What we mean by
ASN – Additional Support Needs
CLD – Community, Learning & Development
CLPL – Career Long Professional Learning
EAL – English as an Additional Language
ELC – Early Learning & Childcare
Family Learning - Family learning encourages family members to learn together as and within a family, with a focus on intergenerational learning. Family learning activities can also be designed to enable parents to learn how to support their children's learning.
FAPF – Falkirk Area Parent Forum
FVWL RIC – Forth Valley & West Lothian Regional Improvement Collaborative Home/School Partnership - Home-school partnerships are about 'reflecting the shared role and responsibility that schools, parents and the community have in working together to educate children'. (Education Scotland)
Learning at Home - Learning at home can happen through a range of events including play, leisure activities, fun events, sports, trips, cultural or volunteering experiences and everyday family life. It can also happen through curriculum related activities, homework, reading and sharing books… (Education Scotland)
NPFS – National Parent Forum of Scotland
Parent/Carer - The term "parents" means anyone with parental responsibilities and others who care for or look after children or young people.
Parental Engagement - Parental engagement most often refers to parents actively and meaningfully engaging in their children's learning(Harris and Goodall, 2007; Goodall and Montgomery, 2014). Such learning can take place in a variety of settings including early learning and childcare, schools, the community, through family learning and learning at home.
Parental Involvement - Parental involvement has been described as: representing many different parental behaviours; parenting practices such as parental aspirations for their child's academic achievement; parental communication with their children about school; parental participation in school activities; parental communications with teachers about their child; and parental rules at home which are considered to be education-related(Harris and Goodall, 2007).
Why do we have a Strategy?
The Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006 requires us to publish a strategy detailing how we plan to improve parental involvement and engagement. It is recommended that the length of the strategy be three years before review. This strategy will therefore cover the period from 2023 – 2026 with a commitment to continually monitor progress in consultation with parents throughout this period on the specific objectives in the ‘What will we do next?' of this strategy.
Work on this strategy has been arranged via a range of consultations with parent volunteers, Parent Councils and staff groups including Headteachers, colleagues working in Early Learning & Childcare teams and centres, colleagues in CLD and the Council's Educational Psychology Service. Input was also sought from colleagues within Children's Services Service & School Improvement team as well as Service Managers in Children & Families Social Work.
It is important to consider that this strategy follows the COVID-19 pandemic. Falkirk Council Children's Services acknowledges and appreciates the very changing and challenging circumstances with which families across the Council area had to cope with during the pandemic. This was also a challenging time for all our educational establishments and our staff. This strategy will also account for the lessons learned from the past two years and how parent, pupil and staff experiences during this time can help to shape parental engagement moving forward.
What do we want to achieve?
Our key aim is to continue to strengthen your engagement and involvement in school life
across all our establishments and service. This will help to ensure you are fully supported to:
- be involved in the life and work of your child's school or early learning and childcare setting
- engage in your child's education throughout their learning journey.
There are four priority areas we will focus on throughout the life of this strategy:
- Supporting you to engage in your children and young people's learning digitally
- Increasing opportunities for you to learn alongside your children and young people
- Engaging you more regularly to support improving the work of your child or young person's school
- Providing relevant supports to you through our established parent groups (including Parent Councils and the Falkirk Area Parent Forum)
How will we do this?
Supporting you to engage in your children and young people's learning digitally
We will:
- offer relevant training and information sessions to support you to understand how your child or young person's Connected Falkirk device works
- present relevant information on how these devices can be used by you to support your child or young person's learning at home
- provide sessions to support you in keeping children and young people safe online
Increasing opportunities for you to learn alongside your children
and young people
We will:
- support our settings to engage with you to find ways in which you feel you could become more involved in your child or young person's learning
- work with a range of partners to further enhance our family learning offer
Engaging you more regularly to support improving the work of your child or young person's school
We will:
- share examples of what is currently working well in relation to your involvement in the work of the school both within our own settings and beyond
- engage you in consultation around what activities you feel you would like to become more involved in
- offer support to both you and staff in our settings to identify and agree key activities you can be involved in across the school year
Providing relevant supports to you through our established parent groups
We will:
- continue to provide allocated funding as well as Public Liability Insurance to all parent councils throughout the period of the strategy
- continue to offer a suite of training materials and guidance on running Parent Councils and raise awareness of how this resource can help you in this role.
