Preparing parents to support their children's education

In my last article, we looked at the research suggesting that White working class pupils are faring worse at school not, as it was suggested, because their parents lack aspirations or fail to set goals, but because they often do not have the support or tools they need to do so (Fostering aspirations for all students, SecEd, April 14, 2015: http://bit.ly/23JjJHr).

In fact, one study found that many of the most disadvantaged parents were “actually even more positively disposed towards involvement than their middle class and professional peers”.

A landmark paper published in 2015 (The Long-term Role of the Home Learning Environment in Shaping Students’ Academic Attainment in Secondary School), which followed children from early years up to GCSE level confirmed that: “Young people who reported that they spent time reading on their own, going with their families on educational visits or to the library at age 14, obtained significantly higher total GCSE scores (more than 60 points) and better grades in GCSE English and maths (more than half a grade) than their peers who engaged less in these activities.”