Parents In Education

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Parents in Education

Previous Newsletters

Summer 1999


IN THIS ISSUE:

Leicester Conference: Programme

PERN: New Services

ERNAPE Conference

Home-School Agreements

Internet Web Sites

New Publications



NEWS from NEW YORK:   From THE NEW YORK TIMES (May 1999):

Low-income students are making significant academic gains in schools with educational strategies that include higher standards and more personal instruction, parent involvement and teacher accountability, according to reports recently made public. Education Trust, a non-profit organisation in Washington that seeks to improve education for the poor, based its conclusions on a survey of 366 elementary and secondary schools, in 21 states, that had scored above average on standardised math and reading tests but had poverty levels of more than 50 percent - that is, at least half of the students received free or reduced-price lunches.

The trust found that the schools which were doing well shared five characteristics: increased learning time for reading and math; money devoted to continuing education for teachers and staff members; systems to monitor student progress and provide extra help; efforts to involve parents in the day-to-day learning process, and state or district accountability requirements for teachers if students fail to show measurable improvement.

Another study, conducted by the Education Trust and the Kentucky Association of School Councils, found that several schools in Kentucky with a high number of poor students achieved the highest scores on the state's standardised tests in 1998.



PERN CONFERENCE 2000

The next PERN conference will be in London, at the Institute of Education, hopefully in May 2000. The title will be "Involving Parents in Their Children's Education and Learning: When Is It Best To Start?" We hope to have input from government and Sure Start. There will also be a PERN Members Forum.



PERN AT BERA

Andrew Brown and Miriam David from the PERN Committee will be attending (and presenting at) the British Educational Research Association Conference at the University of Sussex in September. They hope to arrange an informal Forum meeting for PERN members - watch out for their presentations, and make contact!



PERN: NEW SERVICES

At a recent PERN Committee meeting, it was resolved to introduce an email discussion listserve, closed to members only, with a current awareness service. Annual General Meetings would then be conducted via the listserve. Watch this space for further details. Meanwhile, make you sure you have an email account - there are many free service providers competing for your attention at the moment.

It was also agreed that the Directory of Researchers and the Conference Abstracts publications would henceforth be available on the World Wide Web, through the PERN website. The Directory would have an online form for new entrants and to update old entries. The whole PERN website is to have its own search engine, to enable users to search by keyword. A search keyword thesaurus will be available. More details in the next newsletter.

However, it was agreed to keep the PERN subscription charge at its current level.



PERN CONTACT POINTS

Chair: Keith Topping, The Centre for Paired Learning, Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN. Tel: 01382 344000. Email: k.j.topping@dundee.ac.uk

Vice-chair: Miriam David, Department of Education, Keele University, Keele, Staffs ST5 5BG. Tel: 01782 583576. Fax: 583555 Email m.david@keele.ac.uk

Secretary: Andrew Brown, Culture Communication & Societies, Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC10 0AL. Tel: 0171 612 6224. Fax: 0171 612 6177 Email: a.brown@ioe.ac.uk

Membership & Treasurer: John Paine, 16 Sandringham Drive, Brinscall, Chorley, Lancashire. Tel: 0161 743 4287.



MEET A NEW MEMBER

Joe Hallgarten is a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, 30-32 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7RA. He is initiating a research project entitled " Parents as partners in learning: New directions for the next century." Tel 0171 470 6122, Fax 0171 470 6111, e-mail j.hallgarten@ippr.org.uk or joehallgarten@hotmail.com



ROAMING VOCAL VICE-CHAIR

PERN Vice-Chair Professor Miriam David (currently based at the Institute of Education but shortly to take up a chair at Keele) has been spreading the word......... She gave talks on methodologies in relation to children's understandings of parental involvement in their education at Uppsala University in Sweden on March and will do it again in July for American elementary teachers in London.

She gave a talk on New Labour's new dilemmas and new directions on education, family and social policies to a Women and Social Policy group at the London School of Economics in May and again in Jerusalem to the Department of Social Work at the Hebrew University; together with one to the Department of Education at the Hebrew University on family and education in women's lives.

