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Making the difference - improving parents' involvement in schools: a consultation on a draft bill

Foreword

All the evidence is that children do better when parents are actively involved in supporting and helping their child's learning. Parents who encourage their children to learn and actively support that learning will significantly improve their child's chances of success.

This paper sets out our vision of how we can encourage and support parents more, both as individuals and as part of the wider school community. We want to achieve stronger, more inclusive and effective parental involvement in all aspects of education and a new partnership between parents and schools.

One of the main messages from the National Debate on Education was that communication and partnership between schools and parents could and should be improved. By improving communications with parents about their child's education and about education more generally and by reviewing the role of School Boards and the way parents' views are represented in schools, I believe the improvements parents are seeking will be made.

We are already making good progress. The relaunch last year of the Parentzone website and the way that has developed, offers an accessible reference point for parents covering a whole range of issues and interests. And the first three in a series of new practical materials to help parents get involved in their own children's education, are now available.

The proposals in this paper and in the accompanying draft Bill emerge out of consultations with parents, our view that we want to see parents actively involved with their child's learning and our belief that a move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to representation is overdue.
We are looking to education authorities and schools to do much more than just provide better information to parents, we want them to listen to parents and involve them in their children's learning more in line with our policies to further devolve school management and decision making to the local, school level.

We want every school in Scotland to be an ambitious and excellent school. To achieve this
we need the support and involvement of parents to help shape decisions affecting their local school. Finding innovative ways of engaging parents and communities will also be a key
feature of delivering transformational change through the Schools of Ambition programme.

I commend our proposals and the draft Bill to you and shall very much welcome your comments on them.

Peter J Peacock
Minister for Education and Young People

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