National Catholic Education Commission Convention 2011

Inspiration and Identity: Catholic Education in Australian Society will be the convention theme. International and national speakers will present keynote speeches and will lead in developing six area strands as sub sets of the overall theme. Parent and Community will be one of the strands. Danielle Cronin, Executive Director of the CCSP and NCEC Parent Committee Chair is co-convenor of the parent and community strand along with Ann Bliss, Executive Director of the SA Federation of Catholic School Parent Communities.

For more information, visit: www.nceconv2011.com.au/

Look Out 2011

Join the conversation with local and international speakers and delegates, and explore what it means to be an innovative outward facing school in the 21st century.

* Lead for outward facing communities
* Develop strong, inclusive partnerships for learning
* Dialogue to push the boundaries of educational reform
* Re-imagine the learning landscape
* Achieve learning outcomes and life chances for all

Hosted by the Catholic Education Office Melbourne, explore new ways to look at learning. Be part of the future, hear international speakers, join breakfast conversations, wine and cheese chats, workshops and much more.

AUD$450 per delegate (AUD$405 for early bird registrations)

Look out for further information and details or email Lookout2011@ceomelb.catholic.edu.au to register your interest in any further details regarding this event.

Spirit Dream - In Burning Hearts - A National Gathering for those involved in Catholic schools

This National Gathering offers a creative forum for all those involved in Catholic schools to come together:

- To reflect on the reality, affirm the strengths and name the issues concerning Catholic identity, faith formation and evangelisation in our Catholic school communities
- To address the issues concerning Catholic identity, faith formation and evangelisation of staff, students and families in our school communities
- To envisage and explore future possibilities for a new evangelisation within our Catholic school communities

The Gathering is open to participation of representatives from all levels of involvement with Catholic schools, including importantly parents and caregivers.

For more information click here

New Parent Engagement Resources on NSW Dept of Education Site

The NSW Department of Education has recently released a new community engagement resource that we think is a valuable addition to the suite of NSW resources. To preview go to:

http://www.lowsesschools.nsw.edu.au/section/126,315-leading-learning/professional-learning.aspx

Have we aligned 21st Century schooling goals with parent and community engagement?

While schools are striving to prepare our students for the 21st century, many are doing so without aligned parent and community engagement practices. What can we do to tackle this challenge?

A recent US Department of Education forum discussed this issue by looking at a range of related questions:

1. What does the future of family and community engagement look like?
2. How can federal, state, and local policies work together to create systemic family engagement?
3. How can student performance data be used to connect families and schools in a significant way?
4. What roles can families play in transforming low-performing schools?

Discussed at length were the policy levers that can be tapped to encourage and sustain meaningful partnerships with parents and communities to support student learning. These levers included: training and professional development for school staff; capacity building to help entities develop, implement, and evaluate initiatives; encouraging the blending of resources in creative ways; sharing best practices via learning communities; scaling effective practices; and using the federal government’s leadership role to develop a common family engagement framework and accountability system to ensure that state and local family engagement goals are being met.

See full blog post here:

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/11/national-policy-forum-for-family-school-and-community-engagement-event-recap/

Parent-School Engagement in NSW Project- a Chance for parents to be involved

This exciting study is being conducted by the Australian Catholic University on behalf of the Council of Catholic School Parents and the other peak parent associations in NSW. The study will seek views from parents and caregivers of children in primary and secondary schools across the range of public, independent and Catholic school sectors in NSW. We need your help in participating in focus groups. For details on how to participate read below:

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Over the coming months, parents and caregivers of primary and secondary school children in NSW will be invited to participate in focus group interviews for a research project entitled Parent-School Engagement in NSW. This study aims to learn more about the factors that influence parent-school engagement. 

