Successful Home-School Partnerships

New Zealand Case Studies

According to the Request for Proposals for this project, the purpose of the empirical research component of the project was to:

...identify successful home-school partnerships within New Zealand primary and secondary schools, focusing on the school’s role and responsibilities as well as investigate and analyse the features of the respective partnerships relative to the context within which they operate. (MOE, 2007).

The difficulty with this was that, as we have seen in the literature review, we know very little about what a “successful” home–school partnership actually is. We therefore decided to include a school as an example of a “successful” home–school partnership if the principal thought it was, and it illustrated strategies that might provide “food for thought” for others. The selection of case study schools is discussed in more detail below.

Selection of case study schools

Various means were used to identify schools that might be interested in participating in this project. Advertisements were placed in the Education Gazette and in a newsletter that NZCER sends out to schools. Approaches were also made to sector groups and researchers used their own networks. The selection criteria we initially used were as follows:

• that the initiatives had been running for at least two years and were embedded in the school practice;
• had an explicit emphasis on raising student achievement, participation, or presence; and
• were supported by data on improvements in student achievement, participation or presence.

However, in practice, the schools responding to our initial approaches did not match these criteria so, in consultation with the Ministry of Education, these criteria were extended to include schools which appeared to have interesting initiatives operating, even where these initiatives were new or without data linking them directly to improved outcomes for student learning.

Seven schools were selected—three low decile primary schools, one high decile primary school (all urban), one Area school, one special school and one kura kaupapa Maori. The schools involved had either developed their own strategies for developing home–school partnerships or had adapted the Ministry of Education home–school partnership model for their situation. We have also included a “mini” case study of a programme being run by a RTLB in a secondary school. In addition we invited schools that expressed interest in being part of this project, but were not included in the case studies, to submit brief summaries of their initiatives to enable us to present a fuller picture of the wide range of initiatives that are operating. A brief overview of these initiatives is attached (see Appendix One).

Case study schools were visited by researchers during term three, 2007. The principal in each school was interviewed and interviews were also held with groups of teachers, parents/whanau and, where appropriate, students. The initial contact with each school was made through the principal, who then organised the involvement of teachers, parents and students. Some of the schools notified their school community about the research and asked for volunteers, while others invited specific people to participate. Schools were also asked to provide any data they had showing how their home–school partnerships were impacting positively on students. Schools were offered a koha in recognition of the time they put into this project.

In the next section we briefly describe each of the case study schools and outline the features of their home–school partnership initiatives, focusing in particular on the contexts within which each has developed. 

The seven case study schools

School A

Context

School A is an urban, decile two, full primary school. According to the TKI website the school has a roll of 224 students. The school’s students are 72 percent Maori, 15 percent Pakeha, eight percent Pasifika and five percent Asian. A bilingual class caters for whanau who wish their children to have a programme that emphasises te reo me ona tikanga (ERO report, 2005).

We included this school in this study mainly because we were interested in how it was using new technologies to enhance parental involvement in their children’s education. However, many of the initiatives in this school are new and still being embedded in the culture of the school.

This school has a great deal of base-line data and so may be in a position to show shifts in achievement when the initiatives have been established in school practice for longer. For example, the principal reported that STAR tests were administered three times a year and that individual student’s results were mapped against the number of home phone contacts there had been.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were held with students, whanau and teachers. The student group consisted of five students, representing a range of levels from across the school. There were three participants in the whanau group (one was also a staff member and another was the “whanau liaison person” within the school). The teachers’ group consisted of four staff members representing a range of experiences in terms of length of time at this school, level of seniority, and age of students taught. The principal was interviewed individually.
 

Initiatives

The Phone Home Programme:

This programme was designed to facilitate positive communication around student behaviour and achievement and to improve two-way communication between the home and school. Video capable mobile phones are provided to all teaching staff (as well as the chairperson of the BOT, the office manager, the international student co-ordinator and the caretaker) to make immediate contact with whanau and share “good news” stories about student learning and behaviour. Disruptive behaviour is also reported to whanau immediately.

Teachers are able to broadcast text to whanau members of students in their class. This is useful for reminding them of forthcoming events and making suggestions of ways they can initiate conversations at home about what their children are learning at school. Similarly, parents can communicate easily with the school via text.

The School Community Radio Station:

This initiative is in its early stages. The radio station broadcasts within a 10–15 km radius of the school. According to the principal, the school is aiming to provide a range of programmes such as: Children’s story time; Ask your teacher; Homework helpers; Country music show; Reggae hour; Tainui waiata; Enviro-schools garden time; parenting programmes; and a comedy hour. Students are involved in the running of the radio station. This project aims to build stronger links between school, families and the wider community.

Whanau conferences:

These conferences (which were initiated in term three, 2006) are held each term in week six or seven. Each student sends a personal letter home inviting whanau to attend a conference at school. Conferences are held over two evenings, and whanau can attend at any time that is convenient for them. The conference is conducted solely by the student but the teacher is in the room and available if needed. There are posters and booklets available that cue parents into the sorts of questions to ask the students about their work. The principal reported that in term three this year they had a 98 percent turn out of families at these conferences. Next year it is intended to replace the term one conferences with home visits.

School data linking partnerships to improved achievement

The school has some data showing improvements in student attendance, reading and mathematics achievement over the period these initiatives have been operating. It is, however, impossible to directly link the home school partnership initiatives with these improvements.

Overall impressions

The overall impression of the NZCER researchers who visited School A was that some exciting and creative initiatives were being introduced in an effort to enhance the engagement of whanau in students’ learning. These initiatives do not appear as yet to be fully embedded in the culture of the school, although the principal (who was appointed in 2005) clearly has a well-articulated vision for the school and is working hard to implement this. As outlined in the first section of this report, the international research in this area shows that one of the key characteristics of building successful home–school partnerships is that they take time and commitment from both partners. Initiatives in this school are still in the early stage of development.

The Phone Home programme was introduced in term two of 2007. Already there is evidence of this programme becoming more focused on learning rather than simply on relationship building, and the communication between school and home is becoming increasingly two-way. Initially the emphasis of the programme was “on catching kids when they’re good” and communicating “good news stories” to the home, both as a means of positive reinforcement of the desired behaviours and of building positive relationships between home and school.

According to one student:

When I phone home for doing good things my dad’s really happy to hear about those things and when I get home he praises me more and says how proud he is of me. (Student)

The principal said:

This initiative has empowered my staff to have confidence in dealing with whanau. The kaupapa is about engaging with whanau in an environment that is safe and built on trust and then maintaining and ensuring that the relationship strengthens with every opportunity you can think of when you have those interactions. (Principal)

Teachers are now also using the phones to encourage interactions with whanau around student learning. At an individual level, a phone call may be made to a parent to tell them about specific progress their child has made, for example, a phone call saying:

[Name of child] has transferred his spelling knowledge into his writing. He is able to write the word ‘different’ in his writing without assistance. (Teacher)

Alternatively a teacher may text the families of the whole class with a question for them to ask their children that relates directly to something that is being learnt at school at the moment.

Teachers are expected to log all phone calls and texts and in this way it is possible to see which individual students have had a lot of contacts (and the nature of these contacts). It should theoretically be possible to investigate the extent to which there are patterns linking the number of phone contacts and improvements in student achievement.

An additional benefit of the Phone Home programme that was mentioned by the principal is that, because families value receiving texts from the school, they are much more likely than before to let the school know when their mobile phone number changes. This means it is easier for the school to maintain an up to date record of emergency contact numbers for students (this is particularly important in an area where more families have mobile phones than land lines.) The phones are also being used to improve communication between staff at the school, for instance notifying the school quickly when they are going to be absent.

The whanau conferences which are entirely conducted by students were spoken about positively by all groups interviewed.

The school community radio station was spoken about positively by whanau, teachers and the principal but not mentioned by the students. However this is a very new initiative and at this stage involves only small numbers of students.

Context specific features

At this school the principal was proactive in seeking out opportunities for sponsorship and support for school based initiatives. The school library provides membership to early childhood centres within the community and to whanau members of school students.

