School in Focus - celebrating success in schools

King Edward VI School

As the headteacher of a 13-19 upper school, parent interaction is a particular concern for Geoff Barton. "We get our pupils at around the time when, statistically, parents tend to step back from their children's education. This often results in a dip in motivation."

The challenge for Geoff and his staff at King Edward VI School, in Bury St Edmunds, has been to find a way of getting parents involved in the school life, "not in the traditional way of organising jumble sales, but in a more engaging way that encourages them to support their child's learning, and by that we mean all-round development, not just exam results."

Parental involvement

This commitment to parental involvement can be seen in many aspects of school life: the interviews for all prospective students and parents, the detailed monthly newsletters, the innovative, data-led approach to parents evenings.

There is also a comprehensive package of guidance on the school website devoted to parents, with a list of 'top five tips' that give a very clear idea of how the school expects the ideal staff-parent-pupil relationship to work. It states: "Below you can find five things parents can do to help their child to be most successful...", and top of the list is: "see through the teenage veneer. Praise, support, encourage".

The final tip says "stay in touch with us, through the planner, website, phone-calls, workshops, events", advice that all secondary schools would wish more parents to follow.

The difference here is that parents actually appear to be paying heed to the message, because since he joined four years ago, Geoff has made it a priority to find new, effective ways of getting them onboard.

The process for all parents begins before they even join the school community. When families are considering sending their children to the school they are invited to come in and meet the staff and talk thorough any concerns they might have, as well as being introduced to the home school agreement (which Geoff considers a "living document").

From that point on, parent and student relations with the school are carefully monitored, through surveys, a parental website and questionnaires. "We talk to parents in detail about how students are developing," says Geoff, "and we act on their feedback."

Making use of pupil data

The data the school uses as the basis for these discussions comes from the Fisher Family Trust (FFT), a non-profit organisation that provides analyses and data to helps LEAs and schools make more effective use of pupil performance data. "This enables us to track pupil progress and see why certain pupils might not be achieving what they should."

For the future, the school is also looking at the possibility of using data from Acorn, a national database of socio-economic information that is more commonly associated with business research. Geoff says: "If a big supermarket, say, can use it to target customers more effectively, why shouldn't we use it as a way of identifying students whose backgrounds indicate they are most at risk of fulfilling their potential at school?"

The school has also found success with its flexible approach to parents' evenings, which are here referred to as 'target-setting and review days' (again, these are underpinned by FFT data). For each year group, on a particular day each term, the regular timetable is suspended and parents are given appointments at any time to suit them from 7am to 10pm. Teachers work shifts to cover the different times of day, and pupils are given work to complete at home before and after the appointment (which they must attend with their parents).

Families arrive 30 minutes before their appointment, and are given detailed data (compiled in advance by the tutor) about the pupil's expected and actual attainment.

Together with the member of staff, they produce a 'template for discussion', which the parents and pupils then go away to debate and draw up targets for the term ahead. They then return to the tutor for a 15-20 minute talk about the child's strengths and weaknesses. To make sure that parents and pupils go away with something they can act on, tutors define two 'key messages' as part of their summary.

"It's all about getting parents and pupils talking to each other about what's happening at school, really engaging the parents in the learning. It has been one of the most warmly received aspects of the programme because it really gets parents and teenagers talking." As a result, turnout is always close to 100 per cent, says Geoff.

Strengthening relationships

Despite the commitment demanded of staff, they too have responded positively. "Teachers find the target-setting and review day intensive and challenging, but it strengthens their role and their relationship with parents. It has also recast the role of tutors and made the process more of a partnership."

The heads of year 'drive the system', explains Geoff, helping tutors prepare for the review days and maintaining regular phone contact with parents throughout the year group. They also target 15 parents in each year group where intervention can make the most impact, and encourage them to join a parent support network run by Ian Miles, a former deputy head now employed for three days a week as training consultant (King Edward VI is a DfES training school).

Parents at the school, which enjoys specialist sport status, are also encouraged to engage with the strong emphasis on extra-curricular pursuits. To this end, extended school funding has been harnessed for a variety of evening sessions and workshops, from cookery masterclasses to the highly popular 'family quiz and fish and chips night'.

The approach to parental involvement at King Edward's has also fanned out into the wider area, through Geoff's role as chair of Suffolk's extended schools cluster. The 27 lower, middle and upper schools have a uniform policy on the parent-pupil-school relationship, communicated via a magazine and dedicated website.