Parents We Need Your Help
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development - the organisers of the PISA tests used to compare education across countries – performed in-depth research on the factors underlying student performance within each country. What they found was the power of parental involvement in a child’s achievement.
“Even when comparing students of similar socioeconomic backgrounds, those students whose parents regularly read books to them when they were in the first year of primary school score 14 points higher, on average, than students whose parents did not.”
As Franklin Schargel, a noted educator and expert in the area of school engagement stated, it is the little things that parents do that makes a difference to student achievement. For example:
Parents reading to and with their children
Parents asking their child how their school day was and showing genuine interest in the learning that they are doing can have the same impact as hours of private tutoring
Parents telling stories to their children (not from books but from the life of the parent)
Parents sharing about their day
Monitoring homework
Making sure children get to school
Rewarding their efforts and talking up the idea of going to university
As Franklin reported the OECD study found that “getting parents involved with their children’s learning at home is a more powerful driver of achievement than parents attending school board meetings, volunteering in classrooms, participating in fund-raising, and showing up at back-to-school nights. “
The mindset that a child has to learning is so often driven by the parents. If a parent had a poor experience of school as they grew up then it is likely they will pass on that mindset to their children. If the parents’ value education as a tool for learning and development then it is likely the norm that the child will come to develop will value education.
We need every parent at Talara to help their child develop a lifelong love of learning, and it is what you do now as parents that have such a significant impact. I encourage all parents to read the article below published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development entitled 'What parents can do to help their child succeed at school'.
I am sure it will reinforce to every parent the importance of reading with your child every night, as well as engaging in rich conversation and storytelling.
Reading is always a top priority at Talara. Please don’t forget to visit our very own
Captain Radical Reader video clips as tools to help your child be an even better reader and to help you use the same language our teachers use when engaging in reading.