- seek your views on our funding model for Parent Councils
- look to respond to parental complaints and enquiries as quickly as possible and within the timescale set out in the Council's policies will monitor and share progress with you.
- continue to work in partnership with the Falkirk Area Parent Forum to encourage more parents to attend and contribute to lively discussions.
- provide support from our Children's Services Communication Officer and acting as a link between the Parent Forum and senior managers within Children's Services
We hope to build on our experiences during the pandemic to develop shared aspirations with you; regularly checking progress on each throughout the period of the strategy.
What are our principles for engaging parents?
To meet our commitments, set out in the ‘What will we do next?' section below and achieve our aims, our principles for engagement are:
- Inclusion
- Partnership Working
- Communication
What we mean by
Inclusion
- It is the responsibility and role of all practitioners in ELCs, schools and within wider Children's Services teams to work towards effective Parental Engagement across their establishment/the Council area.
- All parents should feel confident and comfortable in becoming actively involved in the life and work of the school, being a part of the wider school community and in supporting their child(ren) in learning.
- Parent Councils should be representative and reflective of their diverse school community. Children's Services and schools should support Parent Council members in ensuring they are fully representative.
- Barriers to engagement should be considered and addressed to ensure all parents can be an active part of the school community.
- The Mental Health & Wellbeing of parents and families must be considered when engaging and communicating with families. Where required, support should be given to families or directions to where families can access support should be provided.
Partnership Working
- Partnership working with parents on specific areas of work should be developed and enhanced – specifically around school improvement planning, use of PEF and working with Parent Councils/PTAs; ensuring parents feel empowered to contribute and be involved in decision-making processes.
- Areas of good practice should be shared widely with practitioners and parents as a support.
- Clear and transparent processes for dialogue and engagement should be built upon so parents are confident in knowing how to raise any concerns.
- Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, parents have gained a greater understanding of both what and how their child(ren) are learning. This should be further developed and harnessed for the benefit of parents and learners alike in supporting children and young people through their learning journey. Focus should also be placed on new parents of younger children and how this knowledge and support can be extended to them.
- Parents should always be involved in key decisions that impact their child(ren). The children and young people themselves should also be involved in decisions which impact them.
- Positive and respectful relationships will be developed and built upon by both parents and school/ELC/Children's Services recognising the different power dynamic between both and the extent to which parents can influence and play an active role in the school community and curriculum. Parents should be consulted on how they would like to engage with the local authority and what their needs are.
Communication
- Communication with parents on important matters should be clear, in plain English and provide a good understanding of the subject matter.
- Methods of communication should be reviewed regularly taking into account the views and needs of all parents.
- Parents role(s) in engagement should be clearly set out in advance of any event/session to ensure parents are aware.
- There should be two-way communication between school/ELC and parents to ensure parents feel that they have a voice to raise concerns.
What will we do next?
To support our work, we have identified key actions under each of our four priority areas:
- Supporting you to engage in children and young people's learning
- Increasing opportunities for you to learn alongside your children and young people
- Engaging you more regularly to support improving the work of your child or young person's school
- Providing relevant supports to you through our established parent groups
6.A Supporting you to engage in children and young people's learning
| What are we trying to achieve? |
What will we do? |
Principle |
Responsibilities |
| Support parents to feel more confident in supporting their child or young person's learning at home and feel increasingly more involved in their child or young person's learning. |
- Develop a clear strategy with settings to increase parents' skills and confidence in supporting their child and young person's learning digitally.
- Provide high-quality training opportunities to our parents across the council.
|
Inclusion |
Children's Services, Schools |
| Ensure all parents receive important information that they need to understand and support their child's learning. Ensure this information is circulated effectively in a timeous manner. |
- Ensure that important information and engagement is circulated timeously and via effective methods – ensuring we reach all parents
|
Communication |
Children's services, schools, ELC |
| Provide a range of relevant supports to increase engagement of a range of families in their child or young person's learning. |
- Barriers to parental engagement and involvement should be considered and addressed to ensure all parents can be an active part of the school community.
