There is everything to be gained from schools and families keeping in close touch to support children’s progress. We tend to use the word ‘parent’ as a shorthand but this should be taken to include a wider family involvement. Merchant and Marsh (1998) suggest that a term like ‘partnership with families’ might be appropriate in our ever changing society in which family groupings are varied and not always stable. Contact best starts early and may take the form of home visits and liaison with the local play group or nursery. Continuity is achieved in these crucial early stages if members of a family are encouraged to visit the school in the child’s ‘settling in’ period.
Good home–school partnership is particularly important for children’s developing language and literacy. Teachers benefit from extending their knowledge of children’s literacy experiences at home and in the wider community. This is important for all the children and their families. When the school includes young ‘emergent bilinguals’ teachers benefit from some specific background knowledge. Eve Gregory lists some helpful initial questions; these include finding out in some depth about which languages the child speaks or writes and to what standard, and finding out about community-led classes and the pattern of tuition the child is used to. One very interesting aspect of Gregory’s list is the emphasis given to the potential role of siblings in supporting each other’s language development (Gregory, 1996, p. 102).
There are well-established ways of keeping in touch with families using letters, explanatory booklets about reading and English lessons, open days, meetings with staff and of course through the reading logs or diaries children take home. There is substantial research evidence about the value of children reading at home to parents, caregivers or siblings (see Wolfendale and Topping, 1995; Weinberger, 1996; Bastiani and Wolfendale, 2006; Weinberger, 2006). A parent or another member of the family may be asked to write some comments on progress in the reading log or mark the page they have reached in the book. The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education’s Primary Language Record and other similar record keeping formats include the opportunity for the parent to comment on their perception of the child’s progress. This provides a good focus for discussion at meetings between parent and teachers. There is evidence that the interest of male family members in a boy’s reading is helpful in encouraging positive attitudes towards literacy. Donald Fry (1985) describes the leap in seven-year-old Clayton’s progress when his father read him Richard Adams’ Watership Down.
The English/Literacy Co-ordinator is best placed to organise the valuable contributions of parent volunteers who may work in the library, make resources like story bags or kits,* bring particular expertise like computer skills or providing home language text in book making and take part in story telling in some of the children’s first language. In the classroom, parents can hear children read and will appreciate some sympathetic briefing. In the early years classroom parents can act as ‘literacy partners’ who read print and scribe for young children (Whitehead, 1999, p. 66). Much work goes into establishing and maintaining parent–teacher partnerships. Ann Browne provides good advice about the priorities and reminds us that, above all, we need to create openness and respect on both sides (Browne, 2001, chapter 9).
* An example of the story bags which parents may help to create is the ‘Storysack’ described in Neil Griffiths’ book Storysacks (Reading: Reading and Language Information Centre, 2001). ‘Curiosity Kits’ are a non-fiction version of a storysack. Find out more from http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Pubs/curiosity.html.ac.
Bastiani, J. and Wolfendale, S. (2006). Home-school work in Britain. London: David Fulton.
Browne, Ann (2001) Developing Language and Literacy 3–8 London: Paul Chapman (see chapter 9, ‘Involving Parents’).
Fry, Donald (1985) Children Talk About Books: Seeing Themselves as Readers Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Gregory, Eve (1996) Making Sense of a New World: Learning to read in a second language London: Paul Chapman.
Merchant, Guy and Marsh, Jackie (1998) Co-ordinating Primary Language and Literacy London: Paul Chapman (see Chapter 11).
National Literacy Trust has a research report entitled Parental Involvement and Literacy Achievement (Tel. 020 7828 2435).
Weinberger, Jo (1996) Literacy Goes To School: The Parents’ Role in Young Children’s Literacy Learning London: Paul Chapman.
Weinberger, J. (2006) Learning from Sure Start: Working with Young Children and their Families. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Whitehead, Marian. R. (1999) Supporting Language and Literacy Development in the Early Years Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
Wolfendale, S. and Topping, K. (eds) (1995) Parental Involvement in Literacy – Effective Partnerships in Education London: Croom Helm.
www.parentcentre.gov.uk Information for parents and caregivers wanting to support their children’s learning.