This latter was taken from her edited book of 16 accounts of senior women with Diana Woodward (Negotiating the Glass Ceiling) and her recent book on the Sociology of Family Life for Polity Press. Miriam also has a book coming out this summer from Polity Press: "Closing the Gender Gap: Post War Education And Social Change" with M. Arnot and G. Weiner - this will be launched at BERA.



STUDY SUPPORT

Alwyn Morgan, who co-ordinates Family Learning developments for Education Extra and also operates his own consultancy (Alwyn Morgan & Associates), reports exciting success with a Study Support Family Learning project operating in five schools. Watch out for the report of the first year. AMorgan@parentedu.karoo.co.uk).



PUBLICISE YOUR RESEARCH

Education researchers who wish to disseminate their findings in the Times Educational Supplement should send a summary (750 words maximum) to David Budge, Research Editor, Times Educational Supplement, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY, tel 0171 782 3276, email david.budge@newsint.co.uk



SURE START

Naomi Eisenstadt has been appointed to direct "Sure Start", the U.K. version of what the USA launched with Headstart over 30 years ago. Much later and much lighter? Naomi has worked at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, Save the Children, the Open University and Family Service Units, and is a board member of the National Children's Bureau. We wish her well. Her budget of £452 million over the first three years will not stretch all that far. Bids for grant aid can be between £100k and £1m - get to work on that proposal!



21st CENTURY LEARNING INITIATIVE

This initiative is a transitional programme aiming to synthesise the best of research and development regarding the nature of human learning, and examining the implications of this for education, work, and the development of communities world wide. The British component of the initiative is the Education 2000 Trust. For further information: www.21learn.org. The PERN membership includes some of the leaders of the initiative.



SPECIAL NEEDS

The Special Needs Research Centre at the Department of Education in the University of Newcastle upon Tyne is conducting a literature review on School-Family-Community links. They already have a first draft of "working notes on key issues". Send your suggestions for inclusion to: Elaine Robson at the SNRU, St Thomas' St., Newcastle NE1 7RU, tel 0191 222 5672, e.m.robson@ncl.ac.uk



HOME EDUCATION IN SCOTLAND

The Schoolhouse Home Education Association is a charitable organisation which runs conferences and produces a newsletter. Details: Alison Preuss, 311 Perth Road, Dundee DD2 1LG, Tel 01382 646964, Fax 640472.



OTHER PERN BUSINESS

Miriam David is to become the PERN Committee "Midlands" representative on taking up a new chair at Keele.

Sheila Wolfendale is to be official PERN representative to the National Children's Bureau, RISE/CASE, and the Parenting Education & Support Forum.



ACE REPORTS ON HOME-SCHOOL AGREEMENTS

Schools Slow To Get Moving On Home-School Agreements

The majority of schools responding to an ACE survey of 300+ schools on home-school agreements have yet to consult parents despite the deadline of September 1999. This is the date by which the agreements must be in place following consultation.

It is clear from the results that the majority of schools are leaving consultation to the last weeks of the term. From nearly 100 replies to the survey, 64 schools reported that they were intending to consult in the summer term. Recent work with parents and schools by the National Consumer Council found that 12 months was not long enough to develop a home-school agreement in a Cambridgeshire secondary school where the first draft was drawn up by the school as a basis for discussion. Parents of children at the school made detailed comments about how the agreement could be improved and made clearer.

For one or two schools in ACE's survey the process was the point, but for at least one secondary school gathering views was no problem - it was "doing something with the findings that counts." While as many as 70% of all the schools said they were involving parents in drafting the agreement, few started with a blank sheet. One which did, described inviting parents to a meeting where they split into groups and discussed a range of topics; views were written up and incorporated into the final document. Most schools said they provided a draft agreement for parents to make comments on: "parents expect us to present them with firm proposals" said one head, who added that "endless meetings attended by only a few vocal parents do not gain anything". The deputy head of a county primary obviously found the variety of views from parents was a problem. "Whenever we send out questionnaires (which we do at least once a year), we very rarely see any consensus of opinion, with a maximum of two to three parents agreeing with each other," was the comment.

