Supporting parental engagement through workshops
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Information about the school
St. Julian’s Primary School is a large primary school in Newport local authority. There are 687 pupils at the school aged 3 to 11, including 75 pupils who attend the nursery part-time. The school has 23 single-aged classes. Eighteen per cent of pupils are eligible for free school meals. Most pupils come from homes where English is the main language spoken. Twenty per cent of pupils have additional learning needs, including 18 pupils who have statements of educational needs. A few pupils are looked after by the local authority. The school is a Digital and Professional Learning Pioneer School.
Context and background to the effective or innovative practice
The school identified the need to improve parental engagement, in order for parents to support their own children’s learning. As a result, the school established a FaCE (Family and Community Engagement) Committee, made up of staff from across the school, with the aim of improving parental engagement through different events.
Description of nature of strategy or activity
The FaCE Committee looked at what the school was already doing to promote parental engagement and how this could be further developed. Initially this took the form of a parent questionnaire, and then by encouraging parents to complete a comment slip during existing parental engagement events to see how they could be improved. The impact of each event on pupils’ standards and wellbeing is evaluated and events are adapted accordingly.
St Julian’s Primary has a cycle of successful workshops and events being run with families, and believes that these opportunities support learning and wellbeing both at home and at school. The aim is to make parents feel relaxed in school and help them to enjoy the events alongside their child. Below are some examples of events run at school to promote learning and wellbeing:
St Julian’s Bake Off: This event, which involves a parent working with their child, gives opportunities for developing pupils’ literacy and numeracy skills. Pupils read recipes and follow instructions. They communicate and explain to the camera what they are doing, which helps build confidence. Pupils weigh the ingredients, calculate ratios, and time how long the cake stays in the oven. Applying their numeracy skills in a real-life context helps to consolidate and develop their understanding. This also encourages parents to carry out similar activities at home.
Workshops in Literacy and Numeracy: The school believes that it is important to engage with families as early as possible in order to establish strong partnerships. Parents are invited to a 45 minute workshop, which takes place in their child’s classroom. The class teacher demonstrates an activity to the parents and pupils, for example how they teach addition, letter formation, and spelling strategies. Tables are set up around the classroom with strategies on how literacy and numeracy skills can be developed at home, such as with educational websites accessed by pupils, letter formation cards, and mathematics games. This gives an opportunity for parents to see what is being taught in school and to continue this at home in a consistent way. Everyone who attends the workshops receives a bag of resources to continue supporting learning at home, such as a whiteboard, cardboard clock, dice and counters, pencil, pencil grip, website addresses, and plastic money.
‘Lads and Dads’: The school devised a six-week programme of activities running after school, aiming to help fathers build and grow positive relationships with their sons. Each week, the teams take part in a different challenge, including sports, cooking, and survival and computing challenges. The sessions are filmed and shared with the ‘Lads and Dads’ and their families. ‘Lads and their Dads’ evaluate the impact of the programme following the last session. As well as building relationships with their sons, the programme also helps fathers to build relationships with the school staff and other parents, thus developing positive attitudes towards learning. http://www.stjuliansprimary.com/lads-and-dads-programme/.
‘Help at Home’ Videos: The school has produced and published a number of videos on the school website, which demonstrate strategies for supporting pupils with their learning at home, such as how to solve various maths problems, letter formation, phonics songs and basic Welsh and ICT skills. Parents can watch these videos with their children and ensure that they are using a common approach with the school.
Mobile phone app: The school publishes information such as current attendance and assessment information through a parent mobile phone app. Parents are able to log into an associated website to view certain assessment tracking information for their child. For example, parents can view their child’s progress in learning and applying multiplication tables. They are then aware of which tables to practise with their child at home.
What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?
- Attendance at parental engagement events has significantly increased. The engagement with hard to reach parents, such as parents who are not able come to the classroom door or attend parent consultations, has also improved after building trust with staff. Parents know the teachers and feel confident to approach them.
- Relationships between staff and pupils improve, when relationships with parents are stronger.
- Parents’ confidence in helping their children learn at home has improved, for example giving an opportunity for parents to look at the teaching strategies the school uses and to continue these at home.
- The process has a positive impact on pupil wellbeing, leading to greater progress in learning, and providing lifelong experiences to children who may not get these at home.
How have you shared your good practice?
The school is sharing its good practice with parents, governors and the local community through its website and Twitter account. Other schools across the consortium have visited the school and the good practice is shared with the EAS FaCE Network.