More than three quarters of teachers already provide the support that the government White Paper has made central to its ‘Parent Pledge’, according to a new poll.
The data comes from Teacher Tapp, which has asked a series of questions relating to the Parent Pledge, which promises parents that their child’s school “will provide evidence-based support if your child falls behind in English or maths and tell you about their progress”.
Teacher Tapp survey responses from more than 6,400 teachers show that the majority work in schools where targeted intervention for pupils with low attainment in the two subjects already happens.
Overall, 78 per cent of teachers said this was the case - including 88 per cent of those working in primaries and 67 per cent in secondary schools.
The figures was lower among private school teachers, where 64 per cent of respondents said this happened at their school.
And responses show that more than two-thirds of teachers said they work in schools that already informs parents if their child has lower attainment in English and maths.
However the responses show a major contrast in between primary and secondary school teachers.
Literacy intervention
Among primary teachers, 87 per cent said they worked in schools that informed parents if their child had lower attainment in the two subjects
In the responses from secondary school teachers, this figure dropped to 49 per cent.
Teacher Tapp also asked teachers if they thought the Parent Pledge would be effective in raising standards and whether they supported it.
The responses to these questions provide a mixed picture.
Less than fifth of teachers responding think it will make a difference to raising standards.
Just one per cent of respondents said they thought the policy of requiring schools to tell parents that their child was falling behind in literacy or numeracy, as well as to provide targeted support, would be “very effective” in raising standards, while 16 per cent said it would be “fairly effective”.
Almost half - 46 per cent - said it would be fairly ineffective, while 24 per cent said it would be very ineffective Another 12 per cent said they were unsure.
For this question, there was not a marked difference between primary and secondary school teachers’ responses.
However despite the majority of teachers indicating that they did not think the policy would be effective in raising standards, it still commanded some support from more than two-thirds of the respondents.
When asked if they supported the Parents’ Pledge 16 per cent said they strongly supported it while another 48 per cent said they tended to support it.
Another 15 per cent said they tended to oppose it, while 6 per cent said they strongly opposed it.
Schools White Paper
The Parent Pledge is included in the Opportunity for All White Paper which was announced yesterday.
The government says it will support the aim for 90 per cent of pupils to achieve the expected standard in key stage 2 reading, writing and maths by 2030.
In 2019, 65 per cent of pupils achieved this standard.
But a headteacher’s leader has warned that the plan could create tensions between parents and schools faced with unrealistic demands.
Commenting on the announcement yesterday, Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The Parent Pledge seems like a policy gimmick designed to grab headlines.
“In reality, any child who falls behind in English and maths will already receive timely and evidence-led support and this is already communicated to parents via existing channels such as parents’ evenings.”