Most schools used responses to a questionnaire or meeting to redraft the document. A small number of schools mentioned working parties drafting their agreement which typically included parent governors and class representatives or parents active in the PTA. Homework, uniform, discipline policies and behaviour cropped up most often among the issues which concerned parents of children in schools which had already consulted on home-school agreements. Forty-four per cent had consulted on behaviour problems in the previous year, following the requirement on governing bodies to develop a behaviour statement after consultation with parents. A number intended consulting on this subject in the near future. Only a few schools intended relying on an existing home school agreement and did not, therefore, intend consulting. One school was relying on the information including school rules which appeared in the day books of pupils, and did not intend consulting or issuing a new agreement.

Questionnaires and meetings were the preferred method of consultation with information on a school website only appearing in two responses. Clearly schools have a long way to go before they see the Web as a useful way to reach parents. Some schools were clearly very positive about consulting with parents; others were sceptical of ever receiving more than a tiny response. Those schools which were building on previous work with parents seemed the most positive. They described a range of activity, from the primary school which holds monthly "drop-in" meetings to a primary school which has improved response rates from parents from 25% to 74% by using mailmerge software to direct mail parents.

Those schools which were most hostile to consultation complained of apathetic parents and the cost in money and time of organising meetings which attracted very few parents. One school said that while parental support on curriculum issues was quite high, no parents attended the last annual meeting. The problem of reaching a wide range of parents was mentioned by many schools; of those that had already consulted, only seven drew a response of more than 25%, while 18 schools drew responses of ten percent or less. One head described the difficulty of "balancing the views of the vociferous minority against those of the silent majority!" In that school a working party of governors, teachers, PTA committee members and five other parents had been set up to draft the agreement prior to general consultation. One primary school head described using the "stop-and-ask" method to help ensure a full range of views. About half of schools said they had consulted children about the home school agreement with a few indicating that they intended to do so in the future. Since governing bodies can ask pupils to sign the agreement as well as parents, the development of ways of consulting meaningfully with pupils could be a positive spin-off of agreements.



LEICESTER CONFERENCE

"Multiple Literacies At Home and School: Implications for Support" Saturday November 6, 1999 (9.00 a.m. for 9.30 - 4.30 p.m.)

School of Education, University of Leicester

Preferential rates for PERN members

9.00 - 9.30 Registration

9.30 - 9.35 Welcome, Introduction

9.35 - 10.15 Professor Gunther Kress, University of London: "Multiple Literacies"

10.15-10.45 Coffee & exhibitions

10.45-11.30 Sheila Wolfendale & Keith Topping, University of East London; University of Dundee: "Developing Literacy in the Home, School & Community: What Works"

11.45-12.30 Workshops: Multiple Literacies, Dyslexia, Home School Links, and more

12.30-1.30 Lunch, exhibitions, bookstalls, and more

1.30-2.15 Lindsay Peer, British Dyslexia Association: "Dyslexia and Bi/Multilingual Learners"

2.20-3.00 Workshops: Multiple Literacies, Dyslexia, Home School Links, and more

3.15-4.00 Neil McClelland, National Literacy Trust: Title tbc

4.00-4.30 Panel: Questions & Discussion

4.30 End

To register your interest, send your Name, Address (including Postcode), & Tel/Fax number to: Morag Hunter-Carsch, School of Education, 21 University Road, Leicester, LE1 7RF, Tel. 0116 2523688, email cmh16@leicester.ac.uk

In partnership with the University of Leicester Continuing Professional Development Department; The United Kingdom Reading Association; The Leicester Dyslexia Association; Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland local education authorities, and Aubrey Hart Associates.



OTHER CONFERENCES

"Parenting Positively: Enhancing Parenting Skills" - helping parents improve children's behaviour - at the National Children's Bureau 8-10 September, 20-22 October, and 1-3 December 1999. Details: Conference Office, National Children's Bureau, 8 Wakley Street, London EC1V 7QE.

