A presentation for South Glos Secondary Heads, Nov 2011

1. Engaging ParEnts in LEarning through iCt
I a i n W i l l i a m s – B r a d l e y S t o k e C o m m u n i t y S c h o o l

2. EPRA 2007-9
Engaging Parents to Raise Achievement
Schools’ Network / Warwick University

3. EPRA led to questions about effectiveness of
parental engagement and its role
Research Base  case studies
Parental Engagement Quality Standard (PEQS)

4. Current Y6 parents coming into Y7
THINK ABOUT
SO… what is the balance of time
and effort invested in
Many of them will stay connected to your school
your parent body compared to
longer than a significant proportion
that of your colleagues… ?
of your staff body

5. Where is our focus?
Warwick University Research – Alma Harris
80% of factors affecting children happen in the home
20% happen in school
Home School So why do we put
100% effort into
addressing 20% of
the problem?

6. Don’t forget…
DAMASCUS
o s o d t a n
d
c
n s s u i n h
t u t l l e o
m t l r o
e s s l
t
a
n
d

7. A paradigm shift?
What does the research tell us?

8. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
What is PEQS?
o PEQS (Gold and Silver)
o Engaging Parents Toolkit
o ‘Free’ resource from SSAT/BECTA
o Excellent toolkit to work through with LT
o Pulls together all of your best practice
o Developed by Senior Leaders, Heads, SSAT and Warwick University
o 16th November @ BSCS – Parental Engagement Workshop – Schools’ Network

9. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
3 main strands
o Overarching Ethos
o Parental Engagement and Learning
o Information, Communication & Dialogue

10. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
Overarching Ethos
o Audit of engagement activity through the year
o Mechanisms in place for reaching all parents
o Ensuring parents know they matter, nurturing parents’ belief in their key role
o Mechanisms in place for measuring the impact of parental engagement work

11. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
Parental Engagement and Learning
o How we link parental engagement and Learning
o How we link parental engagement activities to learning in the home
o How do we engage parents to enable them to join in the celebration of success?
o How do we engage parents to enable them to support positive behaviour?

12. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
Information, Communication and Dialogue
o How logical is our reporting?
o What general information we provide about the school?
o What information we provide for parents about their son/daughter?
o What mechanisms for information exchange are in place?
o What information do we glean from parents?

13. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
Once you’ve selected the strand…
1. Click on the specific statements
2. Pick a category
3. Input your evidence (video, audio, photo, text,
HTML , docs)
4. The website colour codes your progress…

14. Parental Engagement Quality Standard
The geeky stuff
o You can view the evidence as it develops
o Graphical image (PIE chart) to show how you compare
o Guidance and exemplification provided
o Case studies and strategies used in other schools are provided
o You can review, edit and update evidence at any time
o PDF files are available to print for secure publishing on your website
o Once you’re happy with it, you can publish it on the SSAT website

15. Shift Happens…
Are you ready for a challenge?

16. No longer a 19 th Century model
Welcome to the…
21 st Century

17. How ?!

18. Stop focusing on
your model for
ICT…

19. focus the energy
on your model for
learning and
teaching…

20. ICT is a means to an end
NOT the end in itself

21. Winning
Hearts
and
Minds…

22. People expect technology to
fail
It’s US they need
confidence in

23. Examples of ICT engagement tools
8 key areas
Area Cost
1. Website small
2. Email small - medium
3. Texting medium
4. Slideshare n/a
5. Drop Box n/a
6. Online booking facilities small
7. Learning Platform high
8. Social Media n/a

24. ICT – parental engagement tools
Website & Digital Signage
Simple and fresh
Updating – anyone?
Bottlenecks
QA/QC systems
Open Source?
Link to other info systems

25. ICT – parental engagement tools 
Email
o Develop a Communications Policy and an email policy (alongside Complaints Policy)
o Electronic communication is our STANDARD method
o Parents need to request a paper copy of correspondence
o One colleague co-ordinates most mass parent emails
o Important to check integrity of MIS data (in our case, SIMS)
o Caution about over-reliance on email to communicate emotive issues
o Use it carefully for staff to parent communication
o Have a few generic email addresses:
 admin@bradleystokecs.org.uk
 updatecontactdetails@bradleystokecs.org.uk
 contactteacher@bradleystokecs.org.uk
o This helps to filter lots of emails

26. ICT – parental engagement tools
Texting
o Cost SAVINGS!!!!
o Really useful for quick contact
o Limited number of characters
o Great for info on: detentions, trip letters, meeting reminders etc
o Does Email too
o You WILL get a reaction! (mostly ours have been positive)
o Make sure someone oversees and develops good systems!

