School community partnerships

There are so many good resources on the web. My cousin Margaret alerted me to the Family-School & Community Partnerships Bureau (an Australian site). It has some useful material on a range of topics including links to a range of research papers. In 2006 they commissioned a report Family-School Partnerships Project: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study which included 20 elements of best practice in developing school-community partnerships:

1. Tap into the interests of parents.
2. Break down the teacher/non-teacher barrier by allowing for activities that are not directly education-related.
3. Use personal contact. It is the most effective form of communication.
4. Communicate, communicate, communicate.
5. Be a venue for, and agent of, parental self-growth.
6. Ask for, and value, the opinion of parents outside the formal school structures.
7. Create an environment that encourages parental autonomy.
8. Emphasise the connection with the child’s education.
9. Go out of your way to make parents feel welcome and valued.
10. Build bridges across cultural and language divides.
11. Be sensitive to parents’ sensibilities.
12. Be prepared to engage in community capacity-building.
13. Show leadership, be visible and available.
14. Be realistic, patient, and a bit brave.
15. Make it clear you think of parents as genuine partners.
16. Don’t be frightened to ask parents to help solve big problems.
17. Open your mind to parents’ needs and attitudes.
18. Appoint a parent/community liaison person to the staff.
19. Create a place that parents can call their own.
20. Acknowledge and celebrate the parents’ input.

If you liked this post you might want to subscribe to the blog (top right-hand corner of the blog),  and you might like to read:

1. Schools engaging families and the local community
2. 10 Ways to build school-community partnerships
3. Making parents feel welcome in schools
4. Parent engagement @ school

Reference:
Saulwick Muller Social Research (2006). Family-School Partnerships Project: A Qualitative and Quantitative Study. Canberra: Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training.