"Learn To Learn Together" - one-day conference about family learning, under the auspices of Education Extra, was held on 25 June in London. Doubtless there will be another before too long. Details: Education Extra, 17 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PL, email j.humphreys@educationextra.org.uk, Tel 0181 983 1061, Fax 0181 981 9698. Education Extra have also produced a "family learning and literacy" training video under the same title as the conference.

The Scottish School Board Association are holding an International Conference in Glasgow on 16-20 May 2000 titled "Encouraging Partnerships in Education Around the World: Parents as Partners with Professionals and Politicians". Proposals to present papers and requests for further information to: Jennifer Gallacher, tel +44 (0)1387 260428, fax 260488, email ssba.furbie@virgin.net.



ERNAPE CONFERENCE

CALL for PAPERS for Roundtable Conference on 18-19 November 1999 at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

ERNAPE (European Research Network About Parents in Education) is an association of research networks about parents in education. In 1993 (Glasgow) ERNAPE was established as a European network with the aim to share research results, stimulate research at all educational levels and to stimulate intercultural European research. The European network is organised along the lines of language areas.

In November 1996 (Copenhagen) the first European Conference Education is Partnership was attended by 260 persons from 24 countries, including countries outside of Europe such as USA, Canada, Australia and South Africa. During the conference 70 papers were presented and discussed. The results of the conference have been published in a Nordic Newsletter and an article is being put on the Internet summarising the state of research.

An ERNAPE roundtable conference is organised on 18-19 November 1999 at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The conference is a continuation of the 1996 conference Education is Partnership. The roundtable conference builds on the outcomes of the first conference but deals with new issues as well. It will be an excellent opportunity to share your research results with interested colleague researchers. One result of the conference will be a scientific publication with the focus on the following topics:

impact of learning outside schools;

Send your papers of maximum 10 pages by September 15 to Hans Moerel or Frederik Smit, Institute for Applied Social Sciences, P.O. Box 9048, 6500 KJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands, or by email to h.moerel@its.kun.nl or to f.smit@its.kun.nl

Further aims of the roundtable conference are:

Registration of your participation to the conference should be sent before 15 September 1999 to : Prof. Dr. Kees van der Wolf University of Amsterdam Faculty of Educational Sciences Department of Pedagogical Sciences Wibautstraat 4, 1091 GM Amsterdam Phone ++31205251545 Fax ++31205251500 Email kees@educ.uva.nl

The event is jointly organised by the University of Amsterdam, the Institute for Applied Social Sciences and the Catholic University of Nijmegen. Before October 1, information about the exact venue and accommodation will be sent to you.



PUBLICATIONS

New Ace Publications

ACE has recently revised its Governors' Handbook to take account of the new School Standards and Framework Act. Now available, price £17.50 + £2 p&p. An Index to the ACT is also available, price £4.00 + £1 p&p. Two new titles on Special Educational Needs were also published recently: one for governors - SEN: Support For Governors (describes the issues governors should consider when drawing up or revising a policy for their school on special education) (price £8 + £1 p&p). The other title, "Tribunal Toolkit", looks at the different appeals parents can make and describes the evidence needed to build a convincing case. Price £12.50 + £2 p&p.

Remember that ACE offers parents free telephone advice from 2.00 to 5.00 each weekday. Just call 0171 354 8321. The ACE exclusion line which operates three afternoons a week (usually Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays) is on 0171 704 9822. The lines are usually very busy. Advisory Centre For Education (ACE) Ltd, Unit 1B Aberdeen Studios, 22 Highbury Grove, London N5 2DQ, Business Line (0171) 354 8318, Advice Line (0171) 354 8321, fax (0171) 354 9069, email ace-ed@easynet.co.uk.

Home-School Agreements

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) has long had an interest in home-school links, and has recently published a practical booklet on Home-School Agreements. This includes a summary of the key points of the DfEE guidance and a guide to school action planning. It is titled "Introducing Your Home-School Agreement" (by John Bastiani and Barrie Wyse). Such agreements become a mandatory requirement in England and Wales on September 1, 1999. For details see the RSA website at http://www.rsa.org.uk/. The booklet costs £7.50 incl. p. & p. The RSA also publish "Taking a Few Risks: Parents, Teachers And Pupils Working Together" by Dr John Bastiani. Contact: RSA, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ, tel 0171 930 5115, fax 0171 839 5805.

