents are engaged in the education of their children, the more likely their children are to succeed in the education system. School improvement and school effectiveness research consistently shows that parental engagement is one of the key factors in securing higher student achievement. Schools that improve and sustain improvement engage the community and build strong links with parents. Where schools build positive relationships with parents and work actively to embrace racial, religious, and ethnic and language differences, evidence of sustained school improvement can be found.

Schools are however free to develop their own models of parenting involvement.

Poland

The Act on the Educational System in Poland - national law in Poland provides the basis for parental involvement in schools.

Article 51. 1. The board of a school or other educational institution includes, subject to provisions of paragraph 1a-1c, requires an equal number of:

1) teachers, elected by all teachers;

2) parents, elected by all parents;

3) students, elected by all students

Article 53. 1. Parents' councils, which represent all parents of the students in a given school, operate in schools and other educational institutions, subject to paragraph 6.

Article 54. 1. Parents' council may submit suggestions and opinions in all matters concerning the school or institution to the Head Teacher and other management bodies of the school or educational institution, to the authority responsible for the school or institution, and to the supervisory pedagogical body of the school 2. The powers of the parents' council, subject to paragraph 3 and 4, include: a) agreeing, in consultation with the teachers, the school’s pastoral care programme




covering all the content and activities related to the personal and social development of students carried out by teachers, b) prevention programme tailored to the developmental needs of students and the needs of the local community, including all the content and activities related to prevention addressed to students, teachers and parents; 2) evaluating the programme and the schedule for improving efficiency of education (teaching and pastoral care) in the school or institution, referred to in Art. 34 paragraph 2; 3) evaluating the draft financial plan submitted by the school head. 3. If the parents' council does not reach an agreement with the teachers' council regarding the programme referred to in paragraph 2 point 1 a or b within 30 days from the date of the beginning of the school year, the content of this programme is determined by the Head Teacher in agreement with the supervisory pedagogical body. The programme set by the Head Teacher remains in force until a programme is approved by the parents' council in consultation with the teachers' council. 4. In order to support the statutory activities of the school or institution, the parents' council can raise funds through voluntary contributions from parents and other sources. The rules for spending the parents' council funds are defined in the regulations referred to in Art. 53 paragraph 4 II. The principles of parental involvement in school life are grounded in law. These principles are included in the school charters. Each school adopts a mandatory charter at the time of its inception which must be approved by the school authority or if it is an independent institution, by the National Court Register.

Example provisions included in charters of some schools.

1. The charter of the Primary School in Pasym

"The school implements its own pastoral care and prevention programmes adapted to the developmental needs of the students and the needs of the community referred to in separate provisions. These programmes are subject to the approval of the teachers 'council, after consultation with the parents' council and the students' council... " "The management and advisory bodies of the School consist of: 1) The Head Teacher 2) Teachers' Council, 3) Parents Council' of the Primary School, 4) The Students' Council" "A Parents' Council which represents all the parents of the school's students operates in the school.



https://www.portaloswiatowy.pl/nadzor-pedagogiczny/ustawa-z-7-wrzesnia-1991-r.-o-systemie-oswiaty-tekst-jedn.-dz.u.-z-2015-poz.-2156-10023.html?cid=K000BR&gclid=CjwKEAjwydK_BRDK34GenvLB61YSJACZ8da3slyyc3_oBvCXXdkNnZ2ylK2FQFP2ZuCiUyK1tIl4wRoCtpbw_wcB#c_0_k_0_t_0_d_0_r_4_o_0_a_53_u_4_p_0_l_0_i_0






The parents' council may apply to the teachers' council and the Head Teacher with suggestions and opinions on all matters concerning the school" "The library can be used by the students, teachers, other school staff, and the parents. The school library provides parents easy and continuous access to information about their child's reading on the basis of available records, helps in the selection of reading material for the students, and lends the required materials on the basis of the reader's card or another document. " "In order to carry out the tasks referred to in paragraph 4, the form support teacher: 1) provides individual care for every student, 2) plans and organises together with students and their parents: 3) various forms of team activities for the purpose of personal development and integrating the students' team, maintains contact with parents in order to: a) know and determine the care and development needs of their children b) cooperate with parents, i.e. provides them with parenting support and obtains parental support in the care and development related activities of the school c) include them in the life of the form and the whole school" "The educational institution supports parents in matters of upbringing and education of children. 1) The parents have the right to:

a) know the educational tasks and goals of the year/form and of the school, b) know the rules for assessment, grading, year-end assessment (so-called ‘’classification’’) and promoting pupils to the next year’s form as well as those regulating examinations and tests, c) obtain, at any time, reliable information about their child's behaviour, learning progress, and causes of any difficulties in learning, d) review assessed and graded test papers of their child, e) obtain information and advice on matters of current and further education of their children, f) express and submit to the attention of the supervisory pedagogical body their views on the work of the school

2) The meetings between teachers and parents are held at the following intervals: a) a general parents’ meeting at least once per semester b) individual parent- teacher meetings every two months with the form teacher and subject teachers, and in urgent matters, on other days as arranged by the school admin office, c) individual communication with the Head Teacher as required.

