Under the Scottish Schools (Parental Involvement) Act 2006, local authorities are required to have a strategy outlining how they will involve parents and families in the wider life of the school and meaningfully engage them in their child(ren)’s learning.

Involving and engaging parents in the wider life of the school along with their child’s and their own learning is important to improve outcomes for children and families.  Research clearly shows positive impacts on areas such as children’s behaviour, attainment, attendance, confidence, health and wellbeing and aspirations when their parents and families are actively and meaningfully engaged in their learning.

Family Learning has been utilised throughout Scotland as an approach to support increased parental engagement and act as a catalyst to re-engage parents with their own lifelong learning journey.  This is particularly important where there is an identified generational issue with low educational attainment, poverty and low self-efficacy.

Intelligence gathered from a range of sources identified the need to support the secondary sector with Family Engagement.  This was further highlighted in the Parental Involvement and Engagement Census which indicated a lack of opportunities for parents to be actively and meaningfully involved in the wider life of the school and their child’s and their own learning.  Parents indicated strongly in the census, their request for more opportunities to be involved and engaged with their child’s school and their learning.  However, research highlights that this can be more challenging to achieve in the secondary sector for a number of reasons including work commitments, childcare, language barriers, lack of confidence, timing of events, cost and travel.

To address this, Education Scotland worked with Braes High School, Lornshill Academy and Dunoon Grammar School to scope out how we can support the secondary sector to develop their own strategies to meaningfully engage parents and families.  All three secondary schools involved in designing this resource were identified as having strong Parental Engagement Strategies and have embedded Family Learning opportunities throughout transition processes and year stages.

Throughout the resource, the term ‘Family Engagement’ is used.  This is to provide an umbrella term for all schools to capture the breath of active and meaningful engagement with parents and families.  Effective ‘Family Engagement’ extends across sectors and reinforces learning in multiple settings where children and families learn including at home, in settings, schools and the community.  While the role of parents will change as children grow and develop into adulthood, ‘Family Engagement’ is continuous throughout their life.  This is supported throughout a range of legislation including the Learning Together National Action Plan for Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family Learning and Learning at Home.  As with Parental Involvement, Parental Engagement, Family Learning and Learning at Home, Family Engagement is a shared responsibility for settings, schools and communities.