Governors' parental engagement
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This presentation supports training resources designed to engage Governing Boards with parents and carers of school age children. Governors are encouraged to: Consider how they engage with parents and carers Ensure that this engagement is effective Use meaningful feedback to further improve school’s provision Ensure that parental views support school’s evaluation and inform its strategic priorities Consider how to feedback to parents in response to their communications with your school.
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Governors' parental engagement
- 1. Part 1: An Inspector Calls Part 2: Because we care! Part 3: Forums for consultation Engaging with Parents and Carers Brian Beal
- 3. Part 1: An Inspector Calls
- 4. Sleeves rolled up – where do we start? Some key questions…
- 5. Governors do not challenge effectively in many schools…
- 6. Using RESOURCE 2: • Note the key characteris8cs of each inspec8on outcome • Where is YOUR school’s ‘best fit’?
- 7. What are your school’s top 5 parental concerns?
- 8. Short discussion: • What are YOUR school’s top 5 parental concerns? • How do you know?
- 10. Annual statement – Impact of the Governing Body
- 11. Parent View – what does it say about your school?
- 12. Using RESOURCE 1: • Do YOUR percep8ons match those of Parent View? • Are parents’ views skewed? • Are yours?
- 14. Not being dependent on information provided by the Headteacher
- 16. KPIs – Standards & other Priorities
- 19. Discussion: • What is the impact of your GB’s engagement with parents? • Where’s YOUR evidence?
- 20. Spin!
- 22. Part 2: Because we care!
- 23. Hard to reach?
- 25. Discussion: • Who are YOUR ‘hard to reach’ parents? • What are the barriers? • What are you doing about these?
- 28. Do we share the same concerns?
- 29. Keep it simple – newsletters…
- 31. What do we need to know?
- 33. Small cost – high value
- 36. The scorecard
- 39. Part 3: Forums for consultation
- 41. The Board vs Parent Council
- 42. Link workers
- 43. Family learning
- 44. Volunteering
- 45. What successful strategies does YOUR school employ? What are YOUR next steps?
Editor's Notes
- Engaging parents and carers in their children’s education has a major impact on how well they do in school. Where relationships are strong, communication is effective and there are clear understandings of both school’s and parents’ roles in supporting learners there is much greater chance that achievements, both academic and personal will increase. This workshop will help you to: · Consider how you engage with parents and carers · Ensure that this engagement is effective · Use meaningful feedback to further improve your school’s provision · Ensure that parental views support school’s evaluation and inform its strategic priorities · Consider how to feedback to parents in response to their communications with your school.
- Assumptions: That you’ve familiarised yourself with parents' comments on Parent View You’re familiar with the Areas for Improvement from your latest Ofsted That you’ve reviewed your most recent parental survey, That you’re familiar with your school’s SEF Explanation… at inspection the lead inspector will have identified: responses from Parent View any complaints made to Ofsted about your school information on the school’s website any information identified through an internet trawl
- Does your own evaluation identify that: You publish all of the statutory information on your website? That your SEF is informed by parental perceptions? That you’re profile on Parent View isn’t skewed, particularly by negative comments? That you’ve used parental surveys to evaluate school’s progress towards meeting Ofsted’s AfIs and school improvement priorities
- Comment from an ‘outstanding’ school: ‘The governing body seeks the views of parents, carers and pupils and uses the information obtained to inform the school's self-evaluation and the school development plan.’ Does YOUR school: Proactively seek the views of parents? Use this information to evaluate school’s current provision? Respond to this through your school development plan, using parental perceptions to evidence KPIs? Note: It’s the governing body seeking first hand information. I
- If you were asked today, could you identify your school’s top 5 parental concerns? How do you know? What have you done about them? What has been the impact? Where’s your evidence?
- Always include the following questions in your survey… Progress Listening to parents Fairness and equity Supporting parents to help their children Primary – Leadership & Management, Secondary – Extra Curricular
- The issue of ‘transparency’ From the January 2015 Governors’ Handbook – schools should publish: the structure of the governing body names of their governors roles and responsibilities annual statement setting out the key issues an assessment of the impact
- Ofsted’s online ‘trawl’ – what is your school’s public profile? You may wish to use this activity as a follow-up discussion with your governors. Does the Governing Board’s ‘cold reading’ of parental perceptions match Parent View? Does the Governing Board’s ‘cold reading’ of parental perceptions match your head teacher’s? Does the head teacher’s ‘cold reading’ of parental perceptions match the Governing Board’s? If not – why not?