Our particular interest in this case study was the use of information technology to reach out into the community. The parents we interviewed told us that the use of technology within this school helped remove barriers based on their own educational experience and provided avenues for them to become more involved in the school. It seemed that mobile phones were being used very effectively to engage whanau and strengthen relationships between school and home.

However, for the researchers, the potential of teachers to be available to families 24 hours a day, seven days a week raised questions about whether the boundaries between teachers’ work lives and personal lives were becoming blurred and whether they were being expected to take on unsustainable work loads, through expanding roles. Some teachers did talk about mobile phones being one of a number of things that impeded on their time outside work hours although their commitment to positively involve whanau within the school was a high priority.

For example, one teacher related how via use of the mobile phone, he occasionally supported a parent to ensure her son would arrive at school on time. Although he acknowledged that this encroached on his personal time, he felt the opportunity to build and/or strengthen his relationships with parents was important.

Nature of partnerships

Interviews with parents indicated that they saw their role in education as being connected to the school’s but parents and teachers each had different responsibilities to fulfil. Parents believed that the school’s role was to “teach the academics” and that they were there to support the teacher in shaping “successful citizens”. Parents felt the home and the school were “on the same wavelength” and had the “same educational goals, expectations, language and behaviour”. The principal too felt that home–school partnerships were important in order to show that the school cared and that it was no longer “you and us” and that this in turn could lead to lifting achievement.

Summary

The focus of the initiatives in this case study is to improve communication between home and school. The initiatives are still in the early stages of implementation, but already a change in emphasis is apparent in the Phone Home project, with interactions between school and home becoming more learning focused. This case study provides ‘food for thought” as to how schools might use technology to reach whanau who may otherwise be reluctant to become involved in their children’s school life.

School B

Context

School B is a decile 8, composite (Year 1–13) school in rural Canterbury. According to the TKI website it has a roll of 263 students. The students are 80 percent Pakeha, 15 percent Maori, and five percent “other” (ERO report, 2007).

The school has a junior school (Year 1–6) of its own but also enrols students from 2 other local contributing primary schools at Year 7, and from a full primary at Year 9. Traditionally a number of students leave the area at Year 9 to go to boarding school. This school is in an area of relatively high mobility but anecdotally this appears to be reducing as the dairying company endeavours to find off-season work for workers within the area. When the current principal arrived in 2005, he and the Board consulted with the local community about the strengths and weaknesses of the school. The principal says it was clear that stronger links between the school and families were wanted and the following strategies were written into the school’s strategic plan (2006–2008):

• develop communication between the home and school and between the school and community;
• develop the relationships between staff, students and parents; and
• look for opportunities to promote the family atmosphere offered by a Year 1–13 school.

According to the school’s ERO report (2007):

Parents and the community are regularly informed about school developments and student activities. The principal and senior managers use a variety of effective communication approaches. For example, a weekly newsletter acknowledges student achievements and provides important information and advice. The principal is involved in the wider community. He and the board hold district meetings to consult parents. Parents feel welcome at the school and are promptly informed or involved if issues arise concerning their children. Students benefit from close links with a number of local businesses and organisations. These provide practical learning experiences and the opportunity to gain qualifications. This ongoing communication and involvement with the community is having a positive impact on the learning environment in the school.

We chose this school as one of our case studies because we were interested in exploring whether there were characteristics of successful home–school partnerships in a rural school that might be different from those found in urban schools. As this school is a composite school, catering for Years 1–13, it also potentially provided us with the opportunity to explore whether different strategies might be more or less effective for engaging parents of students of different ages.

Most of the initiatives in this school are less than two years old but developing stronger links between the school and families is now embedded in the school’s strategic planning. At this stage, several of the initiatives appear to focus on improving relationships and communication. In the school newsletter the principal states:

We see this [home–school partnerships] as a key strategy in our bid to raise student achievement and most if not all of our actions are underpinned by this concept. (School newsletter week ending 7th September, 2007).

This school does not currently have robust data showing improvements in student achievement, participation or presence although the 2007 ERO report asserts that the initiatives are having a positive impact on the learning environment in the school.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were carried out with teachers, parents and students. The principal was interviewed individually. The principal appeared to have thought carefully about the selection of interviewees, to ensure we were given a range of different perspectives.

The teachers’ group consisted of the Assistant Principal (who is responsible for discipline), the PE teacher, an English teacher (new to the school this year), and a junior school teacher who had been at the school for more than ten years. Four parents were interviewed, including one who was new to the school this year, and one who is a Board member. The parents between them had students at all levels of the school. Five students were interviewed. They ranged in age from 10 to 15 years and the group included boys and girls, high achievers and students with challenging behaviours.

Initiatives:

Vertical form groups (Y7–13): This initiative aims to encourage relationship building between teacher, student and family by a student staying with the same form teacher right through their time in the senior school. Siblings are placed in different form groups. This initiative was implemented this year.

Learning conferences: Parents and students meet with the form teacher for up to 30 minutes to check progress against goals set earlier in the year and share assessment information. The form teacher (from Year 7 up) collects any necessary information from other subject teachers. This initiative was implemented this year. Again its purpose is to encourage relationship building between the form teacher, student and family, and to facilitate discussions based on student learning.

Discipline system: Dialogue is developed between home and school at an early stage if there are any concerns with a student’s behaviour. Positive behaviour is also recognised. When a student gains 20 “strives” (cards that are issued when a student is “caught being good”) a letter goes home thanking parents for their assistance in developing their child into a “model student”. This initiative recognises the shared responsibility family and school have for socialisation of the child.

Newsletter: This goes home weekly and recognises student achievement, gives advance notice of forthcoming events, outlines relevant school planning, and gives “learning hints” for parents to help support their students.

Handbook: This is issued to every family on enrolment and then annually. Everything a family needs to know about the school is included—strategic plan, contact numbers, routines, PTA, staff, calendar of events etc. The school is about to survey parents for their views on the usefulness of this resource.

Pastoral care meetings: Every Thursday morning staff review the progress of a group of students. Where students are not achieving either the form teacher, the Assistant Principal or the Deputy Principal make contact with them and/or their parents to discuss the issues.

School data linking partnerships to improved achievement

All the initiatives at this school were relatively new and there is no hard achievement data linking them to improved outcomes for students. According to the principal NCEA results for the school improved last year but he was quite clear that class sizes, particularly in the secondary area, are so small that it is not useful to compare different cohorts of students. The school is currently setting up a longitudinal record of achievement for each child and when this in place the principal thinks it should be possible to map changes in an individual’s progress against the introduction of various interventions, professional development etc.

Overall impression

The home–school partnership concept is embedded in the strategic planning of this school. There is a wide range of (mainly new) strategies in place that are together intended to strengthen the links between families and the school. At this stage many of these strategies are focused on improving communication between school and home and on developing positive relationships.

The handbook and the newsletter are clearly designed to disseminate information to parents. Obviously neither of these communication tools is a home–school partnership in itself, but they do provide families with information that could help them become more involved in the school.

The handbook simply gives information about the school, but the newsletter also provides information on how parents can support students’ learning at home and celebrates the achievement of individual students. Parents mentioned the newsletter when asked what the school did to facilitate home–school partnerships. They felt that it was useful in that it informed all parents what was happening in both the junior school and the senior school and by, bringing “both sides together”, helped build a sense of belonging to the school as a whole. Parents said the newsletter was the most effective communication tool that the school had but it was not mentioned by teachers or students. (The handbook was not mentioned by any group, nor was the pastoral care system.)

The discipline system and the pastoral care meetings involve communication with parents that is potentially two-way. The communication is initiated by the school but parents are invited to talk with the school. These strategies recognise the joint responsibilities of school and home in the education of students and the importance of gaining a holistic picture of the child. They are about communication but also about building relationships. The emphasis in the discipline system on acknowledging positive behaviours was seen by parents as particularly effective in engaging both students and parents. Students confirmed that the school (often the principal himself) rings home with both good and bad news about behaviour. The teacher group interviewed felt that it was better if at all possible to contact parents about discipline issues by phone, rather than by writing notes as this encouraged two-way discussion. They felt it was important to involve parents as early as possible when there was an issue with a child’s behaviour. The Assistant Principal reported making between three and 12 discipline-related phone calls to families each week.

