NPC Conference June 2014 The impact of

NPC Conference June 2014

The impact of parental engagement on children’s development and achievement Professor Charles Desforges OBE

Overview What is at stake What are the key challenges - parents - staff What to do What works leadership basics home learning environment

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Factors shaping educational outcomes ▫ child’s characteristics ▫ family characteristics ▫ parental involvement ▫ school quality ▫ community ▫ peer group ▫ family support services

Teenage outcomes and socio-economics Poorest 25% Richest 25% (A* to C inc Ma & Eng) 20% 75% NEET at 17 15% 2% Truant at 14 24% 8% 5 GCSE

Explaining the link: major factors - parents’ attitudes and behaviours - material resources - young person’s attitudes and behaviours “What parents do is more important than who they are”

Effects of parents/effect of schools achievement parents / school effects age 7 0. 29 / 0. 05 age 11 0. 27 / 0. 21 age 16 0. 14 / 0. 51 from Sacker et al (2002)

Factors in parenting warmth consistency authoritative style skill hle

Barriers to parental involvement ▫ extreme poverty and social chaos ▫ substance abuse ▫ depression ▫ the difficult relationship ▫ lack of confidence or knowledge ▫ alternative values ▫ barriers set up by schools

Challenges to modern parenting Changes in: relationships social networks working circumstances children’s power finances

Implications for leadership strategy for parent support analysis vision personalisation resourcing partnerships MER

Leadership ▫ driven by ‘families matter’ vision ▫ whole school approach ▫ proactive ▫ outcomes focussed ▫ capacity building (capacity = motivation x skill x opportunity)

Excellent basics 1 Ofsted (2011) Schools and Parents ▫ values: parents as partners ▫ training ▫ planning ▫ evaluation

Excellent basics 2 ▫ communication : front of house : information assessment and progress attendance and behaviour ▫ consultation ▫ complaints

Fundamental home learning environment

Toolkit needed ▫ identify parent needs ▫ audit current work ▫ identify useful initiatives ▫ develop action plan ▫ evaluation ▫ engage with other organisations

Good practice in family learning (Ofsted 2009) leadership targeting and recruitment specifically designed programmes focus on building … confidence communication skills literacy/numeracy

Lessons from research (Goodall and Vorhaus: 2011) best programmes train academic and parenting skills best effects: effect size parents helped to read to child 0. 18 parents helped to listen to child read 0. 51 parents helped to teach specific reading skills 1. 15

References Allen, G. (2011) Early Intervention: the next steps (an independent report to HM Government, Jan 2011) Estyn (2009) Good practice in parental involvement Field, F. (2010) The foundation years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults (the report of the independent review on poverty and life chances) (www. frankfield. co. uk) Goodall, J. , and Vorhaus, J. (2011) Review of best practice in parental engagement London, Df. E, RR Df. E-RR 156 Lexmond, J. , Bazalgette, L. , and Margo, J (2011) It is time to be honest about what good parenting involves: the home front. Demos (www. demos. co. uk) Ofsted (2011) - Schools and parents www. c 4 eo. org. uk www. nationalcollege. org. uk Leadership for parental engagement

Charles Desforges c. w. desforges@exeter. ac. uk