Page 3894 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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As the president of the ACT association of parents and friends put it:
This project will broaden the dialogue and involvement of parents beyond fetes, helping in classrooms and tuck shops, and come to the core of what is required of the partnership between home and school for the learning and wellbeing of our children.
I want to acknowledge Charuni’s work on parental engagement before we entered into partnership with ARACY and her continued interest in this very important area. She is highly respected on a parental engagement level and is recognised nationally.
Research demonstrates that schools with strong parental involvement are 10 times more likely to show improvements in mathematics and four times more likely to show improvements in reading compared to schools in which parental engagement is not prioritised. This government is empowering schools through national research and highly effective strategies to ensure positive partnerships are formed from the very beginning.
It is the work that we have also undertaken through preschool matters that further highlights the critical role parents have in education. When we look at preschool matters, the success of those grant initiatives is reflected in the personal stories told by recipients in the 2013 grant round. A great example is the Isabella Plains Early Childhood School, where educators established strong connections between home and preschool through the development of a parent-led early literacy program based on cooking and sharing of family recipes. Throughout this program, family members and children shared language and culture, valuing each other’s knowledge and expertise.
The impact of the funding is echoed in comments made by parents and educational leaders at Isabella Plains Early Childhood School. The deputy principal reflected the impact of the project by saying:
… the ice has broken and families have taken the steps to come into the classroom and be involved.
One parent at the school commented that she felt valued and really enjoyed the opportunity to share her culture within and beyond the school gates.
The local stories demonstrate the impact of the current work of the ACT government in enabling parental engagement from principle to practice. Families are indeed equal partners in education. I am committed to the development of strong, meaningful and sustainable connections between home and school. As I move around many of our schools, I make a point of talking to the parents, and to those on the P&C associations and the boards, because they are such a fundamental part of the school community. The other part of this is reflecting parental engagement and empowerment in our schools.
Mr Doszpot reflected on the level of empowerment within our schools and made reference to the agreement we have with the commonwealth for empowering local decision-making in ACT schools. He was absolutely right to say that ACT schools have long embraced local decision-making and school empowerment. It has been the case for some time and it will go from strength to strength.
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