The vertical form groups were established specifically to facilitate relationships between parents and teachers, and students and teachers. The principal believed that a student staying with one form teacher from Year 7 until they left school would encourage the teacher to really get to know the student as an individual and would also make it easier for the parent. In the interviews, the students said the effectiveness of the vertical form group was largely dependent on the form teacher and the form leader. In the words of one student (who was also a form leader) when it works well “it feels like a little family”. One of the teachers interviewed had previously experienced vertical form groups in an urban secondary school and felt they were more effective here as the students had contact with each other outside school as well. The parents were positive about the vertical form groups too and felt it was important that siblings were in separate form groups (even though this increased the number of form teachers a parent had to build relationships with) as this provided the children with time away from each other and provided more leadership opportunities.

The learning conferences contribute towards relationship building but their focus is on the learning of individual students and the home and school working together to support the student’s learning. This strategy would appear to have the most direct links to potentially lifting student achievement, although the rest are all likely to contribute to the establishment of a school culture where such collaborations are possible.

Parents were generally more positive about the learning conferences for older students than for younger ones. Parents felt that having students present at these conferences added consistency, as parents, students and teachers were all hearing the same messages. Parents said that the conversation initiated at the learning conferences had carried on at home afterwards between parents and children. They felt it was particularly important knowing what goals the students had set for their learning because this allowed them to follow this up at home. In the words of one parent “That’s where the partnership comes in—backing up the school at home.” Parents also spoke of the importance of knowing exactly “where the student is in their learning” so they know where to focus their efforts to help at home. Students’ opinions of the effectiveness of learning conferences were more mixed. They felt the usefulness of these conferences was dependent on the form teacher’s willingness to collect relevant information from the subject teachers. The teachers interviewed were positive about the conferences saying that they encouraged children and parents to take joint responsibility for learning.

The school had surveyed staff, parents and students about the conferences earlier in the year, as this was a new initiative. All of the junior school staff and 80 percent of the staff from Years7—13 thought the information given to students and parents at these interviews was useful and would help students achieve. Seventy eight percent of parents and eighty percent of students agreed with this. Seventy five percent of the staff (ninety one percent of junior school staff and forty percent of senior school staff) felt they knew the student better as a result of the conferences. Eighty three percent of parents felt they knew the form teacher better as a result of the conferences.

Context specific features

The specific context of this school has some implications for home–school partnerships. Teachers are seen and known in this small rural community. (This came through in all interviews). Parents thought that in such a close community it was possible for parents to take an active role in encouraging other parents to become involved. One parent explained that because the extra-curricula activities available to students in rural areas were less varied than in urban areas, families tended to be involved in the same activities e.g. the rugby club and cricket club. This in turn means families have more interaction with each other and so can influence each other to become more involved in school. All the groups also felt the small size of the school is helpful in building relationships—all groups thought that students were known as individuals.

Barriers to parental engagement in rural areas, identified by the principal, were geographic isolation which makes attending evening meetings or dropping in to the school informally difficult for some parents, and lack of cell phone coverage.

Interviews with parents indicated that parents’ involvement at school is to some extent influenced by the age of their children. They said that when their children were in the junior school they were much more likely to “pop into school” and to help out in class. They also felt they had a better idea of what their children were expected to do for homework. Parents felt that they had less input into their children’s education as they got older, so that strategies that explicitly encourage parental involvement at the secondary level are especially important.

We have that trust thing (in the senior school). We send our kids there for six hours a day and I’m not going over there. I come to the junior side much more. (parent)

Teachers also felt school was more threatening to parents as their students moved into the secondary area.

Nature of partnerships

All groups interviewed felt there was good two-way communication in the school and that the phone was an effective means of communication. The students felt that their families and the school valued similar things although they did not think that their parents necessarily understood the way things are done at school. Parents saw their roles and the school’s as complementary but different. Parents saw the teachers as the educators and that their role was to support them by reinforcing learning at home and by ensuring the children were “ready to learn”. Parents felt they were ultimately responsible for their children and this meant it was important they were given accurate information by the school about their children’s levels of achievement. They felt their involvement in the school, showed their children they valued education and that they cared about them. The principal too felt that home–school partnerships were important in order to show children that people cared about them and that this in turn could lead to lifting achievement.

Summary

In this school the home–school partnership concept is embedded in strategic planning. There is a wide range of strategies in place that together are intended to strengthen the links between families and the school. This case study is interesting in that it illustrates how a commitment to engaging parents in their children’s education can be addressed through a range of school practices, rather than through a specific home–school partnership programme. It also highlights the need to think carefully about ways of engaging the parents of secondary school students.

School C

Context

School C is a decile 2 special school, situated in Northland. The school services the Tai Tokerau region and operates from five physical locations. According to the TKI website the school has a total roll of 74 students. According to information provided by the school, its students, who have intellectual disabilities and related physical challenges, range in age from 5–21 years. A number of students are non-verbal and many have difficulties in social and community situations. Many of the students are verified under the Ministry of Education’s Ongoing and Reviewable Resourcing Scheme (ORRS). The students are drawn from a large geographical area and a range of socio-economic backgrounds. About half of the students on the roll are Maori.

The school operates on a trans-disciplinary model. This is described on the school website as a model that aims to:

 … pool all ideas, knowledge and skills; share and exchange all information; value and respect different perspectives; listen to what each other has to offer; and empower families/whanau and all team members.”

Special Education Assistants, teacher aides and therapists work alongside the teachers to provide a holistic education for the students.

According to the ERO report (2004):

Programmes are carefully individualised and teachers ensure that, wherever possible, students’ families and caregivers actively contribute to programme development, implementation and assessment.

We chose this school as one of our case studies because it has a very strong emphasis on the school working in partnership with families. We were interested in exploring how some of the strategies being used to involve families in this specific context might be transferable to “mainstream” schools. Specifically we were interested in the ways this school used new technologies to enhance parental engagement.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were carried out both with the Digital Imaging in Special Education project team  (known as the DISE team) and with four parents/whanau members. Two of the parents were BOT members, one had a child at the base site and the other three had children at other sites. The parent/whanau group consisted of one father, two mothers and one aunt.

The principal was also interviewed individually but in this case study no students were interviewed as it was the principal’s view that an interview with an unknown person would not be a positive experience for them.

Initiative

The DISE (Digital Imaging in Special Education) Project began in 2005. It is a Digital Opportunities Project, a joint venture between the Ministry of Education, HP New Zealand, Macromedia, EdTech, and the school. The project focuses on the use of audio and visual technologies as tools to enhance students’ learning opportunities. One of its aims is “to transfer best practices between home and school” and as such it has a focus on home–school partnerships. It is a three year project and consists of three strands: digital diaries, socialisation and desensitisation.

Digital diaries involve visual and audio records of students’ achievements and skill development. They aim to show progress during the year (and in the case of transition students, what they like and can do). There are four strands to this section of the project: communication; physical; self management; transition. Each digital diary focuses on the IEP goal relating to one of these strands.

Socialisation involves the production and repeated viewing of video clips that show the student appropriate behaviour in a specific setting.

Desensitisation involves the production and repeated viewing of video clips to prepare students to deal with situations that are potentially distressing for them, e.g. visits to the hospital.

Now in its third year, this project is led by a project team of five, consisting of the principal, a lead teacher, a facilitator, a parent liaison teacher and a technician. Each team member has clearly defined roles and responsibilities. This project is being constantly evaluated, and adaptations such as the introduction of regular team meetings are made as necessary.