- How is this used to inform your SEF? The SEF is forward looking as well as reflective – it informs your SDP priorities. Can you identify the linkage between Parent View, your Governing Body’s surveys, and your SEF? Where’s your evidence?
- Parents’ perceptions are a good source of direct information for the governing board If there are differences between the views of your school’s senior leadership team and parents, how would you know without finding out for Yourself? Can your Governing Body evidence where: Parents’ feedback has influenced governor decisions - reporting on pupil progress? Evidence of consultation with pupils and where governors have acted upon these? Actions that have been taken to address concerns / complaints raised by parents
- Responding positively to complaints: Complaints are an ‘alert mechanism’ to the Governing Board How well do you signpost your procedure? Therefore: Do you receive regular information regarding complaints received, the school’s response, and the outcomes? Do you signpost your complaints procedure? Handled well, complaints can help to improve relationships with stakeholders.
- Evidence of impact: For example – parents’ perceptions about behaviour, marking policy, homework? Progress against KPIs over time - re-visiting issues. Keep parents informed of the purpose… they know that you’re ‘on the ball’! Report back: ‘what has changed since the last survey?’ In response… we are taking the following action(s). We will ask for your views again in…
- Outcomes or concerns identified may require follow-up Underlying causes, and potential solutions? E.g. In response to parental concerns regarding ‘communication’ it may be appropriate to bring together a focus group. This demonstrates that the Governing Board responds positively to parents views.
- Has your Governing Board checked that your school’s website meets the statutory requirements? Are you aware that the Governing Board is accountable for this? Information shared by sampled ‘outstanding’ schools’ websites: The head teacher’s reports to the governors (1%) Governors’ minutes (3%) How do I become a governor? (5%) The background of governors (1%) Who is the Chair? (8%) What are the names of the governors? (9%)
- Why wait? Your school could receive ‘the call’ at any point – are your ready? A couple of questions – how would you respond? How does the GB engage with stakeholders? What has been the impact? What do parents and the community think of your school? How do you know? Recommendation – use the formula: What have you done? What has been the impact? Where’s the evidence? (of both actions and impact).
- The questions you ask can influence parents’ perceptions: E.g. We’ve been working hard to improve behaviour in lessons over the last year. Has your child reported to you that any lessons have been disrupted this week because of unruly behaviour? Does your child enjoy coming to school? Are you confident that your child isn’t being bullied at school? Etc.
- Market Forces Does the Governing Board receive regular information regarding children that leave school before the end of their final year? In particular, the reasons for their departures? Does your Governing Board check these? On the other hand – Why are parents choosing your school over others? What does the application process suggest about your school? If significant numbers of children ‘join’ mid-stage are you aware of the reasons? Is this a positive choice?
- Why do we need to actively seek out parents’ perceptions of our school? Schools have a duty to have regard to, and respond to the views expressed by parents. But is ‘accountability’ the right motivation? Or even that it’s parents that choose the school. Shouldn’t it be about improving the provision for pupils? The involvement of parents with their children between the ages of 7 to 16 is more influential in their learning than family background, size of family or parental levels of education.
- Hard to reach parents Can you define ‘hard to reach parents’ for your school? Do you know who these are? What strategies are in place? What impact have these made? Are you aware of the DfE’s toolkit of strategies?
- Active marketing prior to the survey increases response rates Newsletter campaigns before, during and after Use the pupils to cajole If reminders are used – a positive spin is more successful
- A possible pitfall? Does our survey indicate that our parents are satisfied? Are they satisfied with issues that aren’t important? Are they dissatisfied with issues that are important? Have you asked them?
- How successful have our initiatives been? Seeking honest feedback. Don’t forget to respond to parents… How well you’ve done What hasn’t gone so well How you’re going to respond When you’re going to seek further feedback.
- Surveys should be considered reliable if there is a response rate of 40% or greater. Honest feedback – do our issues correlate to theirs? What governors need to hear is not necessarily what they or school’s leaders want to hear.
- Have you considered the purpose of your school’s newsletters? What information do they share? How are they used to engage with parents and carers? What ‘subliminal’ messages do they pass on? The tone as well as content!