IRA Publications For Parents

No, the International Reading Association, silly. The IRA has just published an updated series of booklets for parents which give tips and resources for promoting the reading habit, including: "Beginning Literacy and Your Child", "I Can Read and Write!", "Books Are Cool!" and "Parents, Teens and Reading", for ascending ages of children. Details: http://www.reading.org/ or http://bookstore.reading.org/.

Home-School Connections And Disconnections: Literacy Development In Australia

A three-volume set of reports under the title "100 Children Go To School" (ISBN 0 86803 277 8) offers a study of literacy learning in the early years of education, focusing on the year prior to school and the first year of school. It gives literacy outcomes for a cohort of 100 children, together with a literature review and detailed case studies. The project was led by Professor Susan Hill, Dr. Barbara Comber, Professor William Louden, Judith Rivalland and Dr Jo-Anne Reid, at the University of South Australia, Edith Cowan University and the University of Ballarat. It was funded by the Department of Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs of the Australian Government. For those interested in Family Literacy, these volumes are a rich resource. Copies of the reports are available from: Stephanie Gunn, DEETYA Clearinghouse, Centre for Literacy Education Research, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia (Fax 07 3875 5686, email s.gunn@edn.gu.edu.au).

Parents' Evenings

Barbara Walker and Maggie MacLure of the Centre for Applied Research in Education at the University of East Anglia have recently produced a valuable report on Secondary School Parents' Evenings, based on research funded by ESRC. Discourse between parents and teachers at parents' evenings was analysed, and a fascinating exploration of power balance and the paradoxical combination of formulaic routine and high threat is offered. The report costs £5. Details: see the website at www.uea.ac.uk/care/pubs/ or write to CARE, School of Education, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, tel 01603 456161, fax 451412.

Gendered Literacies

Save The Children have published a report based on a wide-ranging consultation with boys aged 4 to 14 and their fathers about reading. The report concludes that fathers can be too judgmental, tending to appraise their child's reading rather than supporting or encouraging it, and were more likely to engage with their sons through other activities than reading. From an early age, boys were very aware of their father's influence on them as role models. Their own reading preferences reflected the car and football magazines or non-fiction books they saw their fathers reading. Available from Publications Unit, Save the Children, 17 Grove Lane, Camberwell, London SE5 8RD.

Parenting Skills

Lucky Duck Publishing has a video training programme titled "Even Better Parents", aimed at parents of primary age children. Programmes for secondary age children and teenage mothers are in production. Details: http://www.luckyduck.co.uk/.

Peter Jones, an educational psychologist in Plymouth, runs a project called "Parentwise" which has modules on parenting skills from prenatal to KS1 (i.e. up to 7 years) - tel 01752 224962.

Research At Exeter University

Pamela Greenhough and Martin Hughes (who has now moved to Bristol University) have produced a series of research papers on parental involvement. An excellent paper on "Parents' and Teachers' Interventions in Children's Reading" was published in the British Education Research Journal, (1998), 24(4), 383-398. Parents were more likely to support decoding, teachers more likely to support comprehension by conversing. However, parents also varied greatly in the amount of conversing, which was related to the parental view of the degree of functionality of reading. Martin and Pamela have also been working on home-school mathematics, and have a chapter on this topic in "Situated Cognition and the Learning of Mathematics", edited by Anne Watson and published by CMER-OUDES, Oxford. A paper on "Homework and its Contribution to Learning" was also presented to the BERA conference in Belfast in August 1998. Contact: School of Education, Heavitree Road, Exeter EX1 2LU.

Polish Connection

Maria Mendel, one of PERN's members in Poland (remember that PERN is open to anyone who can understand the English language) has recently produced a book entitled "Parents and the School: How To Participate in the Education of Children". Maria is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education at the University of Gdansk. The issue is particularly interesting in the context of political changes in Eastern Europe, following a period of political control, much of which was exerted through the school system. Poland now has a pluralistic system, containing private, state and denominational schools, and these differences generate interesting variation in parental involvement. Poverty remains a major issue for parents, however.