School data linking initiatives to improved student learning

As the progress of one student (or cohort of students) at this school cannot meaningfully be compared with that of other students or cohorts it is not possible to provide hard data that link increases in student achievement to these initiatives. However, this project seems likely to add to student learning in two ways. Firstly it allows greater consistency between home and school practices. The focus of much of the learning in this setting is on what could be considered life skills rather than academic skills, and so coherence between what is being learnt at home and at school is particularly important. Many of these students also have multiple caregivers which add further challenges to maintaining consistency between settings. Secondly the DVDs serve to raise expectations. Parents and caregivers are provided with “concrete” evidence of what students can do in other situations. The DVDs also capture small changes in what students can do which might otherwise be overlooked.

Overall impressions

Both the teachers and the parents/whanau group were unanimous in their view that parents of students involved in the project were much more involved in their students’ education than they had been prior to the start of the programme. Some staff felt this was a direct result of the digital medium. As they put it, “the medium allows teachers to avoid jargon—it removes barriers to communication”, “seeing is believing”, “it is a window into the classroom”. The DVDs allow parents to see small incremental changes over time, they provide a way of sharing what a student can do with the wider family (and multiple caregivers), they help provide consistency of expectation between home and school, and they give students “voice”.

Other staff thought the increased involvement of parents was more a result of the introduction of the role of a liaison teacher. The liaison teacher is a trained teacher who knows the school culture well. She has the confidence of both parents and teachers and as such has a critical role as a “go-between”. In some cases, for example, it was said that it was easier for parents to give feedback to the liaison teacher rather than directly to classroom teachers. The liaison teacher also evaluates the DISE programme with parents, encouraging them to say what worked well, what would have been better, and what sorts of adaptations they would like for their children. This ensures parent voice is heard.

The parents felt the DVDs were an effective way of communicating with families about their children’s learning. They too said that the digital images allowed them to see small incremental developments that they may have otherwise missed, that the DVDs were useful in helping the extended family (and other caregivers) look after the child, and helped raise expectations. Unlike the teachers though, this group saw the role of the liaison teacher as “the icing on the cake” rather than integral to the success of the project. (The parents interviewed were obviously very involved in the school so it is likely that their need for a liaison teacher could be less than that of other parents in the school).

The parents said that the school fostered parent interaction and that there was a huge amount of contact, even without the DISE project. All four parents were positive about the school’s system of using notebooks on a daily basis to communicate between teachers and family. They all saw the notebooks as a vehicle for two-way communication. The parents said they felt the school knew their goals and aspirations for their children and their involvement in children’s IEPs ensured this.

Context specific features

Many features of School C are unique to its specific context, yet ‘mainstream’ schools may be able to adapt some of these practices to engage parents more fully in their children’s learning. One of the benefits of the DVDs, that was mentioned by both parents and staff, was that they provided both parties with evidence of students’ progress and achievements. This provision of “concrete” evidence could then be used to facilitate in-depth focused discussions about the student’s learning. DVDs being sent into the homes could also provide those families who cannot easily come into the school a window into their children’s life at school. The trans-disciplinary model this school operates from, may also be of interest to other schools as they consider their roles and responsibilities and ways of engaging families in students’ learning.

Funding is currently provided for the DISE project, but the principal spoke of sustainability concerns once the Digital Opportunities funding is withdrawn. Other funding options are currently being explored as the principal believes that the provision of both a liaison teacher and technician is critical to the success of the project.

Nature of partnerships

The parents interviewed at this school felt the relationship between the home and school is different when children have special needs. The parents said they were more protective of their children with “special needs” than they were with their other children—in particular they felt they had to advocate for their “special needs” child. Like parents in other schools, they felt that their role in their child’s education was to provide support and try to work on behaviours to get students ready to learn. The parents saw their main emphasis as being on health and well-being. The parents felt the school held the ultimate power when making educational decisions about their children, but that their views were considered.

Summary

Like School A, this case study illustrates how technology can be used to facilitate parents’ involvement in their children’s learning. In the context of a special school, consistency between home and school is particularly important. This “seamlessness” between home and school is becoming increasingly important in the “mainstream” environment too with the emphasis on life long learning in the new curriculum document. Thus this case study provides “food for thought” for all educators.

School D

Context

School D is an urban, decile 9 contributing school. According to the TKI website it has a roll of 133 students. The ERO report (Dec 2006) describes the school as drawing on a culturally and socio-economically diverse community, and as being “community-oriented.” Fifty five percent of the roll are Pakeha, 17 percent are Maori, ten percent are Asian, nine percent are Pasifika, four percent African and five percent “other European”.

Parents are actively involved in a variety of volunteer work within the school. Sound communication strategies and regular community dialogue ensure that the community is well informed about students’ learning and achievement. Good links to the local community, organisations and individuals are evident. Active networking with the local cluster of schools and early childhood centres continues to enhance achievement and continuity for [name of school] students. (ERO, 2006)

We included this school as one of our case-studies, partly because it was one of the very few high decile schools that volunteered for this research project, and partly because the school’s involvement of parents in the delivery of curriculum seemed an interesting idea to explore. The initiatives in this school have been in place for at least two years and are embedded in the school practice. Seventy one percent of parents completed a survey that was used to inform the development of the school’s strategic plan 2007–2009. This plan includes actions such as liaising with the navy to better support navy families, maintaining regular contact with preschools within the area, and finding opportunities to develop and maintain relationships with community organisations. The principal reported that when recruiting new staff she actively sought teachers who would support the school’s philosophy of involving parents in the school. There are data showing high levels of achievement at the school, but these cannot be directly attributed to the initiatives described.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were held with teachers, parents and students. The parents’ group consisted of two Pakeha mothers, one Japanese mother and one Pakeha father. All were actively involved in programmes in school, and all had been invited by the school to take part in the interview. The school informed the parent community of NZCER’s project through the newsletter, and included our interview questions so that any parent who was interested could participate. (There were three responses to the newsletter). The teachers’ group consisted of four teachers, representing all levels of the school and the student group consisted of two boys and two girls whose parents had varying levels of involvement in the school.

The principal was interviewed by phone prior to the NZCER researcher visiting the school as she was unable to be on site on the day of our visit.

Initiatives

A junior language programme

This programme targets children who are not achieving at the “expected” level. The Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) trains parents to run the programme which includes phonics, oral language and fine motor skills. An occupational therapist is also involved.

Parent help

Parent help is used extensively in the library, in the school gardens, and in enrichment programmes (including debating, Spanish language, and maths). Parents also contribute to “Learning Pathways”. (See below)

“Learning Pathways”

Learning Pathways is the name of the school’s integrated studies programme. It draws extensively on the skills and knowledge of families and others in the community, as it attempts to embed students’ learning in authentic contexts. Each term a different topic is studied. Each topic consists of a combination of explicit teaching and independent investigations. At the end of each term parents are invited to a “Communication of Learning” event. According to the principal the school gets close to 100 percent parental turnout at these events.

Parent /teacher/ student interviews

On the first day of the school year students and their parents are timetabled for meetings with the class teacher. The purpose of this interview is to begin to establish a relationship between the family and the child’s teacher. It is an opportunity to collaboratively set goals for the students for the year.

School data linking partnerships to improved achievement

Many of the initiatives outlined above have a focus on raising student achievement. Some of the initiatives, such as the one involving parents in teaching extension groups, mean that the school can offer opportunities to students that are over and above the “normal” programme. In her interview, the principal talked about the difficulties in linking achievement data directly with initiatives that aim to increase parental engagement. In this school parents are particularly involved in “learning pathways”, the school’s integrated studies programme. Assessing the impact of parental involvement on student achievement is particularly difficult here as there is no clear set of easily measurable learning outcomes. The 2006 ERO report however makes the following statements:

The school’s values are evident in practice showing that staff, students and the community are united in ‘together navigating for success’.

Good learning and achievement is evident in areas such as literacy, numeracy and thinking skills.

Students are engaged in learning and well motivated to learn.

In relation to participation and engagement the principal reported two “stand downs” in 2003–2004 and no significant behavioural issues since. Parents commented on how well behaved students at school were. All students interviewed appeared very positive about school.

