Many parents will tell you that secondary school feels more daunting than primary. It’s usually bigger, of course, there’s no longer a sole teacher as your main point of contact, and your children’s homework is starting to get harder to wrap your head around.
But, at a time when schools are more aware of the importance of parental engagement than ever, is such anecdotal evidence actually representative of reality?
The answer, according to official data in Scotland based on 38,657 responses, would appear to be a categorical “yes”.
Parents feel more connected to and informed about primary and special schools than secondary schools, new national statistics show.
The report of the Scottish government’s 2021-22 Parental Involvement and Engagement Census underlines that “results...are more positive for primary schools and special schools/units than for secondary schools”.
While 59.7 per cent of parents and carers agreed that, overall, they are satisfied with how the school engages with them, the figure is considerably higher for primary schools (65.9 per cent) and special schools/units (69.4 per cent) than for secondary schools (47.2 per cent).
The report comes with a caveat that “these are experimental statistics under development”, based on a census that took place in local authority schools in Scotland between January and June 2022.
Nevertheless, the disparity in how parents and carers feel about secondary school and other sectors comes through time and again.
Here is a smattering of the findings, which were published in December:
-
Parents and carers who agreed or strongly agreed that the school keeps them well informed about their child’s progress in a way they can understand: 78.4 per cent in special schools/units, 71.1 per cent in primary schools, and 59.7 per cent in secondary schools.
-
Just 36.2 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that secondary schools provide them with useful information about how they can help their child learn at home, with 78.4 per cent for special schools/units and 60.5 per cent for primary schools.
-
Some 51.3 per cent of parents and carers in special schools/units agreed that the school seeks their views and opinions on school policies (42 per cent in primary schools, 30 per cent in secondaries).
-
While 40.9 per cent said they had taken part in family learning activities in special schools/units, it was only 25.5 per cent in primary schools and 8.7 per cent in secondaries.
-
Some 43.5 per cent of parents and carers in secondary schools said they were not made aware of opportunities to take part in the life of the school (27.8 per cent in primaries and 24.5 per cent in special schools).
Generally, across all sectors, parents and carers in the most deprived areas were more likely to respond favourably - although those same parents and carers were also more likely to agree that a lack of confidence was preventing them from being more active in the life of the school.
Meanwhile, African, Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British parents and carers were more likely to say that the school keeps them well informed about their child’s progress in a way they can understand; provides them with useful information about how they can help their child learn at home; seeks their views and opinions on school policies; and gives them the information they need to support their child’s learning. However, they are less likely to say that the school has a parent council.
And African, Asian, Asian Scottish or Asian British, and Caribbean or Black and other ethnic groups were more likely to say that a lack of confidence prevented them from being more active in their school.
Jim Thewliss, general secretary of School Leaders Scotland, which represents the secondary sector, says: “The survey holds little that is of surprise and nothing that we haven’t been aware of for a long time.
“It’s not down to any lack of effort on behalf of the secondary schools, but more, I feel, about the scale of the school compared with primaries and the larger geographical spread of secondary catchment areas.”
Thewliss talks of a “different dynamic” between pupils starting primary school and those who have just moved on to secondary. At primaries, parents and carers are “regularly at the school gate and engaging with their parental peers and school staff”, while the single-teacher approach in primary means the school is able to liaise relatively easily with a “parental class group” all the way through to P7.
“The relationship with the primary school is therefore by its very nature more intimate,” says Thewliss.
In contrast, the early days of secondary schools can be defined by “the development of independence”.
“The seven-year class bond is broken and the young people mix with many others from a much larger and often more diverse catchment area,” says Thewliss. “For the most part, secondary pupils make their own way to and from school, so the physical link that parents establish with their child’s school through being at the school - often twice a day - is broken.”
Seamus Searson, general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, is also not hugely surprised by disparities in the findings between secondary schools and other sectors, as secondaries are “struggling” with the demands of teaching and learning - particularly the national qualifications and exam results that he says are the “main focus of most secondary schools”.
“Engagement with parents is way down the list of priorities of most headteachers,” says Mr Searson. Even when schools do make contact with parents, this is “often tied up in education jargon”, which “alienates parents further”.
And Mr Searson does not see things changing soon: “Unfortunately, until more teachers and time are made available to focus on parent engagement, it will not improve.”
*Earlier in December, Education Scotland updated Engaging parents and families: A toolkit for practitioners, a resource designed to help schools work with parents and families “in all aspects of their children’s learning”. It can be found here
