Father's Network Scotland Workshop

1. HOW FATHER-FRIENDLY
IS YOUR SCHOOL?
Fathers Network Scotland NPF March 2018
Sam Pringle
Managing Director
On behalf of Dr Gitit Kadar Satat University of Edinburgh
&Alison Cameron Head Teacher Presonpan Infant School

2. OUTLINE
● The story of Father Inclusive Project
● Tips for including fathers in school – clip
● Group discussion
● Feedback

3. DEFINITIONS
Father / Father figure - any man who is in a
parenting role with children.
Involvement – there’s no single definition!
Participation in activities within the school
environment and at home.
Cognitive and emotional investments in the
academic socialisation of the child.

4. RESEARCH ON PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT
 Parental involvement is beneficial to children’s
learning.
 The positive impact of father involvement on child's
academic success is independent of and additional
to the impact of mother involvement.
 Fathers’ involvement is limited in scope and
frequency in comparison to mothers' involvement.

5. THE POLICY CONTEXT
 The Scottish Schools (Parental
Involvement) Act 2006;
 A practical toolkit - ‘Parents As
Partners In Their Children’s Learning’;

6. THE POLICY CONTEXT
 The Scottish Schools (Parental
Involvement) Act 2006;
 A practical toolkit - ‘Parents As
Partners In Their Children’s Learning’;
 The ‘Parental Engagement' driver in
the 2017 National Improvement
Framework and Improvement Plan

7. THE EAST LOTHIAN FATHER-FRIENDLY
SCHOOLS (ELFFS) PROJECT
 A pilot study that took place in 6 primary
schools between January and June 2017.
Aims:
o To explore what makes it easier or harder for fathers
to get involved in their child’s school;
o To pilot a new Father Inclusion Guide designed to
enhance fathers’ involvement in school.

8. THE EAST LOTHIAN FATHER FRIENDLY
SCHOOLS (ELFFS) PROJECT
● We surveyed 116 dads and 56 staff members in
the 6 participating schools;
● We interviewed teachers, fathers and spoke with
children;
● We drew on the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) –
a large scale survey of children and their families.

9. KEY FINDINGS - PERCEPTIONS OF
FATHERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL
 Children are keen to see their fathers get involved in
school.
 Involved fathers are viewed as providing a positive
male role model for children.
 Fathers, school staff and children all attribute great
importance to the involvement of dads in education.

10. KEY FINDINGS - PERCEPTIONS OF
FATHERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL
Percentage of fathers and school staff who strongly agree or agree with
the following statements (n staff= 55, n fathers= 79)

11. KEY FINDINGS - PARTICIPATION
% of dads answering YES to the question: since the beginning of
this school year, have you done any of the following at your child’s
school? (n=80-81)

12. % of mothers and fathers who attended a parents’ evening by ns-
sec (MCS 3, n=1345)
KEY FINDINGS - PARTICIPATION

13. Who attended a parents’ evening, by household income (n
unweighted = 1079, MCS3 Scottish sub-sample)
KEY FINDINGS - PARTICIPATION

14. KEY FINDINGS - BARRIERS
 Work commitments and time pressure
 Lack of effective communication
 Gendered spaces and practices
 Social and structural constraints

15. WHAT’S NEXT?
 19 recommendations for educators,
policy makers and researchers in the
online report:
http://www.fathersnetwork.org.uk/dad_friendly_schools
 A Father Inclusion Guide for schools,
also available online:
http://www.fathersnetwork.org.uk/dad_friendly_schools

16. HOW DID OUR JOURNEY BEGIN?
● It all started with a question from one of our dads, Tim (Midlothian Sure
Start & Lawfield Primary).
● “What is it that you do, that make dads feel so welcome?
● So to self-evaluate we asked some dads……” You know our name, you
come and you speak with us, you know our children, you know our
situation and, most importantly, you really want to know. You want dads,
and mums, and grannies and grandads and all the family members to be
included in school and in the children’s education.”
● So we got thinking and documented the things we already did and began
to consider ways to make our service even better.

17. WHAT DO WE DO WELL?
● Parents apart directory – begins at nursery enrolment stage
● Nursery Helping Calendar – dads included from the start
● Dads groups given space to work in school, eg Dad’s Work.
● Male parents and carers
invited to share their life skills with
children/dads, eg Cooking For Life

18. …CONTINUED!
● Father’s Day Massage
● Offer to Parents and Carers – Tracking engagement
● Toast with the Heidie
● Raising Children With Confidence
● 3 male teaching staff
● Parent council office bearers (2/5 male)
● Bairns In The Wood
● Positive Images of dads and males around the school

19. ● Go Mad With Dad
● Information on Dads groups included in school
newsletters etc.
● Information board for dads.
● Actively promote dad events on school’s website and
social media stream.
…CONTINUED!

20. THE NEXT STEP
● We wanted to document and share our practice so we
started out on our journey to create our guide.
● The guide we are presenting to you today has been
robustly reviewed by academics, teachers, school
partners, the general public, senior teaching fellows
and most importantly dads!
● All comments and recommendations are still
welcomed as this is only our first edition.

21. FATHER FRIENDLY GUIDE
●A guide for schools to use to self-evaluate their own
Father Inclusive Practice.
●Benchmarked against How Good Is Our School? 4
●Contains an unpackaged explanation for each of the 15
Quality Indicators.
●Includes working examples that schools may wish to
include in their practice for each of the Quality Indicators
●Includes challenge questions to encourage deeper
analysis around the service provided by your school.

22. GUIDE FEATURES

23. …CONTINUED

24. …CONTINUED

25. KEY POINTS TO CONSIDER
● This is about an attitudinal change.
● The ethos of the school and sentiment and actions
towards dads will always be the most important factor.
It must be ‘felt’ and works best when it’s top down.
● Male carers include – dads, uncles, grandads, step dads,
cousins and in some cases, big brothers. Actually any
male who is important to the child.
● Importantly, this also raises the confidence and self-
esteem of children who value their ‘dads’ being part of
their school life.

26.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VneCtxdTWV
TIPS FOR INCLUDING DADS IN SCHOOL