Overall impression

A high level of parental involvement seems to be a firmly embedded part of the culture of this school.

Before our visit, the principal published our parental interview questions in the school newsletter and invited parents to respond. This gave parents other than those interviewed the opportunity to have their voice heard. In the introduction to the questions in the newsletter, the principal wrote:

We encourage parents to be involved in their education as time allows them. Research tells us that the more this can happen the better the chances are that their children’s learning outcomes will be improved.

At [name of school] we have parents involved as teacher aides, CWSA tutors, parent helpers for lunch schemes, garden design, sports coaching, library work, school trips and as judges at various competitions. All parents, are of course, part of their children’s education at home and increasingly at school through Learning Pathways, the inquiry based learning that takes place throughout the school each day. (Newsletter, 14th August, 2007).

At this school teachers believe home–school partnerships had a high priority, “It’s part of the job. It’s what we are here to do. It is not an add on—it’s integral to what we do”. One teacher said she didn’t think she could go back to teach in a school with a “closed door” policy. She said the open door policy had really improved her teaching because she was constantly justifying why she was doing things in particular ways. The principal also echoed that involving parents in learning made you examine your own assumptions. Teachers felt their attitude towards parents was a really critical factor in their success in engaging parents. As one put it, “If staff are defensive, parents are defensive”.

The parents interviewed all said that they felt valued by the school and that the attitudes of the principal and the teachers encouraged them to offer to help. They said “you know you’re wanted” but also that “It’s OK if you have only got a little bit of time to spare.” They liked the way the level of involvement was left up to the parent. All of the students interviewed were able to identify a variety of ways in which their families were involved with the school.

Many of the ways parents are involved in this school amount to being volunteers. Students said parental involvement helped the teachers because they were busy and meant they had more opportunities than they would otherwise have. They did not however think having the parents involved in school helped their learning at home and there were mixed opinions as to whether or not they liked having their parents at school.

Parents talked a lot about enrichment programmes (of the four parents interviewed one ran Spanish, one debating, one maths sessions and the fourth had been involved in Learning Pathways as a nutrition “expert”). All said they felt really valued by the school and that the school used their skills well to enhance programmes. Teachers also emphasised these parent run aspects of the programme. They saw the parents as offering opportunities to the children that they could not otherwise have. “Some initiatives add breadth, some depth, some remedial support for kids that need it—it benefits the kids and the parents feel valued”.

In relation to Learning Pathways parents said knowing what the topics were in advance allowed them to capitalise on incidental learning at home. The principal said giving parents advance notice also allowed them to arrange work commitments to fit in involvement with school. Junior teachers said it was obvious parents were talking about Learning Pathways with their children at home because they (children) brought new information to class. The middle school teacher felt that children were so engaged in their learning they were keen to tell parents what they had been doing (she based this opinion on overheard conversations outside the classroom at the end of the day). She felt that when students were engaged in their learning they engaged their parents, and the more engaged parents were, the more engaged students were, so there was a spiralling effect.

The junior language programme was only mentioned by the principal and teachers in the interview. The teachers involved felt that as well as benefitting the students involved there were positive spinoffs for parents involved when it came to working with their own preschoolers.

The interviews at the beginning of the year were not mentioned by students, but both parents and teachers saw them as an important way of encouraging two-way communication. Teachers saw these as an opportunity to gauge the level of likely home support, and according to one teacher to find out the little “niggly things” that parents might not consider important enough to write down but were nevertheless helpful to know. It was also an opportunity to observe the parent and child relating to each other. It was seen as a way of “opening the door” for communication. (These interviews are timetabled through the day and routinely achieve 100 percent turn out).

Context specific features

This school’s specific context has some implications for home–school partnerships in general. This is a small school in an area where there is a strong sense of community. (One of the parents interviewed had attended the school as a child). The small size of the school is helpful in building relationships—all groups thought this helped, in that all students were known as individuals. The teachers also reported that the parents encouraged each other to get involved as they had contact with each other in the community. The principal said that about half the parents dropped their children off at school in the morning and that this also increased the opportunities for interactions between parents and school and the between the parents themselves. Parents felt it was easier to be involved at the primary school level than at the secondary level, partly because they felt their children did not want them to be involved as they got older.

Nature of partnerships

Parents felt their children’s education was ultimately their responsibility and it was up to them to support teachers and in the words of one parent ensure children didn’t “slip through the cracks”. They felt they had a role in helping the school provide opportunities for students that they might not otherwise have. They were concerned about the teachers’ work load and were willing to help out where possible. The parents interviewed thought that it was the principal’s role to decide what was taught in the school and how, and that their role was to give support. One parent said “You know the boundaries and that is good.” Even so parents still felt it was a two-way partnership. They said that the school’s “open door” culture was strong and that the principal was very visible and easily approachable. Seeing her on road patrol or out in the playground made it easy to talk to her.

The principal told us that when she started at the school she had to actively seek out parental help, but now some parents were actively seeking opportunities for involvement. She gave the example of parents initiating something they wanted to do in the school in relation to improving gardens. The principal felt it was important to communicate with parents in a variety of ways. The weekly newsletter is on-line (although none of the parents we interviewed accessed it this way) and the school website is being developed to be more interactive. Some teachers routinely communicate with parents via email. Although the school holds regular parent evenings for curriculum-related topics, these had not been particularly successful in attracting parents, despite the fact that they had been initiated as a result of parental requests. One teacher said she had found late meetings (starting at 8pm) were better attended in that they allowed parents to get children fed and settled at home first. The principal also suggested meetings from 2.30 to 3.15 were good for parents of new entrants. These examples illustrate the school’s flexibility in trying to meet the needs of different groups of parents.

As well as raising achievement the principal felt that by encouraging parents to be more involved in their children’s learning, the school was often helping improve the relationship between parents and children. In her view “part of being a good parent is being involved with your children—we have to create those opportunities”. She gave the example of when parents come into school as “experts” talking about aspects of their professional lives as part of the “learning pathways” their own children often learn things about their parents’ lives that they were previously unaware of.

Summary

In this case study, a critical factor in the success of the home–school partnership initiatives seemed to be the teachers’ attitudes. The staff at this school are clearly committed to working closely with parents and saw this partnership being beneficial to their own teaching as well as to student learning. This case study illustrates the importance of being clear about the purpose of partnerships and the roles of the partners.

School E

Context

School E is a decile 1, urban, contributing school, which is part of the Tamaki Achievement Pathways initiative. According to the TKI website the school has a roll of 155 students. The ethnic composition of the school is 31 percent Maori; five percent Pakeha , 29 percent Tongan; 12 percent Samoan ; 13 percent Niuean; six percent Cook Island; four percent “other”. (ERO report, 2006).

The school’s strategic plan encompasses the three vital outcomes of the Ministry of Education’s Schooling Strategy 2005–2010 which includes “Children’s learning is nurtured by families and whanau”. The school’s strategic plan (2007–2010) says parents, families and the community will be committed to:

• involvement in their children’s learning and activities;
• supporting the school’s goals;
• participating in consultation processes; and
• engaging in discussions around supporting student achievement.

We chose this school as one of our case studies because we were interested in looking at how schools working together in an area could enhance parental engagement.

Another reason for choosing this school was that it had previously participated in the Ministry of Education funded home–school partnership in literacy programme, and had since adapted that model customising it to better meet the needs of its community. This school is one of a cluster of local schools that are all involved in home–school partnership initiatives.

It is a feeder school for the local intermediate, whose pupils then go on to the local college—both of these schools have home–school partnership programmes operating. School E is also part of a 3 year Pasifika School Community and Parent Liaison Project (PSCPL), involved in promoting successful transitions between early childhood and primary, and primary and intermediate schools.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were carried out with: Senior Management (Principal and a lead teacher in the home–school initiatives); teachers: (11 staff including RTLBs, support staff, and two student teachers and the principal); seven students (from Years 4–6) and seven parents (plus the principal and staff representative on the BOT). Planning documentation and achievement data were also provided by the school.

