Gathered Together wins ALCUIN award

Al off to Glasgow

Thanks to the kind folk at the European Parents' Association (EPA) we have a new member at SPTC! Al the elephant was given to us as a gift at EPA's annual conference in Luxembourg which you can read more about on their blog.

We were extremely proud to accept the ALCUIN award at the conference for the Gathered Together project; the joint SPTC/BEMIS Scotland project that was launched in 2013. Gathered Together supports parents from Ethnic and Cultural Minorities to become more involved in their children’s education and school communities. The ALCUIN award honours the best educational innovation in Europe and we're pleased that Gathered Together's impact has been recognised. You can read more about the award on our website.

EPA gathers the parents associations in Europe which together represent more than 150 million parents. EPA works in partnership both to represent and give to parents a powerful voice in the development of education policies and decisions at European level.

SPTC and our Partnership Schools Project

Below is a blog from our Executive Director Eileen Prior on our work. This blog also appears in PTA UK - you can read this here

Over recent years in Scotland, we have made ambitious reforms to our curriculum, qualifications, teacher development and professional learning and, parental involvement. 
SPTC’s role as a membership organisation for parent groups, and the only charity in Scotland whose purpose is to support parental involvement in education, has given us a unique perspective on the changes. We work with parents directly – supporting groups in schools as well as providing individual help and advice on the breadth of issues parents deal with around schools and schooling.

We also work at a national level, with government and its agencies, the Scottish Parliament, professional associations and other bodies with an interest in children, families and education, sharing the perspectives of parents and promoting the importance of family involvement in learning.

Our message is that – almost without exception – parents want the best for their children. They want their children to achieve more and go further than they did, but the challenge for many families is to translate this ambition into reality. I see it as part of our role to help parents achieve that reality because the alternative is to squander children’s future and deny their contribution to society.

The work SPTC does is designed to move that agenda forward – and it’s a focus that our education system in Scotland largely supports, both through legislation and policy. This approach is based on the raft of research which demonstrates that children’s outcomes are better when parents or carers are involved in their learning. One of our challenges is a lack of common understanding around what ‘involved in learning’ actually means in and around schools.

In Scotland our local authorities (all 32 of them!) are responsible for running state schools. The Parental Involvement Act of 2006 gives all parents and carers with children at a school the right to create a Parent Council (PC) to represent them and to work with the school staff on their behalf. Most schools have a PC, and most PCs in Scotland’s circa 2500 schools are members of SPTC. 

I believe one of the most important things for parent groups to focus on is the role they play in helping all parents and carers to be involved in the learning and the school community, because it is this which makes a difference to outcomes for our kids, and particularly those who face disadvantage. That’s why we’ve recently started working on a new initiative called Partnership Schools Scotland (PSS).

With funding from Skills Development Scotland (the government agency charged with providing career and training advice) SPTC working to build practice around school, family and community partnership. PSS is based on the work of Dr Joyce Epstein and her team at the Johns Hopkins University, who have developed a model for family and community engagement which we are introducing to school communities in different parts of Scotland. Based on the principles of interdependency and shared endeavour, this work focuses firmly on improving outcomes for young people be tapping into the talents and commitment of all those who have the best interests of children at heart.

There’s a keen interest in the programme here in Scotland – once we have some results to share, we’ll make sure to spread the word!

Partnership Schools: St Francis Primary

Partnership Schools - Glasgow

Case Study 2

This case study is part of our Partnership Schools Project which is a way to form school, family and community partnerships to make things better for young people in school. We're working with staff, parents, pupils and community to form an Action Team for Partnerships, which will develop a one-year action plan. To find out more about Partnership Schools please visit our website.

ST FRANCIS PRIMARY – FEBRUARY 2016

The Action Team at St Francis Primary in the Gorbals have made great progress with Goal 3 Wellbeing with the aim of improving the understanding of food choices on health and wellbeing and improving child/parent relationships.  Their School Gates Team organised Big Cook, Little Cook sessions for families and children which were so successful the team now plan to organise more family cooking classes as an after-school activity.  We loved hearing how children proudly took their fruit flans into classrooms; the other youngsters were soon encouraging their parents to sign up!

The Action Team also plan to run food hygiene courses for families; this not only improves cooking skills for the home but will also give participants a useful qualification.  

If you would like to find out more about Partnership Schools then please contact Eleanor Coner at Eleanor@sptc.info or 0131 474 6199.

Partnership Schools: Friockheim Primary

Partnership Schools - Angus

Case study number 1

This case study is part of our Partnership Schools Project which is a way to form school, family and community partnerships to make things better for young people in school. We're working with staff, parents, pupils and community to form an Action Team for Partnerships, which will develop a one-year action plan. To find out more about Partnership Schools please visit our website.

FRIOCKHEIM PRIMARY – FEBRUARY 2016

Friockheim is a village about 7 miles inland from Arbroath in Angus with a lovely primary school set in grounds packed full of opportunities for outdoor learning and fun.  The Action Team for Partnerships (ATP) at the school felt the outdoor space was not being used to its full potential and so three of their goals aim to improve this.  

The desired result for one of their Learning Goals is to use the school grounds for outdoor learning at least twice per term and to make sure parents have an increased knowledge of using the outdoors to develop numeracy.  The ATP is working with school staff and parents to develop activities to make the grounds “numeracy rich”.  They have researched cheap and adaptable ideas on the Internet and have organised resources for outdoor displays and an outdoor trolley.  


They are currently organising a co-operative numeracy event to take place in May and will plan activities that parents and children can do together at home.  This will be followed up by sending parents outdoor numeracy ideas and information sheets.

Learning outside!

Why not follow Friockheim Primary on Twitter and find out what they're up to?

If you would like to find out more about Partnership Schools then please contact Eleanor Coner at Eleanor@sptc.info or 0131 474 6199.