HM Government

Twenty-first Century Schools: engaging with parents and the community

These gaps are not mainly caused by the education system itself, which goes a long way to reduce them. They arise principally from what happens outside school, and before a child reaches school. They reflect a variety of factors including the aspirations and support of parents, of social peers and local communities. Other chapters of this White Paper address many of these factors, from reducing poverty to ensuring that all parents are able to meet their responsibilities through interventions such as Family Intervention Projects.

But schools themselves need increasingly to consider how they can build on good practice and influence what happens outside the classroom. In the Children’s Plan One Year On document we announced how we will place parental engagement at the heart of the education system by boosting teachers’ skills in working with parents, building parental engagement into school improvement, and consulting on ways to make sure schools are accountable for how well they work with parents.

As we develop our vision of the 21st Century School, we will look to schools to go even further in: encouraging parents to raise their aspirations and become more involved with their children’s learning; changing community perceptions of the value of education; and becoming a hub of their local community and both contributing towards and benefiting from locally- delivered family services through a strengthened role within the Children’s Trust.

We have committed substantial sums of money to provide extended services to disadvantaged families. A large- scale pathfinder project is operating in 400 schools, organised in 36 clusters across 18 local authorities. They receive £300 per highly disadvantaged child to deliver life-changing services for those at greatest risk. The funding will expand next year to £40 million, and £217 million in the final year.

More details on the role of communities can be found in chapter 8.