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

STRATEGIC CONSIDERATIONS3.6 POSITIVE FEEDBACK33.6 POSITIVE FEEDBACKCatch them being goodTeachers, parents and children felt thatopportunities for positive feedback wereoften overlooked, and hoped that digitalcommunication strategies would facilitatemore of this.Much communication from school tohome tends to focus on negative aspects:communication is prompted when there isa concern around children’s behaviour orprogress. The data that is collected and sharedaround progress, achievement, behaviour hasa tendency to highlight problems. A pressureon time also means that communication aboutproblems tends to be prioritised as more urgentthan positive feedback. However, using digitaltechnologies might offer easier opportunitiesto send home positive messages aboutchildren’s school life.Sending positive feedback to both childrenand their parents can be more effective insupporting children’s development than aconstant stream of negative information. Whenparents only ever hear negative informationabout their child, and a child only ever hearsnegative feedback about themselves, it cancome to seem impossible that they can doanything to change the situation, and lead tofeelings of powerlessness and disengagementfrom education. Positive feedback howevercan show children and their parents that it ispossible for them to be successful at school,and give them something to build on in orderto develop further. Reinforcing praise at schoolwith praise from parents at home can builda virtuous circle that builds children’s selfesteem,showing their efforts are recognisedand valued by both teachers and parents, andhelps them envisage positive future scenarios 80 .Digital technologies could support theexchange of positive feedback in a number ofways. Showing examples of children’s goodwork, whether that be written documents,photos and artworks, music and videorecordings, allows others to see exactlywhat the praise is for, and allows teachersto model how to give praise for children’sefforts and positive learning behaviour aswell as achievement.“[Positive feedback] is just really nice,cos [my son seems] very confident buthe’s got really low self esteem. So whenhe gets things like that you know it’sreally like ‘that’s brill, well done’. And youknow it might just build him up a little bit,it just gives him a bit of, you know, puffdoesn’t it?” (Parent)Parents are often pleasantly surprised by thequality of the work children complete in school.Giving positive feedback is often overlookedas it is time consuming and not always a highpriority. Digital technologies could providereminders to look for opportunities to providepositive feedback and can make the process ofsending feedback quicker and easier. Parentscan receive feedback during the day by text oremail, so that they know by the time childrencome home from school. Positive feedbackcould also be automatically recorded on achild’s profile, so they can look back at theirachievements over time.Positive feedback from outside the classroomPositive feedback should take account of thesmall efforts that may not usually be remarkedupon and non-academic achievements, as wellas their achievements within class. Children’smembership of the school council, theirparticipation and achievements in school clubs,their contributions to the life of the school canall be matters for positive feedback to bothchild and parents.Positive feedback can also travel from thehome to the school. While children are oftenembarrassed by public praise, and may notwant to share some aspects of out-of-schoollife, having their out-of-school achievementsacknowledged within school allows forchildren to see that school cares about theirlearning, development and success in abroader context, not just in terms of their examresults, and can allow teachers and childrento make connections between their skills andachievements outside school and those neededto succeed within school.4880. Chesterton College in Cambridge communicates with parents via text message, applying a policy that for every negative messagesent, they will send at least three positive messages.