Parent Empowerment: Examining Parental Attitudes of School Systems

The development of home-school partnerships has been an integral element of
government policy in England since the Plowden Report of 1967. Over the past
decade various policy documents and reports have been issued to schools
emphasising ways to develop these partnerships and stressing the involvement
families should have with schools (DfES, 2003; DfES, 2007; OfSTED, 2007;
DCSF, 2009; DfE, 2011). It remains a strong part of government policy as
research suggests that strong partnerships bring better outcomes for young
people (Sheldon, 2003; DfES, 2007; OfSTED, 2007). Despite this, strong
partnerships are not embedded into the system, especially for those parents of
children who are the most vulnerable (DfE, 2011). Potentially undermining the
trust required for successful partnerships is the suggestion that parents rate their children’s schools (Lightfoot, 2012). It has been suggested that the lack of a widespread reciprocal relationship between schools and home brings into
question the methods that have thus far gained precedence (Todd, 2007) and
that strong home-school links still, on the whole, rely on the integrity and
interest of individual schools and a hierarchical approach.