"The school has a duty to inform the parents (guardians) when a student is awarded a prize or given a punishment". "Complaints procedure in cases of violation of the student's rights. Complaints may be raised by students, parents, guardians, form teachers, legal representatives, as soon as possible after the event" Other schools involved in the project (Primary School in Orzyny, Lower Secondary School No. 1 in Szczytno, Primary School in Czarnia, Nursery School in Szczytno) have similar provisions.




Bulgaria

The new Law on pre-school and school education came into force on the August 1, 2016 in Bulgaria. The role of parents has been increased. Each kindergarten and school have to have a Public Council. The majority (2/3) of the council members are parents. At the end of September the Statue for the Public Council was published. Some of obligations are:

- approve the strategy for further development of the kindergarten or the school and accept the annual statement of the principal for its progress;

- propose rules and norms for enhancements of the quality of the education process;

- account for the budget allocation for its activities;

- coordinate the educational plan of the school;

- participate in the committees for giving feedback to the principals;

- participate in the choice of textbooks;

- participate in the creation and adoption of a code of ethics of the school community, etc.

Thе above regulations are issued pursuant to Art. 270 of the Law on pre-school and school.

Current types of parents/school cooperation

There is recognition the legislation of all of the partner countries of the importance of engaging parents and the community with the school. Schools carry out this engagement in a variety of ways, generally with the aim of improving educational and social outcomes for children. Cooperation includes parents being involved in decision making processes either through the formal participation in bodies such as the School Board, Parents Councils and the Parents Teachers Associations (PTAs), Advisory groups. Less formal involvement includes frequent sharing of information about the child to help school better understand the child and family either in class or individual meetings, sharing information to understand educational programmes and children’s progress, understanding student’s assessments and discussing potential concerns, insights and expectations. Parents also participate in school events for example school concerts or sport events. There are also activities that parents conduct in the home in support of learning, such as help with and monitoring homework, which helps them to understand the skills required to pass/master each subject and supports the development of other skills and talents.




2. Survey into the current state of cooperation between school and parents

In the initial stage of the project, the Turkish partner Golbasi prepared three questionnaires with the aim of analysing parental engagement in the participating countries and to identify the areas for improvement. To do this three sets of different questionnaires were prepared between January and February 2016. They were questionnaires for parents, managers and teachers. Each of the questionnaires consisted of two parts. The first part introduced demographical questions, the second part was created to collect information about the current state of parental/school engagement considering the management of schools , educational processes and the support services offered by schools. The draft questionnaires were prepared by Golbasi, and were then discussed by the partners. By the end of January 2016 the final versions of the questionnaires were produced and were ready for implementation. The survey was carried out between February and May 2016 in all the participating countries. The minimum number of the respondents which the partners reached was 10 parents, 10 teachers and 5 headteachers. However the partners in Turkey (two partners) and in Bosnia managed to reach much further and provided more answers.

The responses are overwhelmingly positive and can be found on the following site:

Here we are providing the summary of the key strengths from the survey:

Management of the school:

● 86,6% of the parents agree that their children are happy at school.

● 92, 3% of the parents agree that other parents in this school are supportive of school.




● 86,5% of the parents’ state that the other students in the school which their child is

attending are well behaved.

● 92, 3 % of the parents feel that they can meet with school management and teachers at suitable times

● 80,2% of the parents feel that their concerns and requests are taken into consideration

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

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● 93,5% of the parents consider that they can obtain information about their child easily.

● 93, 7% of the parents agree that they received school announcements, times and dates of the meetings in sufficient time


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● 89,1% of the parents thinks that the meetings are organised according at suitable times.

● 85.1% of the parents agree that the meetings are organised to support school needs

● 82,5% also states that the school makes it clear to the parents what is expected from

them.


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● 80% of parents agree that management of schools is good.

Evaluation of educational provision within schools:

● 85,4% of parents agree that teaching in school is good.

● 88,7% of parents think that the students are achieving well at school.