Wolfendale Industries

PERN executive member Sheila Wolfendale has two books to be published by David Fulton in coming months. "Parenting Education and Support", edited by Sheila and Betty Einzig, should be available August 1999 (ISBN 1 85346 579 8). "The Contribution of Parents to School Effectiveness" is edited by Sheila and John Bastiani and should be available in early 2000 (ISBN 1 85346 633 6).

Sheila also presented a paper at the Third Warwick International Early Years Conference in April 1999 on Parent's Use of Baby Record Books. The research involved a content analysis of over 100 such parental records of child development, explored cross-cultural implications, and investigated the extent to which such books give parents an overview which informs their onward child-rearing practices. Sheila is also conducting an investigation of varieties of formats in which baseline assessment providers structure and support reporting to parents. QCA criteria specify "as a minimum, explaining the outcomes to parents should include the opportunity for a discussion between parents and their child's teacher within a term of the child being admitted to the school".

Other Publications

"Looking at Learning Together" is a pack designed to help carers explore what parenting involves and how young children learn in the early years. It embodies six two-hour sessions to be delivered by pre-school staff and is available from the Pre-School Learning Alliance, tel 0181 684 9542.

Surrey County Council have produced Guidelines for Group Leaders on running Behaviour Management Workshops for Parents of Young Children. Available from Room 194, Surrey County Council (to whom cheques for £10 inclusive of p. & p. should be payable), County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2DJ.

Recent publications in the Hodder Home Learning Series include "Complete Maths", "Maths for the Brighter Child" (sic), and "Mental Arithmetic Age 7-9". Cambridge have produced "Home Maths" by Anita Straker of the National Numeracy Project. Scholastic offer their "Let's Learn At Home: Maths" series, and Ladybird various items to do with learning "Times Tables". Mention does not imply recommendation.

Jo Weinberger's (1996) book "Literacy Goes to School: The Parent's Role in Young Children's Literacy Learning" deserves a late mention (published by Paul Chapman). Heinemann are offering a booklet titled "Parents as Partners", written for parents to complement the First Steps literacy and language programme in Australia. Both are also available from the United Kingdom Reading Association, Unit 6 First Floor, The Maltings, Green Drift, Royston, Herts SG8 5DB, tel 01763 241188, fax 243785.

Peter Branston and Mark Provis of the CAPER parental involvement in reading project have produced a further book: "Children and Parents Enjoying Reading: Parents and the Literacy Hour - A Teacher's Guide" (published by David Fulton, 1999). Other useful Fulton publications are "Linking Home and School: Partnership in Practice in Primary Education" (a practical manual by Hugh and Jenny Waller) and "Home-School Work in Multicultural Settings" (a collection edited by John Bastiani).



YOUR NEWS WANTED

Why not say a little about your own research in your PERN newsletter? Small scale action research is fine. Just a few sentences (100-200 words) on your work with parents in education. Or about a conference relevant to parents in education - send us details to help your promotion of the event. Or you might want to send reference details for some of your publications in this area. If you have a book or report out, send a copy for brief review (not critical!) in the Newsletter. Or send us a review of a publication you have found useful - remember to include exact title, authorship, publishers, ISBN and price. Or you might just want to sound off about something - send a letter to the newsletter. Or you might need a research collaborator - what better way to find one than through PERN? Send your news item or request to the Chair (Keith Topping).



OPINION: RESEARCH NEEDED ABOUT HOME-LEARNING

Should educational research track government policy or lead it ? The answer, of course, is both. But recent trends seem increasingly to have been for researchers to react to policy with the result that, because policy concentrates on schools, so does research. Yet we know that home-learning is crucially important in determining children's educational attainment. It needs more research and more policy attention.