Initiatives:

Transitioning children successfully from ECE to school:

A PSCPL (Pasifika School Community and Parent Liaison Project) liaison advisor was appointed to broker the relationship between the parents of new entrants and the teacher. She visits the homes of new entrants. Among other things she talks the parents through a questionnaire about where the family is from, who is living in the home, and what resources and routines are in the home. She will translate if necessary. A newsletter in different languages is also sent home welcoming the families of new entrants to school.

Parent Support Group:

A teacher involved in the home–school partnership initiatives has been trying to start a parent support group. A parents’ room, with couches and toys for younger children, has been set up at the school so parents can meet informally and feel more part of the school.

Home–school partnership sessions:

Meetings are held once a term. The main focus of these has been to scaffold parents’ learning and understanding about their children’s learning. These meetings have covered a range of topics including:

• supporting children at home with reading;
• school expectations for student reading achievement and explaining how books are levelled;
• how 3-way conferences work (this involved role plays and teaching about how to question students about their learning); and
• the pressures of being a parent (this involved a guest speaker— a social worker who is Tongan)

Three-way conferences

These were set up to replace parent interviews and involve students taking a more active role by talking about their learning. Parents, teachers and students all contribute in this forum to understand the progress students have made in their learning, what next steps and goals are to be aimed for, and how parents could support this at home.

School data linking partnerships to improved achievement

The principal has been collecting a great deal of data since she arrived at the school in 2005. Not all of the data were to do with achievement, and it would be difficult to estimate how much was due to the HSP interventions, because there were multiple interventions occurring at the school through the Tamaki Achievement Pathway initiatives. However, her interview reveals that the school is making some significant shifts in a number of ways:

Presence: The principal reported that in term two 2007, 87 percent of students attended school for 80 percent or more of the time it was open. (This compares with 75 percent eighteen months before).

Achievement: AsTTle reading test mean scores indicate that between August 2006 and August 2007 students in Years 4, 5 and 6 have made accelerated progress.

Overall impressions

Over the last two years the school has worked on a number of fronts with whanau in a multi-pronged approach to try to improve the engagement of families in the learning of their children. Working on developing more positive relationships between students and teachers and teachers and parents, was an important first step before learning could become the focus of these initiatives. The principal explained:

It’s not just the HSP meetings and strategies in isolation—its all the other strategies together—its about being empathetic with the families, its how we acknowledge them (smile—parents are frightened), its the school culture, it’s the environment, its the relationships, everyone has huge respect for each other. There has been a big move in making parents feel welcome in the last few years here. (Principal)

The home–school partnership evening sessions that this school runs are adapted from the Ministry of Education HSP: Literacy model. (This school was originally part of this project).

The parents were enthusiastic about the impact of these sessions, and the children all reported changes in the way their families interacted with them in relation to their learning. Some parents even said these home–school partnership evening sessions had been life-changing for them. They spoke about their own failure at school and negative attitudes, about their hopes and aspirations for their children and their commitment to change their low achievement. They appeared very appreciative of the attention and help they were getting. They described in detail the things they now do at home, compared to what they used to do.

Its opened a lot of doors to the parents in the community—I didn’t think I needed to be involved and that was a surprise. It has brought me closer to my son—at home we didn’t have that communication thing going—especially talking about learning—now I’m talking with my son and all the questions you are supposed to talk with my son. Really get that language out of him. I was surprised at the language and words that came out of him—he used phrases like ‘learning goals’. It brought me closer to the teachers—I’m very shy. It helped a lot in our home. (Parent)

Everything the parents reported matched with what the children said. The children reported changes in the way their families asked them questions about school and took an interest in their work. They said that families helped them with homework, read books to them, made them turn the TV off and played games with them. The students were all extremely positive and said all these changes were the result of home-school partnership sessions. The principal reported that about thirty parents attended HSP evening sessions.

The three-way interviews were considered by teachers to be effective. They saw them as a way to deepen their relationship with the students and their families and talk to them on a personal level. Teachers said three way conferences were more useful than portfolios because there is less on-going work—just the initial preparation. They felt the focus on questioning at the HSP parent evenings had contributed to the success of these three-way interviews.

One teacher expressed the view that three-way conferences were hard on the children whose parents did not come. This teacher had organised interviews with another adult (support staff) in the school instead of the parent for these children. This strategy allowed the children still to share goals with another adult. However, some of the parents who didn’t come to the three-way conference the first time came the next time. The principal reported a 50 percent turnout of parents in 2006 but said that in 2007 they had a 70 percent turn-out. She thought this was as a result of children putting “pressure on parents”.

Although the three-way conferencing seems to be going well, the parent support group seems to have floundered. A possible reason for this is that the school set up the parents’ group because that is what they thought the parents wanted, but the parents themselves were not part of that decision-making process. At the parents’ focus group interview one of the parents talked about his illiteracy, so the principal suggested adult literacy classes could be something that the parent support group could run.

Context specific features

The interviews with parents suggested that the whole community working together on the common goal of lifting achievement was effective. One parent was able to link things he had learnt from the college’s home–school partnership evenings with the primary school’s. The Pasifika School Community and Parent Liaison Project appeared to have had an impact on the number of Pasifika children attending early childhood centres. The principal reported that when they started the project only 30 percent of Pasifika children went to ECE and now 90 percent do. This seems to have the potential to help lift achievement levels in the primary school, especially if strong links between the ECE centres and the school are developed and maintained. Principals from the local schools and Early Childhood centres met and talked to each other, so there are similarities in how these schools are responding to the issues of involving parents. “Outreach workers” appeared to be being used effectively.

Nature of partnerships

There did not however appear yet to be a two-way relationship of equality between the school and whanau in this school’s HSP model: rather it seemed to be driven by the school management (the principal and lead teacher). In the original Literacy programme, the Board members took on first language speaker roles, but in the present HSP programme, this does not appear to be a priority. The dominant partner in this relationship with the most clearly defined roles appears to be the teachers. This approach seems to stem from the view that parents are not ready to take on a leadership role: as the principal put it:

…we are scaffolding success for our parents. That empowerment may come later, but at the moment the structure needs to be driven by management. (Principal)

The home–school partnership initiatives in this school seem to be based on the school’s perception of the parents’ needs. There was no evidence in the interviews that the school was consulting parents about what they wanted. The principal appeared to have a non-judgemental, but pragmatic view of the parents’ capacity, and seemed optimistic about change and hopeful about positive outcomes as a result of the HSP interventions.

The parents we interviewed said that they were ultimately responsible for their children’s education and that their role was to support the school. They felt that they needed information from the school to be able to support their children adequately (and were appreciative of the information they were getting from HSP evenings and three-way conferences). They emphasised how different education in New Zealand was from their experience in the “Islands”.

Summary

This case study illustrates the importance of relationship building and dissemination of information especially when working with families whose language, cultural practices, and experiences of education are different from those of the teachers. It emphasises the important role played by outreach workers and the value of schools within an area working together to provide consistent messages.

School F

Context

School F is a decile 1, urban, contributing school. Like School E it is also part of the Tamaki Achievement Pathways initiative. According to the TKI website the school has a roll of 170 students. The ethnic composition of the school is 36 percent Maori; one percent Pakeha , 37 percent Tongan; 11 percent Samoan ; seven percent Niuean; three percent Cook Island; two percent African; one percent Fijian; and two percent other Pacific. (ERO report, 2005.)

Like School E, this school was initially involved in the Ministry of Education funded, home–school partnership in literacy programme. It is part of the Pasifika School Community and Parent Liaison Project (PSCPL), and its students go on to other schools in this community that also have home–school partnership programmes operating. Also like School E, this school has adapted its current home–school partnership initiatives from the Ministry of Education HSP: Literacy model.

We chose this school for inclusion as a case study because we were particularly interested in the way it was attempting to engage parents in their children’s learning through the children themselves. This school had started out using the Ministry of Education’s HSP: literacy model and then adapted it to better suit the needs of its parents. This school has good data showing improvements in reading achievement over the last couple of years: however it is not possible to directly link these improvements with the home–school partnership initiative.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were carried out with six teachers, eight students and eight parents. The principal was also interviewed individually. The school provided documentation of their planning and achievement data.