- Additional support will be identified through joint working with third sector partners.
|
Inclusion
Partnership
Working |
Children's Services, Schools, ELC |
| Ensure targeted groups of parents (British Sign Language, English as an Additional Language) are supported well to access many aspects of school life in a way that meets their needs and allows them to engage with their child or young person's learning. Engage with groups to identify strategies which ensure their needs are met. |
- Identify and share good practice from schools in this area and share more widely.
- Set up a working group of parents to ensure their views are used to influence the strategy.
- Develop a shared approach to communication which meets the needs of identified groups of parents considering legislative requirements.
|
Communication
Inclusion |
Children's Services, schools, ELC |
6.B Increasing opportunities for you to learn alongside your children and young people
| What are we trying to achieve? |
What will we do? |
Principle |
Responsibilities |
| Develop parents' understanding of what and how their child or young person learns. In turn, they develop key skills which should help them to support learning at home. |
- Build on and increase Family Learning opportunities to help develop further parents understanding of their child or young person's learning.
|
Partnership
Working |
Children's Services, Schools, ELCs, External Partners |
| Increase opportunities for parents to become more involved in the life of the school helping them to develop further their understanding of how children learn. |
- Support schools to encourage parental volunteering in school and promote these opportunities to all parents.
- Continue to provide funding of five PVGs per school for parent volunteers and raise awareness of this funding for schools and parents to use.
|
Partnership
Working |
Children's services, schools, ELC |
| Ensure parents are provided with effective communication at key points of transition to ensure a positive experience for children and young people. |
- Provide guidance to support settings to ensure parents are fully informed and included in discussions around transitions that occur at different points of their child(ren)'s education.
|
Communication
Inclusion |
Children's Services, Schools, ELCs, External Partners (for example, higher/further education) |
6.C Engaging you more regularly to support improving the work of your child or young person's school
| What are we trying to achieve? |
What will we do? |
Principle |
Responsibilities |
| Ensure parents feel confident in sharing their views and that these are used appropriately and effectively to enhance learners' experiences. |
- Support all settings to ensure that any feedback provided is reviewed and timeous feedback is given in relation to findings of consultations and actions which follow.
|
Communication |
Children's Services, Schools, ELCs |
| A significant increase in contact with reluctant parents. They describe feeling more confident in being part of the school community as well as being able to support their child(ren)'s learning. |
- We will specifically work with a range of partners to identify any reluctant parents and identify ways in which we can increase engagement.
- We will ensure identified groups of parents are then supported well to be part of their child(ren)'s learner journey.
|
Inclusion |
Children's Services |
| All schools have an active Parent Council whose role in the life and work of school is central to our approach. |
- Ensure all Parent Councils are involved in school improvement planning and the recruitment of senior staff in schools.
|
Partnership
Working |
Children's Services, School |
6.D Providing relevant supports to you through our established parent groups
| What are we trying to achieve? |
What will we do? |
Principle |
Responsibilities |
| Parent Councils actively access appropriate funding to support their work. All are actively involved in decision-making on the funding model. |
- Ensure all Parent Councils are involved in the review of their funding model operated by Children's Services.
|
Partnership
Working |
Children's Services, Schools, ELCs, Parent Councils |
| Increase representation across the area through the Falkirk Area Parent Forum |
- Continuous support will be provided to the new group by Children's Services Communications Officer to help increase representation across the Council area.
|
Communication
Partnership
Working |
Communications Officer, FAPF |
| Information will be sent to parents effectively considering their views on how we should best contact them. |
- Develop and improve methods of communication by seeking the views of parents on how effective communication is throughout the period of the strategy and beyond.
|
Communication |
Children's Services, Schools, ELCs, Parents |
| Parent Councils are fully representative and reflective of their school community and provide a welcoming environment for parents of different backgrounds and experiences to become active members. |
- Support Parent Councils to ensure they are fully representative and reflective of their diverse school community.
|
Inclusion |
Children's Services, Schools |
Useful Links
Falkirk Council
Partner and Parent Organisations
National Legislation and Guidance