Studies since the 1950s have shown the link between home background (however measured) and educational attainment (however defined). Action research, mostly in disadvantaged areas, reinforced the view that educational opportunity is as much home-based as school-based. What we urgently need now is research which looks in more detail at how children learn in and through their families since that may well be the factor which affects differences in attainment as much as 'failing schools', 'institutionalised racism', 'school standards' and other school features, real or supposed. After all, more than 80% of a child's waking (thus learning) life from birth to age 16 is spent OUT of school and is the responsibility of parents. Schooling is a supplement.

In-family data-collection is difficult and time-consuming while self-reporting has drawbacks, so we must face methodological challenges; but we do need a counterblast to current school-centred policies which are fuelled by the constant flow of school-based research. The schooling lobby is powerful and many educational researchers have backgrounds as teachers which predispose them to focus on schooling. Further, they often rely on research funding from government and other grant-giving bodies which are not geared to learning which happens outside school. The media then reflect and aggravate this school-centred view of children's learning.

If government and research bodies agreed to stop funding any new research about schooling for the first five years of the new millennium and to divert those funds into home-learning research, that might initiate better-informed educational policies. The benefits to children's learning could be immense.

Alastair Macbeth



WORLD WIDE WEB NEWS

Homeschool Zone is an "online virtual community of homeschoolers, afterschoolers, parents and educators, with weekly free newsletter, discussions, and useful links (www.schoolzone.com)

Edmark have software suitable for parent and peer support and discussion in Maths, Science and Thinking skills: thinking skills www.edmark.com/prod/tt/; science www.edmark.com/prod/science/series.html; maths www.edmark.com/prod/strategy/ and /brainbytes/3dlab/.

The Education Departments' "Superhighways Initiative" (EDSI) has its homepage at http://vtc.ngfl.gov.uk/reference/edsi/ This includes interesting case studies of schools which have used information and communications technology to make home school links, e.g. the Acorn Project at /projects/groupd/d2-1-0.html

The Parenting and Family Support Centre (at the University of Queensland in Australia) has a good deal of interesting information about the "Triple P Positive Parenting Program" on their site at www.psy.uq.edu.au/research/triple-p/pfsc.html.

Argosphere offers a range of educational activities for children from the age of 3 upwards. It is for parents and teachers, but you have to register - some facilities are free, others not (www.argosphere.net/)

Education Otherwise now has a website - with useful links to other home-schooling organisations (www.netlink.co.uk/users/e_o/mindex.htm

Education Online has Home Education pages offering a wide range of material for parents teaching their children at home, including on CD-ROM. Go to www.educate.co.uk/ then select Home Education.

The National Confederation of Parent-Teacher Associations (NCPTA) now has a site at www.ncpta.demon.co.uk/services.htm

The National Grid for Learning has a Parents Site, giving a governmental overview for parents of state schooling (www.dfee.gov.uk/par_cent/)

Kids on the Net is an Online Writing Community web site, encouraging and displaying distributed interactive writing by children from all over the world: http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/kotn/gokids.htm.

Make It Easy On Yourself

Those of you reading this on sheets of dead organic matter should consider that if you were reading the electronic version you would just have to click on the addresses of the websites mentioned above to be instantly transported there.



PERN WEBSITE

And of course remember the PERN website at: http://www.ioe.ac.uk/pern/

The previous (old) PERN Newsletter will be made available on the site at the time paid-up PERN members are receiving the new one.



PERN MEMBERS - SPEAK

Members - please let us know how you would like the newsletter to develop, how you would like PERN as an organisation to develop, what you need, what you want ...... Let us know! Contact any committee member or the Chair, Keith Topping. And do keep recruiting new members - spare membership application forms are readily available on request - bring them to the attention of your colleagues.



PERN DRAFT REVISED CONSTITUTION

A draft revision of the PERN Constitution is presented below, amended to take account of the restructuring developments.

Please consider it carefully. At our annual review (general meeting) in the autumn, you will be asked to vote to ratify it.

If you wish to propose any changes to the draft, please contact the Chair (Keith Topping) now - please do not wait until autumn.

1. Name

The name of the Association shall be The Parents in Education Research Network (PERN).