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Areas for improvement:

Management of the school:

● 10,7% of the parents don’t think that they know enough about how the school is functioning.

● 9,8% of the parents stated that they don’t participate in meetings and activities at school

● 12.2% of the parents feel they are not properly informed about the decisions made


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at meetings which they were not able to attend.

● 8, 3% of the parents think that the management does not involve them enough in

the decision making process.

Evaluation of educational provision within schools:


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● 10,5% of parents think that skills such as the music, art and sports abilities of their children are not taken into consideration (only 5, 3 % of the teachers share this view),

● 17,5% of parents think that schools do not have adequate school facilities (such as school halls, libraries, gyms, teaching equipment), this view is also shared by teachers (17,3%)

● 8.2 % of parents don’t think that the latest educational developments are followed at school, only 4, 8 % of teachers share this view.


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● 16,6% do not agree that the school provides them with the training about what to do with the children in terms of home education

Conclusions from the open questions:

The last question of the survey was opened for the management and parents to present their own views and challenges they are facing when engaging with parents/schools. We could see that parents can perceive the school as presenting obstacles in the form of lack of encouragement, not informing parents of what they can do, or not respecting parents work commitment. Some parents have expressed also other barriers such as transportation, costs.

The headteachers have expressed the need to meet parents where they feel comfortable, arranging meetings at times that are convenient for parents, providing translators for parents where necessary; and making use of parents already engaged with the school as helpers for other parents. A significant challenge is sustainability, and in particular retaining


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committed and inspiring senior leaders, high levels of commitment across staff teams, and access to the funding streams and resources that successful programmes require. There remains the long standing difficulty of reaching and involving parents who have chosen not to engage either with their children’s school or with their children’s learning. A related challenge is finding the most appropriate methods for identifying what parents want and need.


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3. The definition of areas for parental engagement from the survey as well as from the best practices identified by the project consortium

A description of the best practices

The best practices were identified by the individual partners according to their own knowledge and experience of the situation in their country. For example: Poland has chosen the examples of best practices from the schools participating in the project. Many ideas were suggested on more than one occasion. The Committee consisting of representatives from each school and the project coordinator then chose one idea from each school based on its relevance for the project. The UK partner has chosen the best practices from the examples of the schools which have outstanding inspection reports in at least two consecutive inspection periods. Each of these schools have an active PTAs and regular activities to promote parental engagement. The examples were chosen on the basis of its uniqueness or because the teachers at schools thought they were important. In Portugal the examples of good practices were chosen following online research. After this research, each school was contacted, the Portuguese partner presented the project, signed the Agreement and then made a more detailed research of the good practices. In Bosnia and Herzegovina - the best practices were selected based on the agreement signed with the selected schools, and offered practices that are not common forms of cooperation between schools and parents. In Slovenia best practices were identified based on the agreements with schools. In Turkey the examples of best practices were selected based on the suggestions of branch managers and director of provincial education directorate. They compiled these best practices with the help of school administration and also had ideas from different school directors about the best practices. The Bulgarian partner made the research throughout Bulgaria. They performed on online and paper research (pedagogical magazines and conference materials). Some conversations with local educational authorities were undertaken as well. The examples of good practices were chosen considering the results of this research.

The best practices outside the partner countries: Each of the partners was responsible to carry out online research in at least one other European country. The examples were chosen by the partner teams.


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4.The definition of areas for parental engagement from the case studies and survey:

A parental engagement practices can be the subject of ongoing support, monitoring and development or they can also be a series of self standing events which involve the majority of parents and create a bond between schools and parents. All of them however include planning which embeds parental engagement in whole-school development plans and sustained support. Based on the survey and the collected best practices the partnership has identified the following seven areas for parental engagement. They will be the guide for pre/schools who are yet to embark on this journey.

● Transition (from kindergarten to school and within school) ● Improving the quality of work at school and working on the pupils academic

achievement (in more narrow terms): ● Improving safety, health and wellbeing of students: Improving behaviour at school,

creating healthy relationships, improving children's self esteem and well being: ● Improving communication : ● Raising social and multicultural awareness: ● Actions and programmes which are aimed at improving overall sense of belonging

to school, establishing good cooperation with parents, mutual trust and respect ● The parental skills in general ● Cooperation in the management/leadership of school. ● The areas and practices are further explained in the Project Manual.


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Documents

Parents Corner – Initial Analysis of Parental Engagement ... EU Analysis final.pdffield, including the expertise of the school Aleksa Santic from Sarajevo, which was running an ongoing