The study will seek views from parents and caregivers of children in primary and secondary schools across the range of public, independent and Catholic school sectors in NSW.  This research is being conducted by Dr. Sue Saltmarsh, Associate Professor of Educational Studies at the Australian Catholic University. The study is sponsored by the NSW Parents’ Council, NSW & ACT Council of Catholic Schools Parents, and the NSW Federation of Parents’ and Citizens’ Associations, who have commissioned Dr. Saltmarsh to develop teacher professional development programs and pre-service teacher education materials that will be used to prepare educators for engaging effectively with parents, caregivers and families.

If you would like to know more about this research, or would like to consider participating in a focus group interview, please contact the project Research Officer, Dr. Jenny Barr, at jenny.barr@acu.edu.au for further details.

Sincerely,

Danielle Cronin

“Securing success for each student in each setting”

On 10 September, the Council of Catholic School Parents hosted a Master Class in Parent Engagement in Low SES Communities for 100 educators and parent leaders from  across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Tasmania.

Professor Harris is Pro-Director (Leadership) at the Institute of Education, London and Director of London Centre for Leadership in Learning.

Professor Harris’ research has mostly focused on organisational change and development. She is internationally known for her work on school improvement, focusing particularly on improving schools in challenging circumstances. Her more recent work has focussed on parent engagement with schooling. She is a co-author of Do Parents Know they Matter?Raising Achievement Through Parental Engagement.

Professor Harris’ workshop looked at the relationship between disadvantage and underachievement of young people and challenged participants to work towards success for every child everywhere.  Prof. Harris also offered an assessment of some of the solutions and argued that many have ultimately failed to hit the mark and have been inadequate, not because they or bad or faulty projects but because they are focusing on the wrong things. Finally she argued that we need a new story for disadvantaged schools one that focused on building community and social capital rather than the old story of top down intervention.

Professor Harris highlighted that while some of the reasons for performance lie within the control of the school, the most significant influences of the family context and peer group are not. Schools harnessing parental engagement strategies, she argued, is more important than ever.
Parental engagement in ‘supporting learning in the home’ is the single most important factor in student achievement.

Schools, she says need to ask how they:

• communicate to parents how much they matter
• are helping parents to be co-educators
• make it a genuine two-way relationship.

If parental engagement is to make a real difference to the achievement of pupils, Harris’ research has found that it must be a holistic (and embedded) engagement, rather than one which takes place around certain isolated issues.

Parent Engagement
Professor Harris stressed that parental presence at school DOES NOT EQUAL engagement. School-based involvement such as P&Fs, in canteen, on school boards  etc has limited impact on students’ achievement and outcomes. What happens in the home has a much greater effect on achievement than these more traditional school-based activities.

The key difference between involvement and engagement is that engagement is intentionally linked to learning.
 
Engagement, as Harris sees it, can be defined as supporting student learning at home.

She believes schools must see it as part of their remit to assist parents in this endeavour.  Greater parent engagement with learning she argues is needed more than ever before - especially if we are to close the gaps for more disadvantaged students and schools.

What are the key barriers to parental engagement?
Parents, Harris says, cite their own experience of school as one of the most significant barriers to greater parental engagement with school and their child’s learning. This is followed by practical issues (18%), their own perceived lack of skills (15%) and teacher attitudes towards them and greater engagement (13%).
 

Schools can use this sort of data (based on their own communities) to tailor their parent engagement strategies to best effect.

Building Community - For Equity and Diversity

“For me equity and diversity can be realised if each child succeeds in each setting – some say this is unrealistic but the converse is unpalatable - some children in some settings?  Whose children - yours or mine?  I firmly believe in securing success for each child in each setting. There is no greater challenge but no higher moral purpose”.  - Alma Harris

Professor Harris contends that issues of equity and diversity will only be addressed by building a strong infrastructure of localised and context-specific support between teachers, parents and other professional groups. Building strong communities with schools at the centre will ensure that all young people have the same opportunities and life chances, wherever they happen to live.

Schools are more likely to be effective if they draw their community into their work, for example by engaging parents in school life and engaging local employers and public agencies.