Parental involvement in English primary schools and child development

Parental Involvement in Primary Schooling

The Standpoint

The first years of school is the most important in a child's life. It is during these years that the child establishes his or her academic personality. This is however not all. The years at primary school also helps a child to form and verify the values learned at home. It is therefore extremely important for parents to form a kind of partnership with primary schools. In this way the school and parents together can learn from each other how best to educate the child. Parents are also very important in helping their children with any problems that could be experienced in school. This will not only make the task of the school easier, but also help parents to establish a relationship of trust with the school.

For the years before the start of school, parents are the most important persons in a child's life. This is why it is also important for parents to remain part of a child's life at the beginning of school. This will make the transition between preschool and primary school, or indeed between home life and school life, easier for the child. Also, children are obviously also important to parents, and the concern is to give a child the best education possible. This can only occur by parental involvement in primary schooling. A parent needs to show interest in the child by connecting with teachers and the school system, as well as by talking to the child about what has been learned through the activities at school.

This topic is very important to me, since I feel that much of the problems experienced by young people may be due to a lack of parental interest in their early school years. Parents sometimes seem to feel that their part in educating their children is over, and the school takes over. The school however focuses mostly on the academic part of education, while morals and values should be established at home. When problems arise in later life, the school system is blamed. But I think it is time that parents take more responsibility for the education of their children.

The Scope

Since only six months are given for the project, the scope must necessarily be limited. The problem is however that parental involvement in schools, as well as social problems arising from a lack of involvement, is a global problem. Teenage pregnancy, gang membership and a lack of respect or responsibility are only a few of the problems faced and caused by youngsters in the world today. Tracing all of this back to the amount of parental involvement in schooling is a difficult and time-consuming task. Also, all problems do not have the same cause. And again, finding the appropriate cause for each problem is difficult to do by only one person in a limited time. I have therefore decided to limit my scope to primary schools, and to England.

Primary schooling represents the first stages of a child's school career. This is the first stage of life away from home. The foundation upon which the child builds a school career is then found in the initial upbringing in the home. Because parents then play such a fundamentally important role in the life of a child for such a long period of time, I feel it is important that this role should be important especially in the primary school career. Like the beginning years at home, the primary school then forms the basis of the rest of the child's schooling, which is the foundation for life at college and at work. It is therefore important that this initial foundation be laid correctly and strongly in order to lessen the chances of the child getting involved in socially unacceptable and damaging activities in the future.

My selection will therefore be made from primary schools in England as representative of my topic. I feel that this will perhaps provide the basis for wider research in the future. Parental involvement in schooling cannot be stressed enough. This is especially so in the primary school phase, since the child is still young and can be influenced more easily than an older child.

Reading

Of course there is a lot of literature about parental involvement in the school careers of their children. Particularly notable to me was the lack of resources on the Internet that specifically focus on English primary schools. Even when I tried to focus my search specifically for that area, it appears that only American schools enjoy prominence on the Internet.

I have however found a collection of articles edited by Pollard and Bourne (1994), which were particularly helpful in my area of research. "Involving Parents" by Macbeth gave me particularly helpful insight in my topic. I will however also attempt to find more recent resources regarding this specific issue. I will also try to find literature that focus more widely on the topic. This will help to focus more clearly on the specific issue I want to discuss. For this the articles on the Internet may be helpful. I will also attempt to find more sources on teaching and learning, and the role that parents can play in the success of a primary school career.

From what I have read parental involvement in a child's schooling seems to be the best strategy to provide a solid foundation from which the child can grow to become a successful and responsible adult. Perhaps if the values taught at home are reinforced more strongly during the primary school career, there would not be so many problems once the child becomes a teenager.