Engaging 'Hard to Reach' Parents


Book Description

A practical guide to establishing positive relationships with hard-to-reach parents. Includes research-based techniques for teachers on how to reach hard-to-reach parents, carers, and guardians Explores the international perspective on successful parental engagement Provides practical help for developing closer relationships between parents and schools




Do Parents Know They Matter?


Book Description

A powerful resource for teachers about the benefits of parental engagement, along with methods to foster and develop good practice. >




The importance of teaching


Book Description

England's school system performs below its potential and can improve significantly. This white paper outlines action designed to: tackle the weaknesses in the system; strengthen the status of teachers and teaching; reinforce the standards set by the curriculum and qualifications; give schools back the freedom to determine their own development; make schools more accountable to parents, and help them to learn more quickly and systematically from good practice elsewhere; narrow the gap in attainment between rich and poor. The quality of teachers and teaching is the most important factor in determining how well children do. The Government will continue to raise the quality of new entrants to the profession, reform initial teacher training, develop a network of "teaching schools" to lead training and development, and reduce the bureaucratic burden on schools. Teachers will be given more powers to control bad behaviour. The National Curriculum will be reviewed, specifying a tighter model of knowledge of core subjects so that the Curriculum becomes a benchmark against which school can be judged. Schools will be given more freedom and autonomy, the Academies programme extended and parents will be able to set up "Free Schools" to meet parent demand. Accountability for pupil performance is critical, and much more information will be available to aid understanding of a school's performance. School improvement will be the responsibility of schools, not central government. Funding of schools needs to be fairer and more transparent, and there will be a Pupil Premium to target resources on the most deprived pupils.




Involving Hard-to-Reach Parents


Book Description

Involving Hard-to-Reach Parents: Creating Family/School Partnerships presents a comprehensive strategy for reaching out to help the parents to get involved in the education of their children. This book describes, in practical terms, ways to develop and establish collaborative relationships with parents, especially those that are underserved. The book is about change: change so children to get the help and support they need to be successful. The book is for anyone who wants to reach out and work with all families.




The First Six Weeks of School


Book Description

This second edition of a teacher favorite features a fresh, easy-to-use layout including color coding by grade level, more support for student engagement in academics, greater emphasis on the effective use of teacher language, and a dedicated chapter on the all-important first day of school.




Talk for Writing in the Early Years: How to Teach Story and Rhyme Involving Families 2-5 (Revised Edition)


Book Description

Pie Corbett’s ground-breaking Talk for Writing approach has been successfully used by thousands of schools to teach writing creatively in an engaging way that motivates children. Now Pie and Julia take this multi-sensory approach to Early Years settings introducing a simple way to inspire young children’s language development through storytelling. Children learn language through memorable, meaningful repetition. The Talk for Writing approach enables children to internalise the language of story so that they can imitate it, innovate on it and create their own effective stories independently. Talk for Writing in the Early Years will show you how to put rhyme and story at the heart of your work with children and parents so that young learners language development and creativity flourishes. This multimedia resource shows you how to: • Select a story or rhyme the children will enjoy and tell it engagingly, encouraging the children to join in •Use a story map so they can picture what happens •Use actions to reinforce meaning and emphasise key language patterns •Help children build a bank of tales, developing their linguistic repertoire The 2 OLCs contain: 1 Footage of Pie Corbett conferences with EY teachers showing Talk for Writing in action 2 Clips of nursery children engaged in the Talk for Writing approach 3 Advice on how to use the OLC and handouts to train all staff in the approach 4 Interviews with parents and nursery school teachers on the impact of Talk for Writing 5 21 stories with story maps




Parenting Matters


Book Description

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.




Engaging Families in Schools


Book Description

Engaging Families in Schools is a practical resource that provides strategies and ideas that will contribute to the effective engagement of families and the involvement of parents in their child’s education. Parental engagement with school staff has a significant and very positive impact on children’s learning, and strategies presented have been extensively trialled in a variety of different settings. Nicola S. Morgan shows school staff how to understand the importance of family engagement and evidence the outcomes. This book has been split into ten easily accessible units: Understanding the importance of parent engagement Using whole-school strategies to engage parents The role of the family engagement officer Engaging all parents Engaging Dads Engaging multicultural parents Difficult to engage parents Working with parents to improve student attainment Working with parents to improve behaviour and attendance Working with parents of children with additional needs This is a must-read guide for teaching and non teaching staff who wishes to bridge the gap between their student’s school and family life and understand the effects of positive family engagement.




100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Engaging Parents


Book Description

Parental engagement with children's learning is the best lever we have to raise achievement in schools. However, there is a gap between what is known from the research and actual practice at the chalkface in schools. Parents are still often seen as 'helping' the school, rather than having a direct role in their children's learning. Bringing together one of the main researchers in the field and an educational consultant, this book utilises their experience to present 100 evidence-based ideas to help primary teachers engage parents in their children's learning. 100 Ideas for Primary Teachers: Engaging Parents presents ideas for supporting the most effective forms of parental engagement, which are grounded in both the literature in the field and practical experience of working with schools and families. This book offers a clear, concise and easy-to-use format that takes into account how busy schools and teachers truly are!




School, Family, and Community Partnerships


Book Description

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.