Developing the Home-school Relationship Using Digital Technologies

Lyndsay Grant

01 January 2010

This handbook introduces key issues around home-school relationships to provide schools with a framework in which to consider how to support these relationships, and how to navigate the challenges afforded by the use of digital technologies in this field.

In recent years there has been a growing understanding of the importance of factors outside the immediate school environment in explaining children’s success in school.

At the same time, there has been increasing attention paid to the ways in which children’s home and family cultures are valuable learning environments in their own right. How children’s schools relate to and work together with their home environments is therefore a critical subject for school staff to consider in order to support children’s learning in the widest sense.

Parental engagement in children’s learning has seen particular attention from policy-makers and practitioners, as part of a wider drive to improve children’s achievement and narrow the gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers. Schools are also being encouraged and expected to make information and access to learning resources available online for children and their parents.