- Don’t be seduced by technology: Questionnaires tend to get lost in the chaos of the ‘inbox’, or even worse – SPAM! National research identifies that responses to electronic surveys reduce responses by a factor of 10. Timing – needs to by at a point where the school has an uninterrupted 20 week period – no break for holidays, school visits, plays etc.
- Need – not want! Start with a clearly defined goal What questions should we ask? Poll opinions on the changes already implemented. Or consult regarding those being considered.
- How we communicate is just as important as what we share: Have we examined all of our school’s communication with parents? Have we got the right balance of formality / informality? Are we open? Do we push some parents away from the school? Are we positive or negative with our content? Do we focus on the trivial rather than share what’s important?
- Little things mean a lot: Do senor leaders, including the head teacher, welcome parents and children both in the morning and afternoon? Do you have a ‘wall of fame’ in your foyer with photographs of school’s staff & governors? Do governors all have (photo) badges to indicate their roles and identify them to staff, parents and pupils? Do governors routinely meet parents at parent evenings etc? Ofsted question to governors: ‘Do parents know who you are?’
- Being accessible – a hub of the community Do you regularly invite parents into school to share school’s initiatives, give feedback, and to provide guidance to parents so that they can better support their children? Does your head teacher (and others) have an ‘open door’ policy – I’m available at the following times for you to ‘drop in’…?
- Self-efficacy and engagement correlate More confident and assertive parents believe that they can influence and therefore are likely to get involved. What are the barriers to engaging parents at your school? What strategies are in place? What works? What doesn’t? What are you going to try next?
- What’s easy isn’t necessarily the best A scorecard system is very tempting because its easy to tally responses and work out percentages. However it has limitations because it doesn’t give any context that may be identified better through open questions. Qualitative information provides opportunities for further comments or suggestions. However school’s often resist because they take longer to analysis.
- Parents are to be given more information about how their children’s school is performing,: The plans will take effect in 2016. “The information that will be published online by every school and college in future will support parents when choosing the best school or college for their child and help them challenge poor performance. Schools will no longer be able to hide away bad results. “This change returns power to parents and would allow them to identify excellent schools or ask the difficult questions about why their child’s school isn’t performing.”
- Do you have strategies in place to engage the silent minority? National data suggests that the (proud) parents of children that excel, or those that have an ‘axe to grind’ respond more readily. Is this a pattern I your school? Or do you have a silent majority? Is there the tendency to skew the responses?
- The PTA (or your school’s equivalent): Is there to support the school and raise funds. It may provide valuable insights into parents’ perceptions of school, but its purpose differs from that of a Parent Council that has this particular remit. It’s important not to confuse the two distinctly different roles. Parent governors are representitives from that stakeholder group, they are not governors to represent the views of their constituents. It is important to understand that having parent governors does not equate to parental engagement or consultation by your Governing Board.
- Boards are required to have an appropriate forum to consult with, and respond to the views of parents. Trust schools must have a parent council. This is not a statutory requirement for maintained schools. However, you may need a parent council. It is not acceptable to claim that parents have their voice through their elected governors.
- A Parent Council does not diminish the role of the GB The GB is still the strategic body and makes the decisions. The GB decides how parents are appointed or elected, and their terms of office. The Governing body must consult, but it decides when and on what issues. The GB must decide which pupils require special consideration and ensure that they are represented appropriately. The Parent Council is ‘less formal’ that the GB Parent Councils are an excellent way to demonstrate that the GB actively seeks out the views of parents – and that they are acted upon. It’s a struggle to set Parent Councils up at secondary phase!
- Useful to chase up parents – attendance, not attending parents’ evenings. Also home visits – early warning mechanism?
- Reading Cafés Computing clubs Job club – brush up your CV etc. Phonics / calculation strategies – learn to support your children Parenting classes Plus many many more!
- Give them a project! Why not make this a family occasion? Why not join in? A school event?
- And finally – a checklist! How confident are you that… The governing board ensures that all statutory assessments are conducted and results are forwarded to parents/guardians and appropriate bodies The governing board ensures that every year a report on each pupil’s educational achievements is forwarded to their parents/guardians. The governing board ensures that the school keeps parents and prospective parents informed by publishing a school prospectus. The governing board has a policy and effective practices for meeting the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. The governing board has procedures in place for the systematic collection of parental views including parental complaints