It is often said that parents are the first and ongoing educators of their own children, and that pupils spend just 15 per cent of their waking hours in school.
The point, of course, is to make it clear that what happens at home matters.
But how well do schools work with parents to get the best out of their pupils?
There are pockets of good practice, says Patrick McGlinchey, executive director of Scottish parents’ organisation Connect. But there is still “huge cultural change” required when it comes to involving parents, caregivers and families in Scottish education, he adds.
Parental involvement legislation that came into force in 2006 aimed to improve “parents’ involvement in their own child’s education and in schools more generally” - as Peter Peacock, the education minister at the time, put it.
However, nigh on 20 years later, the goals of the legislation have not been realised, says McGlinchey, who believes it is time to revisit this law.
Too often, he says, parents are looked upon as fundraisers and not genuine partners in education.
“There is still strong misunderstanding in a lot of school communities about the role of the parent council. It can sometimes feel like, ‘Back in your box - you are here to raise funds for the leavers’ hoodies for Primary 7,’” he says.
“I think it’s interesting that 20 years on there’s still that misconception.”
Getting parents more involved in school
One area where parents are getting sidelined, says McGlinchey, is the introduction of shared headships. The data shows that having one headteacher leading multiple schools is increasingly common; in recent times councils have tried to introduce one headteacher to lead “clusters” of schools comprising both primaries and secondaries.
The law says parents should be involved in the recruitment of their school’s senior leaders, but parent groups are “often completely subverted” when it comes to these “controversial” appointments, says McGlinchey.
“They are not consulted; they are not part of that process. So we would say the act is not being upheld in those cases. But who enforces the act?”
McGlinchey suggests that the ongoing education reforms could be used to push genuine parental engagement and involvement further up the agenda.
He would like to see the new independent inspectorate that emerges, for instance, placing more emphasis on parental empowerment.
Currently, inspection looks at how well schools involve parents, but McGlinchey believes there needs to be more clarity about what good practice looks like to make sure that this assessment goes beyond the tokenistic.
“If it matters to the inspectorate, it matters to headteachers,“ he says.
However, McGlinchey also acknowledges the pressure school leaders are under and adds that hey need to be given the “space to care about parental engagement when they have got so many other demands”.
If schools and councils were to properly embrace the parent body, McGlinchey argues, the wins could be significant. It could even be the key to making progress on the government’s aim to close the poverty-related attainment gap, he says.
“When you look at the attainment gap, we have tried everything except for parental engagement. Sometimes I wonder if it’s the missing piece of the jigsaw. It’s the one area that hasn’t really been tried. Parents are children and young people’s first and primary educator.”
And he argues that, with a relatively small amount of investment, it would be possible to “to transform the parental-engagement landscape”.
Of course, schools have used their Scottish Attainment Challenge funding and the Pupil Equity Fund on actions such as employing family link officers - especially in response to worsening attendance.
But McGlinchey argues it is better to have those relationships with parents established rather than trying to build them at a time of crisis.
“We need a culture of engagement from headteachers down. and for parents to be true partners round the table,” he says.
On Tuesday evening Connect - formerly known as the Scottish Parent Teacher Council - marked its 75th anniversary with a reception in the Scottish Parliament.
McGlinchey is relatively new to the organisation, having become Connect executive director in August 2022. Previously he was parliamentary manager for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He also spent a decade as a Labour councillor and five years as deputy leader of West Dunbartonshire Council.
Since taking the helm at Connect, McGlinchey feels like he has been “on a hamster wheel” of responding to government consultations - from the “national discussion” on Scottish education, to the Hayward review of assessment and qualifications. On 7 November, another consultation on education reform was launched by education secretary Jenny Gilruth.
But looking back on Connect’s history - and also seeing the power of parental pressure to spark change in the here and now - McGlinchey says his goal going forward is to stop being reactive and start being proactive.
Mums Grace Campbell and Jane Cosans succeeded in having the corporal punishment banned in Scottish schools as a result of their campaigning in the 1980s, he points out.
This year the Give Them Time campaign - spearheaded by parents frustrated at their own experience of the inflexibility of the school starting age - succeeded in its goal to get the law changed. Now, in Scotland, all children who would be aged 4 when they start school are entitled to an extra year of funded nursery.
In short, motivated parents have a proven track record of delivering progressive change in education - and McGlinchey plans to harness that power in the future.
“It’s time for parents and families to set the agenda, rather than waiting for permission,” he says.
