Page 3887 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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The importance of parental engagement and empowerment in our schools.
MS BERRY (Ginninderra) (3.43): The ACT government is committed to delivering the best schools and the best education for our children and young people. The evidence that has been gathered over more than 40 years is consistent, positive and convincing: families have a major influence on their children’s achievement in school and that empowering parents and carers to be actively involved in their children’s education should be one of our top priorities.
This is an area that the ACT is taking the lead on nationally and a subject that I am particularly passionate about. It is also a subject that I have reflected quite a bit on as a single mum of two wonderful primary age children. It is also a subject that I often feel a little guilty about, feeling that I am not doing enough with my children at home and at school, and it is a guilt that I know many parents and carers share.
But this discussion is not about making families feel guilty. The answer is not for families or teachers to simply do more; it is about working out how we can share the load and work together to support and encourage parents and carers to do what they can in their school community—not judging them and making them feel guilty for what they cannot do.
When schools, families and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school. They stay in school longer and they like school more. Only together can we learn how to support more involvement from parents, which will be an important strategy for addressing the achievement gap by some children.
Further recognition that parents and the broader community play a vital role in the education of our children is provided by school effectiveness research, which examines the contributions schools make to student achievement. It shows that the influence of the home on student achievement and learning outcomes is 60 to 80 per cent, while school accounts for 20 to 40 per cent, and points to the dynamic and unique contribution schools and families make to children’s learning and achievement. This research reveals just how important it is for parents, schools and students and the community working together to build connected learning environments for our young people. Education and learning clearly continue beyond the school gates.
Parental engagement consists of building and maintaining partnerships between families, schools and communities. These partnerships will raise awareness of the benefits of engaging in their children’s education and provide them with the capacity to do so. Parents do not need to have specialised knowledge or invest large amounts of time to be engaged in their children’s learning. The bottom line is that parents can help their children achieve their full potential by engaging in their education from when they are very young through to graduation.
When I started writing this speech I asked a few people what they would say if they were talking about this subject. Here is one story that I would like to share from Shane:
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