Initiatives:

Involving the students in the parents’ sessions:

According to the principal the school “stumbled” on its unique approach to running parent sessions by accident. In 2006 the new entrant class invited the principal to come and see their dinosaur expo. She was so impressed with the students’ work she decided to include the expo in the junior school “home–school–partnership night”.

The children presented their clay model dinosaurs and told the parents their scientific names, they demonstrated their volcanoes that fizzed, and read out their charts and notes to a hall full of smiling parents, glowing with pride. The parents just loved it. So we thought “aha, use the kids.” So this was the beginning of our successful model. (Principal)

From that point, staff designed home–school–partnership sessions that involved the students themselves. For example, teachers developed sessions that involved the children teaching their parents reading and maths, to illustrate how these subjects are taught at school.

Sharing assessment data with parents:

The school has acted on the parents’ wish to know more about their children’s learning and now share asTTLe data with parents to show them where the children are, and how they are progressing in reading and maths. They have redesigned their report forms to include graphs, so that parents with English as a second language can “read” them more easily. (Translations of the instructions on how to read the graphs are now also included following feedback from the community.) Three-way conferences are also used to report on students’ progress, and these have been well attended.

School data linking partnerships to improved student achievement

AsTTle data shows improvement in reading levels over the last two years and there is anecdotal evidence that student engagement in learning has improved. Parental attendance has increased at the HSP meetings at the school and at the parent interviews. In 2005, they had a 68 percent turn out at parent interviews; in 2006 it increased to 75 percent, and in 2007 it was 81 percent. At the HSP “dinosaur” meeting they had 75 parents attend and that was just the junior parents. Two thirds of their parents have been involved right from the start, but about 20 percent of families are not involved. Word of mouth is bringing more family members in, (for example a group of Tongan young fathers, and also older siblings.)

Overall impression

All groups interviewed in this school were very positive about the home–school–partnership initiatives. The teachers and the principal said that the key to bringing the parents into the school was the children, but the focus of the home–school–partnership sessions was on learning.

The main difference about this successful home–school partnership model from the Ministry’s HSP: Literacy or Numeracy model is the part students play in the partnership. Instead of being a two-way model (between teachers and parents) this is a three–way model, involving the students as a critical partner in the relationship. The students act as the linkage between the parents and the teachers/school, rather than lead parents taking this role. There are no lead parents in this model. The idea of involving the students in the parent sessions as the “teachers” rather than separating the children from the parents, and designing the session so that parents are involved in activities as the “students” appears to have been the critical factor in the success of this initiative.

Other factors that make this initiative successful are:

• The whole school approach. In the strategic plan the school has two HSP meetings planned in their overview around week four and week eight of each term, with senior and junior syndicates doing one each a term.
• Total teacher support. Teacher workloads are shared via syndicate planning, and although initially it was quite a lot of work, it is much better now according to the teachers. “We get together in our teams and plan the HSP evening—everyone has their role”. “They are loving it”, according to the principal, “and it is a real morale booster—there is a real buzz at school the next day”.
• Successful and strategic marketing. The social worker advertises the HSP meetings on the radio, they have translations in newsletters in Samoan and Tongan, and they also advertise in the Friday flyer. The children take home invitations and letters.
• Involvement of culturally appropriate support people. The involvement of the Tongan social worker is imperative, as he can explain why the parents should help their children, and what benefit it is to them, in their own language. Support in the wider community is important as well such as the Pacific liaison advisor. This gives people who don’t want to talk to teachers, other people to talk to.
• Students are getting ‘learning’ messages that are consistent between home and school. The principal pointed out that children are listening to teachers talking about how important their learning is, at every single HSP meeting. They are getting messages about what good learning is. She added,
  

It’s not about social interaction—it’s always got to be about learning, which is bi-directional. Our teachers need to learn as much from the parents as the parents learn from them and this idea came from the parent mentoring model I was involved in. The HSP model is a deficit view—telling parents as if they didn’t know things. We want parents to talk about achievement and progress and assessment. (Principal)

• Focus on helping parents understand learning. The success is largely due to the focus of giving parents a better understanding of what their children are learning at school and different ways of helping them. The Tongan social worker explained how schooling is different from in the Islands, because in New Zealand parents and teachers have a shared job, whereas the teachers’ job in the Islands is to do everything, including developing appropriate behaviour and teaching students to pass exams. He said, ‘here we teach our children how to learn, which is very different.’

Both the principal and the teachers were very explicit that the focus of home–school partnerships needed to be on learning. Parents want to know more about how their children are doing at school, and about what they are learning, so they can help them at home, as in their view many aspects of learning have changed radically since they were at school. They also want to know about how well their children were doing in relation to other children their age (national norm) and what progress they are making. Teachers, children and parents seemed to be developing a “shared language of learning” enabling them to talk about achievement, progress and assessment.

Teachers reported that their Maori and Pasifika parents are really interested in their children’s learning, and don’t want “stuff dumbed down”. Parents are now asking valuable questions in parent interviews, based on what was in the written reports. They know to say “Why hasn’t my child’s reading got better? What does this mean?” They are more familiar with the learning jargon and have the confidence to ask questions and raise issues where necessary. They also give the teachers good ideas about what they want to know.

Context specific features

The initiatives in this school are a development of the Ministry of Education’s model. The school is in an area where both the intermediate and secondary school are also involved in initiatives to increase parental engagement, so there is potential for working with parents to have long term impact. The involvement of the children themselves as active partners in the home–school partnership is especially powerful. As in some of the other case studies, the small size of this school was also given as a factor contributing to the success of the initiative.

The school has responded to its local needs. A large proportion of the school’s parents have English as a second language and the school has developed its home–school partnership around the wishes of these parents—to know more about their children’s progress at school and what they are learning. The school has used a Tongan social worker and a Pacific liaison person to help in explaining messages between the parents and the school, and to provide a more culturally appropriate link.

The staff have also responded to feedback from the parents gained through a survey, about the kinds of reporting they prefer in the three-way conferences.

We asked the parents questions about the report and whether the information was valuable. Feedback was quite varied. They liked the graphs because they could see where their children were at with reading, maths etc. They were visual graphs, which were especially good for ESOL speakers, but some said the graphs were hard to understand—the instructions on how to read the graphs. So we are going to translate the graphs into Tongan and Samoan. That’s our next step. (Principal)

Nature of partnerships

As in the other case study schools, parents interviewed felt their role was to “back teachers up” but that they also had a role as the children’s first teachers. “We teach them basics and back up what the teachers are doing—our role is to be teachers as well as parents.” This meant it was important to parents that they knew how schools in New Zealand operated but also that they knew details about the achievement levels of their children. They saw the point of HSP meetings as “filling in the gaps of what we don’t know”. Teachers interviewed shared this view.

Summary

The key features of this case study that could be generalised to other situations are the way students themselves are involved in engaging their parents in their learning, and the flexibility the school showed in responding to parents’ changing needs. Of particular interest is the way the partnership evolved to focus on the learning of individual students.

School G

Context

This is an urban based, pan-tribal kura kaupapa Maori. It is a decile 6, composite school (year 1–15) with a roll of 138 students (according to TKI). The kura operates in accordance with the expectations and values base of Te Aho Matua  that places emphasis on whanau as the social context for guiding decision making processes. The ERO report (2003) states:

The whanau of [name of school] are integral to good school governance and education. The charter outlines whanau management as the key for the direction of Te Aho Matua. Whanau acknowledge the difference between areas of governance and management and have a comprehensive understanding of their specific roles and responsibilities. Individual whanau members bring a range of expertise and skills to support the established whanau management structure. There is a shared understanding about the importance of their involvement to ensure ongoing improvement.

