Developing the home-school relationship using digital ... - Futurelab

INTRODUCTION1.4 ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK11.4 ABOUT THISHANDBOOKThe relationship between home and school isimportant throughout the time children attendschool. It changes as children grow older andtake a different role in this relationship, and canchange quite significantly when children movefrom primary to secondary school. Secondaryschools are very different institutions toprimary schools and have a different set ofneeds and challenges in supporting homeschoolrelationships. Secondary and primaryschools can and do learn much from oneanother’s strategies, but because of thedifferences between the institutional structuresand the different needs of the children,parents and teachers, it is not easy to providea single set of guidance for both primary andsecondary age children and their institutions.Traditionally, the home-school relationshiphas featured as a more prominent focus withinprimary schools, however secondary schoolsare now increasingly seeking to address thehome-school relationship in order to supportchildren’s learning in its widest sense. Thishandbook, and the research on which it isbased, therefore focuses on the home-schoolrelationship within a secondary school context,although there may be lessons that are alsorelevant for primary schools.This handbook is not a ‘how to’ manual thatgives a single procedure to follow or a one-stopsolution to developing a positive home-schoolrelationship. Every school will have differentpriorities and serves different populations ofchildren and parents who may have differentneeds and aspirations from those served byother schools. The different family, school andcommunity contexts will all have a significantbearing on the needs and aspirations ofteachers, children, parents and families for thehome-school relationship, which means thatthere is no one strategy or technology that willanswer the different needs of all participants.However, there are some common issues andquestions that every school will need to considerfor themselves as they go through the journeyof developing and refining their strategies forsupporting positive home-school relationships.This handbook therefore aims to provide aframework for thinking about the home-schoolrelationship that you can adapt and use in waysthat are appropriate for the particular contextsin which you are working. We hope that thishandbook will provide some ways to thinkabout some of the key issues you are likely toencounter as you develop strategies to supporthome-school relationships, and provide ideas,inspiration and advice on the particular issuesaround using technologies in these strategies.This introduction briefly describes the fieldthat this handbook covers, provides workingdefinitions of key terms, and describes theresearch on which it is based.The background and rationale explores thefield of home-school relationships in moredepth, drawing on previous research literature,and maps out the current policy context.It discusses the potential for technologiesto support home-school relationships andexplores some of the issues raised by usingtechnologies in home-school relationships.This section also considers the argument forinvolving children as active agents within thehome-school relationship.The strategic considerations describe anumber of issues that most schools willneed to address in some way as they developtheir strategies for supporting home-schoolrelationships with technologies. They arenot intended to be prescriptive but to raiseimportant issues that should be considered byeveryone in the context of their own priorities,aims, family, school and community contexts.These considerations have been generatedfrom original research with teachers, childrenand parents at two secondary schools, casestudy reviews of many other schools’ strategiesand practices, interviews with experts in thefield and an analysis of the available researchand practice-based literature.8