The Relationships between Schools and Parents - Essay Example

The Relationships between Schools and Parents The relationship between the parents and the school has been a contributing factor to the education of the children in the United Kingdom and as well as other parts of the universe. Generally, parents’ involvement in the school education of the children is a chief contributing factors to the performance at schools. However, in the relationship between the two parties in the education side, there exist several barriers that hinder this process to go successfully. These problems between the parents and the teachers include the attitude of the teachers, the training of the teachers at a school, the knowledge knowhow of the parent and the school, poor communication network, failure to collaborate, and some school policies (Levitas 1998). A random survey that was carried out in several primary and secondary school in most of the cities in the UK indicated that there were few formal relations between the school and parent; this was due to the problems such as the attitude of some of the teachers. Different level of schools teachers have different attitude in the parent involvement in school work. For instance, the elementary schools revealed that they had positive attitude towards the involvement of the teacher in the education of the child in comparison to the low and negative attitude that were revealed by most of the junior and high schools. Training is another problem that arises in the involvement of the parent in the school, there exists a very big gap of difference in the parent and school involvement with the teachers who have undergone the parent involvement activities and in the teachers who have never been n any form of training that entails the parent involvement in schools(Garry 2011) Lack of knowledge is another problem that affects the parent involvement in school, several studies suggest that some of the assignments and materials that students take home to their parents require a lot of knowledge on those areas, and for instance, activities like the number games or the provision of support to children in reading. These problems require specialized subject knowledge. Some of these parents happen to be in very different careers and for that reason lack the classroom knowledge. On the other side, some schools expect the parents to always have the knowledge to the tasks with their children which are by far much impossible. Effective communication is a problem that exists in the parent involvement in school. Regardless of the of the channels of communication that are available namely emails, parents evenings, online reporting or after school meetings, several studies have shown that there exists a lot of misunderstanding, unclear communication, lack of confidence and a build up of a situation whereby the parents become practically invisible to the schools.Understanding is another major that has been found to have issues in the parent involvement in school. In several random cases, the most problems were evident among the student. A research was conducted in 2001 on the basis of parental involvement in their education both at home and at school. Interviews on 70 children of the age between 10 and 14 years from several social backgrounds, many of these children were against this idea as they did not understand the major role of the parent being involved. In addition they claimed that their parent didn’t understand that they needed privacy over their home lives and suggested that schools should not be conversant about personal details unless in cases which these details are of serious effect to their education(Alex 1997). Improvement of the Partnership between the Parent and School Relationship Strong bonds of relation between the parents can be improved via development of good communication between the parent, the child and the teacher. This is an activity that in the long run helps the parents and teachers to understand and monitor the progress of their children. A well informed parent about the school is an engaged parent who has the ability to work in partnership with a school in ensuring that the child has access to the most effective teaching possible. Schools need to ensure that they are able to deliver communication technologies and techniques to the advantage of parents, teachers and finally the students. These techniques include the online communication, or face to face communication between the parents and the school (Alex 1997). Empathy isanother fact that can improve the partnership of the parent schoolrelationship. It’s very vital to note that too much concern into the life of the child causes them to lack privacy and confidentiality; this tends to make them feel uncomfortable. The best method understands the right time and the right approach of providing interest in school work. Too much interest ruins the moral of he child whereas little or no concern leads to poor grades. Teacher training on how to deal with the whole process of the parent school involvement is a major key to the partnership of the teacher, student and the parent. Trained teachers do not have negative attitudes towards parents who are too much concerned with the education of their children at school. On the other hand, trained teachers are usually in the fore front in insisting the need of the parent to be involved in school work (Bernstein 1971). Establishment of policies that ensure that every parent gets involved in the school work of the child is an aspect that can be of much effect in creating the strong bond of partnership between the teacher, the student and the parent. By so doing, the child is likely to perform better in class due to the motivations and concern from the teacher at school and the parent back at home. These policies can also aid in issues whereby a child is comfortable talking about problems such as psychological, physical or social factors that may be a barrier to the process of learning to the child. Conclusion The parental involvement in the school work is currently a high preference for most of the institutions’ policies in the United Kingdom. This is due to the major factor of enabling strategies that improve the communication between the home and the school environment of the child. This is indeed was of the priorities of the children’s plan in the year 2009. The type of engagement that a child receives from the parent in relation to schoolwork is much significant in the results outcomes. Most of the students who do better in classwork have their parents get involved in their school work but in an understanding manner. On the other side, children whose parents aren’t involved in the school work tend to do poorer. References Alexander, T (1997) Family Learning: The foundation of Effective Education.: Demos, London. Bernstein, B (1971) Class, Codes and Control (Volume 1).,Routledge & Kegan Paul, London. Garry, B (2011) Improving Parental Involvement, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Levitas, R (1998) Parental involvement in children's reading, Social Exclusion And new Labor, Macmillan, London. . Read More