We chose this school as one of our case study schools partly because we thought its urban pan-tribal character meant practices were likely to be relevant to other kura, and partly because the NZCER researcher involved already had strong links with this kura. Given the short time frame for this project, and the complexities of negotiating research with kura where we do not have already-established relationships prior to the research, this seemed a pragmatic approach.

NZCER data collection

Group interviews were carried out with students, whanau , and teachers. The female principal was also interviewed individually. The student group consisted of three girls and one boy, representing Years 6, 7, 9, and 10 (the two senior students had both previously been to mainstream schools). All four members of the whanau group were female and most were still learning te reo Maori (this group included one grandmother). The teachers’ group was also all female and taught from the junior through to middle school levels, and all teachers were teaching their own children within their classrooms.

Initiatives:

Whanau structure of governance and operation: Whanau are actively engaged in the organisation and development of annual and strategic kura plans. School management decisions are discussed and reported at whanau hui held twice a term. Whanau are represented on six subcommittees (personnel, property, finance, fundraising, sport and the community), that are led by nominated trustees.

Taumahi-a-whanau (whanau homework): This initiative developed within the context of bringing whanau and the kura together—whakawhanaungatanga . The concept for taumahi-a-whanau was formed after various noho marae, kapa haka and Matariki celebrations were held, promoting learning conversations around community networks and knowledge. Five years later, whanau continue to write, create and/or develop something each term that represents their knowledge and understanding around a particular kaupapa (e.g. Matariki, Water Safety). Whanau then share their work with the entire kura. Presentations are given in a supportive learning context and can take a variety of forms that include stories, waiata, karakia, haka, artworks, reports, performances and games.

School data linking partnerships to improved achievement

It is difficult to directly isolate and link these initiatives to student achievement data: however they are most likely to add to student learning in the following ways. Both initiatives actively promote whakawhanaungatanga or positive whanau collaboration within the kura, resulting in increased language, knowledge, commitment and cultural identity. Learning is enhanced because whanau and the kura are able to share and explore ways of working together in culturally meaningful ways such as intergenerational transmission (i.e. kaumatua working alongside mokopuna providing role models for language development) and reinforcing tuakana/ teina roles (i.e. involving older or younger siblings). All students interviewed appeared to be very positive about school.

Overall impression

Taumahi-a-whanau is perceived by students, whanau, teachers, and the principal to be an effective means of reinforcing the important role of whanau within education. Through active participation and engagement, whanau become more aware of the content of their children’s learning at kura and are encouraged to spend time with their tamariki in educationally helpful ways at home. In this way, whanau homework facilitates the development of culturally specific forms of knowledge and strengthens learning opportunities and development of relationships between the home and kura. All groups also spoke positively about the whanau structure of governance and operation. This case study illustrates all of the key elements of successful home–school partnerships, identified in the Request for Proposals for this project. The partnership between the kura and whanau is so integral to the operation of this kura it is difficult to pinpoint a specific focus for the partnership. Whanau are more involved in all aspects of the kura than would be expected in English medium schools.

Context specific features

Many features of School G are unique to its specific context, however there is potential for other schools to adapt some of these practices as they consider the roles, responsibilities and ways of engaging whanau more fully in their children’s learning.

Interviews with whanau indicated that they had specifically chosen to pursue and promote kura kaupapa Maori as an educational option for their children. The infrastructure for whanau and the kura working together had already been forged as part of the existing school policies, practices and processes. Participation and commitment from whanau and the kura to the everyday life of the kura were agreed upon from the outset. All groups interviewed felt that the small size of the kura was a factor in contributing to the strong sense of a kura community: all thought that students were known as individuals and that this helped in providing whanau with opportunities to interact with and influence each other in building relationships with the kura and between whanau themselves.

Nature of partnerships

All groups interviewed felt that the home and the school valued similar things and that both the kura and individual whanau were responsible for the overall wellbeing of students. All agreed that as a collective, whanau held the authority for making kura wide decisions and that the regular whanau hui (as well as newsletters and email) were an effective means for communicating these processes.

The principal felt that home–school partnerships lead to better whanau understanding of the importance of their role in their children’s education and that this in turn could lead to improved achievement. Whanau also saw the kura environment as providing them with a surrogate ‘city whanau or papakainga’ . Whanau were also conscious of not adding to the workload of kaiako and saw it as their own role to provide opportunities for their children that they might not otherwise have in kura.

Summary

In this case study, home–school partnerships are integral to the way the school operates. The school could not operate without the partnership. The very nature of the partnership described here is different from that in the “mainstream” case study schools and as such may help mainstream educators clarify their own thinking about the purpose and nature of partnerships.

School H

Context:

This case study is different from the others in this project in that it focuses on one strategy implemented by a Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour in a secondary school, rather than a whole school approach. 

We thought it was worthwhile to include this “mini” case study because the strategy is very simple and it seems likely that it would be easy to implement on a much bigger scale. It is a practical example of how the home experiences of the student can be used to facilitate learning and of how families might be encouraged to take a more active role in their children’s learning.

NZCER data collection

The RTLB was interviewed individually about this intervention. She was also present in the room, though engaged in other work, while the student and her mother were interviewed (together).

Initiative:

The strategy described here was one component of an “intervention” to support a Year 10 student, who was a persistent truant, to be in class and engaged with learning. The aim of the strategy was to increase the student’s comprehension skills within the home context.  The programme consisted of the student watching the TV programme “Shortland Street” four times a week with her mother and telling her mother what the main ideas in the episode were, who the characters involved were, and making a prediction of what would happen next. The student had a notebook with the questions, and the mother simply ticked them off. The programme was simple to operate and did not place an undue burden on anyone involved. The rationale behind this approach was that “Shortland Street” was a “text” that was already part of the family’s life and this was a way of engaging the whanau to promote the learning of the student.

RTLB data linking partnership to improved student achievement

After a term on this programme, the student did not show the expected gains in reading comprehension: however, in that term she was truant from class on 37 occasions compared with 129 occasions in the previous term, which perhaps suggests some improvement in engagement with school. It is of course not possible to attribute this improvement in attendance at school directly to any particular aspect of the intervention.

Overall impressions

There appeared to be excellent two-way communication between the home and school in this example. The RTLB clearly had established a trusting, respectful relationship with both the student and her mother. The perceptions of all three interviewees were that this strategy was very successful (even though at the time of the interviews no achievement data were available). The mother said she found this intervention helpful because it had given her some practical strategies for how to engage her daughter in conversation and encourage her to think about what she was watching on TV. In this way the strategy capitalised on the home experiences of the student to facilitate learning.

Context specific features

The RTLB service actively promotes the inclusion of families in education, and in this particular case study the RTLB herself was clearly personally committed to working closely with whanau.

Nature of partnerships

This partnership seems to be one of equals in that, although the RTLB set up the intervention and the initial questions, the mother felt confident and involved enough to develop the strategy further. There was a clearly defined purpose for the partnership. During this interview the mother said she believed the role of parents in the education of their children was to provide support, identify problems their children were having and advocate for their children. She spoke of the importance of parents having honest information about their children’s progress and achievement so that they could do this. In her experience, it was not always easy to get the information needed from teachers and she felt that some teachers were threatened when parents questioned them about their children’s lack of progress and saw this as a criticism of their ability to teach.

Summary

This mini case study illustrates a very simple strategy for providing family with techniques to encourage interaction with their children in a way that is likely to develop skills that are valued in school, without adding undue pressure.

What does all this mean?

According to the Request for Proposals for this project, the purpose of the empirical research component of this project was to identify successful home–school partnerships within New Zealand, focusing on the school’s roles and responsibilities and to investigate and analyse the features of these partnerships in relation to the contexts in which they operate.

The lack of robust data linking partnerships to improved achievement meant that we were unable to explicitly identify the features of successful school partnerships; however we were able to identify several contextual features that influenced the sorts of partnerships that have developed.

The New Zealand case studies also illustrated many of the key features of successful partnerships described in the international research literature. Perhaps more importantly, though, these case studies allowed us to identify various questions that we believe need further thought and research. These are discussed in the next section of this report.