Haywood Engineering College

1
Haywood Engineering College

• Jill Chadwick Parental Coordinator
• Ian Hopwood ICT Support

2
Context of school

• Stoke-on-Trent
• 1080 on roll
• 35 on SEN register
• 15 ethnic minority students
• 23 free school meals
• Last Ofsted May 2007 good with aspects of
  outstanding

3
Our Problem

• Parental involvement in school was minimal
• the school does not have a parent teacher
  association and a very small number of parents
  come into school to help in practical ways
• Although the school makes every effort to
  involve parents in its life, the contribution of
  parents to pupils learning at school and at
  home is unsatisfactory
• (Ofsted 2003)

4
Our Aims

• Employ a Parental Coordinator (me)
• Try to get all parents a communications channel
  via the internet
• From this we could build bridges

5
What does the Parental Coordinator do?

• Coordinate Mentoring team
• Manage Family Liaison team
• Parent Focus Group
• Consult with students/parents/community
• Involvement within community through the Extended
  Schools Agenda
• PTFA
• School Carnival

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Carnival 2008
7
Carnival 2008
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Internet Communications Channel

• Audit 230 / 1080 no computer
• Mainly ethnic minority or social/economic deprived

9
Successful Bid

• 250,000 AWM
• Citrix server
• Thin client computers
• Family Liaison Officers
• NOT BROADBAND! next step

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The Thin Client

• What is a thin client?
• The servers we use.
• Virtual classroom.

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Role of the FLO Technician

• Having your cake and eating it.
• Key to the door of opportunity
• Offering technical and software support.
• To support thin clients before and after
  installation.

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Current Situation - Parents

• Most families have thin clients or their own
  computer The Bridge is Built!
• Training on use of Citrix server (getting parents
  to use the bridge)
• Monitoring use of citrix server
• Engagement stats for October 07 are 447
• Number of log-in by 72 users

13
Getting Parents to use the ICT bridge

• Family Liaison Officer
• Exciting and a challenging role
• The first point of contact between the family and
  the school
• Introducing families to the concept of e learning
  / Virtual Classroom
• Overcoming barriers
• Providing basic user training and multi agency
  open sessions

14
Is it working ?

• Better relationships with hard to reach parents
  free computer!
• Family Liaison Officers and Technician invaluable
• Parents are more open to linking up to school
  resources
• Attendance is up at open evenings
• Student attainment has risen in key subjects e.g.
  ICT

15
ICT Attainment at KS3 - Progress
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Moving Forward

• Introducing and providing more opportunities for
  learning
• Making more software and applications available
  for students and parents
• Providing tablet PCs, Portable laptops and more
  thin clients
• Paying for broadband connection (under
  discussion)
• Getting parents more involved in their childs
  education

17
Ofsted 2007

• Through the Family Learning in information and
  communication technology (ICT) the school has
  been able to put into homes a Thin Client
  computer
• Parents are overwhelmingly positive about the
  school
• Students said what a special place this school
  is and inspectors agree. This is a good and
  improving school with some outstanding features.