Schools can benefit from stronger parents' associations, but some teachers and principals still need to be convinced, Louise Holden writes
Strong parents' associations are few and far between in this country, but they bring a valuable dimension to the running of a school. For two adults to communicate through a seven-year-old is an absurd proposition but it happens every day. For all the platitudes, policy statements and review groups, parental involvement in education in Ireland remains patchy. Many a parent relies on the verdict of the child for her information about classroom activities. School staff are often only confronted when things go wrong.
According to Geraldine Graydon of the National Parents Council (NPC) the current political administration is committed to getting parents involved in schooling (despite a 55 per cent cut in the NPC's funding this year). The schools themselves, however, are lagging behind. The timing of parent-teacher meetings, for example, has not been altered to reflect the fact that many households contain two working parents.
Even more of a barrier to inclusion than timetabling, however, is the negative attitudes of some school principals. Many parents have reported resistance to their efforts to get involved in school decision-making or to access information about their children's education. A report of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) on parental involvement has acknowledged attitude and professional difficulties among teachers, many of whom are said to feel threatened by what is seen as parental encroachment in a professional domain.
Graydon advises parents with an interest in their children's schooling to get involved with the parents' association, or establish one where none exists. Under Section 26 of the Education Act, parents are entitled to set up a parents' association, and the independent committee of the NPC can offer guidelines and training where required.
Sean Cottrell, director of the Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN), believes that, besides the staff, parents are the single biggest asset to a school, and that where strong partnerships are built between parents' associations and staff, schools thrive. The trouble, Cottrell cautions, arises where the roles of each are not clearly delineated.
"The principal's role is clear; the parents' association's role should also be clear," he says. "Parents should support the aims and objectives of the school, and should be empowered to support teachers and extend learning into the home. They should not invent alternative aims for the school, create new tiers of management, try to control spending or lobby the principal about staffing issues."
The thousands of teachers and principals who encourage parental contributions report a benefit, rather than a hindrance, to their professional responsibilities. Where parents are drawn into the education process there is a continuum of learning inside and outside the classroom, building on and cementing the efforts of the teacher.
In the event that parents' efforts are not well received by the principal of a school, it is best to take a measured approach, according to Graydon.
"The school may have suffered at the hands of a 'parent from hell' in the past," she says. "Find common ground to start off with - many parents' associations start life as fundraising bodies and grow from there."
Beyond fundraising, a parents' association may involve itself in the extra-curricular activities of a school. Parents may identify gaps in the curriculum and help to source the necessary resources - this sounds like fundraising by another name but it is based on the priorities of the parents in consultation with management and staff. Holding regular meetings with boards of management and principals to discuss future plans for the school builds a trust and unity of purpose that can head off problems at source.
"When it comes to issues such as bullying and behaviour policy, building a partnership with parents has proven to be a very constructive move for schools," adds Graydon. She urges working parents to involve themselves where possible, as their input can only lead to more work-friendly structures for everyone.
"Communication between parents and school staff often comes about after something has gone wrong," Cottrell warns. "A strong and supportive parents' association, of which there are lamentably few in this country, opens up vital communication lines between parents and teachers."
These lines of communication are vital; in no other area do two adults with a common purpose work through the medium of a child, Cottrell points out.
"A colleague of mine, once faced with an irate parent with a skewed version of classroom events, struck the following bargain: if you promise not to believe everything your child tells you about what goes on in the classroom, I'll promise not to believe everything she tells me about what goes on in your house."
Net parenting: Top of the class
If you want to extend the classroom into the home there are a few online resources that might help:
The primary curriculum support website offers some really useful insights into the primary curriculum and simple tips for teachers and parents on how to encourage literacy, numeracy, science and language skills in the classroom or at home. Go to www.pcsp.ie, choose the subject you're interested in from the top of the Web page and then go to the link marked 'Resources'.
For parents of post-primary students, visit www.skoool.ie for interactive curriculum support in a range of junior and senior cycle subjects. The Government website, www.education.ie, is also a good resource for parents hoping to get a handle on their children's coursework.
The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment is supportive of parental involvement in schooling and there are plenty of resources on its website, www.ncca.ie
Handbooks for parents on the new primary curriculum went out to every school in the country and another one is due out in December. If you haven't received one, ask at the school.
For more information on parent guidelines and training programmes from the National Parents Council, visit www.npc.ie
Back to school: FAST progress in Tallaght
Not many university students went to St Thomas National School in Tallaght. The children there come from an area of low income, high unemployment and low educational achievement. These are the pupils that university access programmes will ultimately be aimed at, but now is the time when their educational die is cast.
St Thomas is a progressive place and its principal, Seamus Massey, recognises the value of winning over parents in order to get the best from children. In a disadvantaged area, however, it's hard to convince parents to get involved. Their own experience of education has often been negative, there is a mistrust of bureaucracy and authority, and the pressures that accompany poverty push education far down the list of priorities.
With this in mind, the Tallaght Partnership has for the last year funded the development of the Families And Schools Together (FAST) project. Fifteen families of children from St Thomas with poor attendance records were asked to participate. A project worker, Bairbre Kelly, worked with families to identify the reasons why their Junior Infant and Senior Infant pupils were missing classes.
"I approached this project with total honesty and set out to build mutually respectful relationships with these families," Kelly says. "I told them that they had been singled out because their children had poor attendance records. I made no secret of what this project was about. They all agreed to take part."
There are myriad reasons why a child shows poor educational attainment. Not turning up for class is always a symptom of a larger problem. Kelly unearthed problems ranging from transport issues to domestic abuse. She has dealt with the courts, the health boards, the county council, anyone who can help her clients to overcome difficulties and get their kids back to school. She has drawn previously detached parents into the school setting, encouraging them to get involved in breakfast clubs, homework clubs and after-school activities.
The results have been astonishing. In one year the attendance records of FAST project pupils have doubled. Every student has shown an improvement and most parents take a role in school activities.
"The knock-on effects from a project like this are powerful," says Seamus Massey. "The families involved are getting an insight into the power of education to bring their children out of the poverty trap. Prior to this their children's poor attendance indicated that the families placed no value on school. Now these parents feel empowered."
One parent whose child had a hit-and- miss attendance record was aided by FAST in the removal of a violent partner from the home. The woman had previously eyed the school authorities with mistrust and treated Massey as "the enemy". Kelly helped her to take the steps necessary to make her home safe and to get her life, and her children's lives, back on track.
Anne Prendiville, of the Tallaght Partnership, feels there is a place for a FAST project worker in every school. "The FAST project is nothing more than the salary of the project worker; it's good value and delivers results," she says.
Unfortunately, funding for the project will dry up in December of this year and, given the economic climate, it may not be easy for the parents of St Thomas to get funding from the State to continue it.
"This is not a service that it is in the gift of the teacher to provide," Massey explains. "They have neither the time nor the resources. Parents are not as comfortable dealing with teachers as they are with an individual who is seen as an independent advocate for their rights."
A project like FAST could be the magic bullet Noel Dempsey is looking for.
