Bringing parents into the classroom

Tom Dunne

Interesting article in the Economist : http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21725587-tempting-mum-and-dad-classroom-may-improve-pupils-results-schools-teach-parents

Basically, engaging parents at an early stage, bringing them in to the classroom in the hope of getting better outcomes for children.

A good idea? Would it work here? Would be interesting on getting a teacher's perspective.

mtoutlemonde

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Interesting article in the Economist : http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21725587-tempting-mum-and-dad-classroom-may-improve-pupils-results-schools-teach-parents

Basically, engaging parents at an early stage, bringing them in to the classroom in the hope of getting better outcomes for children.

A good idea? Would it work here? Would be interesting on getting a teacher's perspective.

I don't think this would be a good idea ... we have enough people in the classroom with SNAs and the odd inspector.

I could see parents showing up and end up looking at their phones. I think school should be co-operative but bringing parents into the classroom is a step too far.

I also didn't like the points system would eventually lead to a treat like going to the cinema etc. What parents would be able to spend 1/2 hours in a classroom? If Billy's parents work - is he now disadvantaged having parents who can't come into the classroom like Rosie's parents because she is unemployed and Rosie is going to cinema on Friday. What would a child think? Rosie is so lucky ... my parents don't like me ... thinking as a child of ten/eleven.

School is a time for personal growth and this should be away from parents.

What's your opinion Tom?

killbillvol2

There's nothing new in this. We've had parents coming into classrooms for years, as have all the primary schools around us.

They help out with maths station teaching, hear reading etc.

The commitment would be an hour or two a week for 3 or 4 weeks.

The idea of rewarding children whose parents turn up is a bit daft though.

r93kaey5p2izun

This already happens to a certain extent under several DEIS initiatives. The local primaries have parents in every day for the Early Start programme. The HSCL also runs lots of things with parents involved.

We run literacy, maths and history classes for parents. We have a parent child book club. We have parents learn science experiments and then come in and help teach the class. There's parenting courses. We have a parent group who meet up every week with the HSCL and go on trips to different museums and cultural landmarks. It's brilliant and I think it is vital for a school like ours.

I don't like the sound of the points system in the article. As discussed in the article, getting more parents involved can be an issue. I think it's a very interesting area of research. Like everything though, it requires funding, training and resources to implement effectively.

thefasteriwalk

Ariel Savory Cheek wrote: »

This already happens to a certain extent under several DEIS initiatives. The local primaries have parents in every day for the Early Start programme. The HSCL also runs lots of things with parents involved.

We run literacy, maths and history classes for parents. We have a parent child book club. We have parents learn science experiments and then come in and help teach the class. There's parenting courses. We have a parent group who meet up every week with the HSCL and go on trips to different museums and cultural landmarks. It's brilliant and I think it is vital for a school like ours.

I don't like the sound of the points system in the article. As discussed in the article, getting more parents involved can be an issue. I think it's a very interesting area of research. Like everything though, it requires funding, training and resources to implement effectively.

Wow! Does your HSCL organise all of that? We're DEIS but have nothing even remotely like that set up. Who teaches the parents' literacy, maths and history classes? Does it happen during the school day? Is there a strong uptake? Sounds great!

r93kaey5p2izun

thefasteriwalk wrote: »

Wow! Does your HSCL organise all of that? We're DEIS but have nothing even remotely like that set up. Who teaches the parents' literacy, maths and history classes? Does it happen during the school day? Is there a strong uptake? Sounds great!

Mostly HSCL and also a post holder who deals with School Completion. Teachers teach the extra classes during free periods or lunch, whenever suits their timetable. I teach the Maths. There is usually very good uptake for everything.

thefasteriwalk

Ariel Savory Cheek wrote: »

Mostly HSCL and also a post holder who deals with School Completion. Teachers teach the extra classes during free periods or lunch, whenever suits their timetable. I teach the Maths. There is usually very good uptake for everything.

Well it sounds terrific. Fair play to you for such commitment. None of our post holders deal with school completion. It's some external person who, as far as I can see, does nothing. Your set up sounds fantastic.

Tom Dunne

mtoutlemonde wrote: »

I don't think this would be a good idea ... we have enough people in the classroom with SNAs and the odd inspector.

I could see parents showing up and end up looking at their phones. I think school should be co-operative but bringing parents into the classroom is a step too far.

I also didn't like the points system would eventually lead to a treat like going to the cinema etc. What parents would be able to spend 1/2 hours in a classroom? If Billy's parents work - is he now disadvantaged having parents who can't come into the classroom like Rosie's parents because she is unemployed and Rosie is going to cinema on Friday. What would a child think? Rosie is so lucky ... my parents don't like me ... thinking as a child of ten/eleven.

School is a time for personal growth and this should be away from parents.

What's your opinion Tom?

I'm not a teacher, but I could see the benefits of such a scheme, particularly in disadvantaged schools where the parents have little or no education and maybe had bad experiences of the education system themselves.

killbillvol2 wrote: »

There's nothing new in this. We've had parents coming into classrooms for years, as have all the primary schools around us.

They help out with maths station teaching, hear reading etc.

The commitment would be an hour or two a week for 3 or 4 weeks.

The idea of rewarding children whose parents turn up is a bit daft though.

Really? I didn't know it was already going on.

killbillvol2

Tom Dunne wrote: »

I'm not a teacher, but I could see the benefits of such a scheme, particularly in disadvantaged schools where the parents have little or no education and maybe had bad experiences of the education system themselves.

Really? I didn't know it was already going on.

I'd say mainly in disadvantaged schools, especially through HSCL teachers as a previous poster mentioned.

In my experience it takes a while to get off the ground, especially where parents had a negative view of school, but it's well worth the effort.

Even some of my more sceptical colleagues have come to accept that an extra pair of hands in the classroom can be a big help.

Many of the parents who started by helping out occasionally have gone back to education in some form or other, become more active in school /community activities etc. Quite a few have trained as SNAs.

silverharp

my kid's school do it on and off as they have a general ethos of parental involvement. when junior was in 3rd class a couple of parents had volunteered to run an additional maths class for the advanced kids.
My impression of schools here in general is that parents are not welcome inside the school gate. In theory it should be a good thing if it was focused on the early years.