1. Working with parents to prevent
early school leaving
J-J Derrien and Ulf Hägglund

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Content
The PREVENT project
Why focussing on parents’ participation?
Conceptual thinking
Challenges (possibilies…)
Prevent’ives (!)

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The PREVENT project
 Ten European cities, working together to bring in the
perspective and experiences of parents in preventing
Early school leaving (ESL)
 Supporting, connecting schools, parents and young
 Combining transfer and development of concrete, good
practice with structural indicators for strategic support
 Coordinated by the city of Nantes,France
 Expert team: Ulf Hägglund, Paul Downes
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Involving parents - so obvious…2
• ’…research shows that parents by being involved in the
education and teaching of their children, at home and in
school, can increase the school achievements with 30 %’ (Fan
and Chen)
• ’…parental involvement affects positively the psychosocial
functioning of pupils: it concerns their
behaviour, motivation, social competences, relationship with
the teacher and the relationship between pupils’
(Smit, Driessen, Sluiter and Brus)
• ’…support cooperation between schools, local
communities, parents and pupils in school development and in
initiatives to reduce ESL’ (EC Thematic Working Wroup on ESL)

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Conceptual thinking
School-parents-society partnership (different forms of
involvement, different levels of participation, different actors
collaborating)
Acknowledgement of complimentary services and resources
delivered both inside and outside schools (by NGO’s, etc)
Holistic approach to prevention : levels of intervention, individual vs
systemic, prevention-intervention-compensation structures
Capacity building approach to transferability and thematic issues
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Challenges (possibilities)
An interesting spread of good practices where many
could be transferred; though challenging contextual
issues affecting adaption/implementation
Need for shift in focus from what underpins ESL
(background related issues) to what prevents it;
especially in the meaning of supporting and involving
parents and students to reach educational success
It is about outreach on one hand and transitions on the
other; a multilevel, action focussed learning
process, both for parents, students, schools and policy
makers
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Prevent’ives
Baseline study (research, examples, arguments…)
Good Practice Soourcebook (GPS) including a
section of 20 good practices on parental involvement
Thematic reports on Roma’s and ethnical issues
Policy recommendations report
Report on Local Support Groups and Local Action
Plans work
Structural Indicators Matrix (SIM)
http://urbact.eu/fr/projects/active-inclusion/prevent/homepage/
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