27. ICT – parental engagement tools
9th most visited website in 2009
Free online repository for all your online presentations
Basic analytics in free version
Can link to your website via a really simple widget
Inspiration for your own presentations – any theme
Loads of other features: MP3, video, webinar, PDF/MS Office share

28. ICT – parental engagement tools
o Free 2GB online storage
o Syncs with ALL your PC/MAC/Mobile devices
o Lost your memory stick?
o Memory stick too small?
o Want to share files with parents?
o Private and public files
o Go mobile and still connect?
o Untapped potential

29. ICT – parental engagement tools
Online Booking Facilities
Booking Appointments - http://bradleystoke.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/
Booking appointments with staff was a problem
o Reliant on forgetful students
o Office taking too many calls about bookings
o Confusion over what had been booked
Managing tickets - http://www.eventelephant.com
o Free if event is free
o Manages booking, admin, communication, sales, and generates badges
o Links via a URL

30. ICT – parental engagement tools 
Learning Platform
Learning focused
Fully owned by you
Fully controlled by you
Fully developed by you

31. ICT – parental engagement tools 
Lessons learnt with Learning Platforms
o Remember ‘Measure twice, cut once…’
o Only launch when ready and confident – you get one shot!
o It’s not just about information (e.g. data) exchange
o Your learning platform and parent portal must link – remember learning is central!
o MUST be simple and user friendly
o Can an idiot use it?
o Designed by parents, for parents…
o Think about the total cost of ownership. Don’t forget things like:
• Reduced printing costs (e.g. exam/SATs papers)
• Extra network storage
• Streamlining communications (integral email)

32. How do parents GET your info?
PULL
Vs
PUSH

33. The ‘S’ word 
Social Networking
o FACEBOOK - 30 billion pieces of content shared each month
o UK  51M internet users in June 2010  82% population online  48.5%% of population are on FB
o 25% of UK FB users in 13 – 19 age range
o TWITTER – 300,00 new users per day, 3 billion requests per day by 180M unique visitors
o 75% of Twitter’s visitors use third party apps!
o UK = 5th / 10 for Twitter traffic  18% of US Tweets are from teenagers
o YOU TUBE  every minute 24h of video uploaded
o 2 billion viewers per day, 50% are under 20 years old
o Today, You Tube occupies the same amount of bandwidth the entire internet used in 2000
o 90% of internet users use at least 1 social networking site…

34. The ‘S’ word 
Social Networking & Mobile /Smart Technology
o Soon, we will not be able to ignore its implications (limited resources/funds and student trends)
o If such technologies are used, fear of ‘what might happen’ drives us
o The possibilities of how we MIGHT engage them are overlooked – calculated risks are not taken
o POLICY/PRACTICE, CONSISTENCY and EXPECTATIONS are essential
o No different to a uniform policy in terms of the WAY you work with students – rewards and sanctions
o ENGAGEMENT with the REAL issues
o Better managed and in the open than wanton misuse behind closed doors – EDUCATE users
o Costello Technology College – Google them (School Facebook site and YouTube channel)
o PUSH technology is the key (Twitter client or RSS feed)
o Start with TWITTER  1) CPD for yourself 2) Learning and Teaching

35. By 2014, South Korea plans to digitize all
elementary level materials.
By 2015, the entire curriculum will be
delivered via an online device. A cloud-
based system will host all software and
content…
MIT Technology Review

36. Useful Resources
o Parents: Do they know they matter?
o https://www.education.gov.uk/publications/standard/publicationDetail/Page1/DCSF-RBW004
o http://www.amazon.co.uk/Parents-Know-They-Matter-Achievement/dp/1855394790
o Bradley Stoke Consultant School
o www.bradleystokecs.org.uk/consultantschool
o Useful Tools
o 100 top tools for eLearning
o www.teachers2parents.co.uk
o www.slideshare.net
o www.eventelephant.com
o www.sliderocket.com
o www.prezi.com
o http://www.parentseveningsystem.co.uk/

37. Useful Resources
o Useful Tools (cont.)
o www.dropbox.com
o Useful websites
o http://shifthappens.wikispaces.com/home
o www.2020plus.net Feel free to contact me on…
o www.digeratidom.com
o www.frogtrade.com iain.williams@bradleystokecs.org.uk
o www.twitter.com
o http://www.2mminutes.com/