2. Definition and Scope

PERN shall be a network of individuals and organisations concerned with research (and its applications) about the roles, functions and participation of parents and families in their children's education in the home, in the school, in the community and at national level.

3. Aims

(a) to provide an exchange of information concerning issues mentioned in 2 above;

(b) to provide a forum for discussion and debate concerning issues mentioned in 2 above;

(c) to publish and to disseminate selected research findings and related material;

(d) to encourage new research work in the field;

(e) to further links between research, policy and practice;

(f) to be the English language branch of the European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE) and to interact with other organisations of a similar nature, especially in other countries.

4. Membership

Membership shall be open to individuals and organisations supporting the aims laid down in 3 above, i.e. (i) researchers and (ii) those concerned with research. Membership of the Association shall provide automatic membership of The European Researcher Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE).

5. Committee

The following standing committee shall be established:

i. An Executive Committee shall be established and its members shall elect the office bearers, up to three other members, and the chairpersons of any sub-committees. The PERN representative to ERNAPE (see 8 below) shall be a member of the Executive Committee.

ii. The office-bearers shall be Chair (who will normally chair meetings of the Association and its Executive Committee), Vice-Chair, Secretary and Treasurer. Tenure of Chair and Vice-Chair shall be for two years, non-renewable. Tenure of Secretary and Treasurer shall be for three years, renewable.

The Executive Committee and other committees shall meet as frequently as may be found necessary and at least once a year. At a meeting, half the members of the Committee (or, in the case of a Committee consisting of uneven numbers, that whole number above half the members) shall constitute a quorum.

6. General Meetings

An Annual Review shall make available to all current members of PERN the reports of the Executive Committee and independent auditor (see 7h below). All members shall be requested to vote to accept the reports, or propose amendments. The Annual Review shall be the forum for election of office-bearers and Executive Committee members and alteration to this constitution (see 9 below).

A Special General Meeting may be called either (a) at the request of two-thirds of the Executive Committee or (b) at the written request of no fewer than one-third of PERN members.

At a meeting each individual full member and up to two persons representing an institutional member shall have the right to vote. In case of dispute about voting, the Chair or other person chairing the meeting shall resolve it.

At a meeting, a quorum shall be either 20 members or one half of the total membership, whichever is the lower.

7. Funds

(a) The annual subscription(s) shall be determined each year at the Annual Review and shall take into consideration financial arrangements for membership of ERNAPE.

(b) Membership fees shall be paid for each year.

(c) The funds of the Association shall be lodged in a bank in the name of the Association.

(d) Money may be drawn from the account on the signatures of any two of the following: Chair, Vice-Chair, Secretary, Treasurer.

(e) It shall be competent for the Treasurer to retain cash in hand a sum not exceeding £100 for current expenditure.

(f) Funds may be spent only to pursue the aims of the Association.

(g) The Executive Committee shall follow whatever financial arrangements with regard to its relationship with ERNAPE (see 8 below) as are agreed between ERNAPE and PERN.

(h) No auditor shall be a member of the Executive Committee. Auditor(s) shall be appointed for the ensuing year at the Annual Review.

8. Relationship with the European Research Network About Parents in Education (ERNAPE)

(a) The proceedings of PERN will be conducted and published in English.

(b) The Association shall be the recognised English language sub-network of ERNAPE. In that capacity it shall conform to the organisational arrangements of ERNAPE and shall send a representative to the ERNAPE Council and any other ERNAPE bodies as relevant. This arrangement shall not preclude the Association from having as members persons from non-European countries, but those members of the Association shall not be eligible to represent the Association on the ERNAPE Council or in other ERNAPE activities.

9. Alteration of the Constitution

No alteration or addition to the constitution shall be made except at an Annual Review or at a Special General Meeting convened for that purpose; such proposed change being specified in the notice calling the meeting and notified to members at least three weeks before the meeting. Any change or addition to the constitution shall require approval by at least two-thirds of the members present.



NEXT NEWSLETTER

The next PERN Newsletter will be published in the late Autumn of 1999. Make sure you send your news items to the Editor in good time! See contact details on page 1.