Dec. 8, 2022
In this guest blog, leadership coach and founder of Leading in the Now, Dan Edwards looks at the important role of parents in school improvement planning.
“It takes a village to raise a child.” The well-told proverb suggests that an entire community of people must interact with children for them to experience and grow in a safe and healthy environment. The collective work and guidance of those responsible to ensure the future generations of the community, to which they are born, are nurtured, held safe and supported, for them to flourish; allowing them to find their path to adulthood and, in time, be the ones to cradle and foster the generations after them when their turn arrives.
Anthropologically, looking back on tribal and nomadic cultures, the role of 'the elders' was of significant importance in this collective ability to draw a village together for the younger generations to acquire the skills and knowledge on their pathway to success. Of course, those adults, within these historic tribes and cultures, had their shared experience to draw upon to guide and support, steer and strengthen these burgeoning skills; nurturing youth in the secure mastery of lived experience both good and bad.
Every school across the globe takes their place within a ‘village’. Supporting generations, past and present, as pupils, parents, carers, families and friends interact daily in the hallways, corridors and playgrounds of our geographic landscape. Working together through discussion and celebration, challenge and community. Every medium of interaction is a spontaneous, self-sustaining inter-play between each element of our current 'villages' and the different socio-economic forms they take. The collective synergy of generations, teachers and village elders develops an ever-strengthening foundation for the children within their care. Somedays harmonious, somedays fraught and fragile, no matter what, we craft and sketch the blueprint for tomorrow in every hour of today. Historical and contemporary, vulnerable and dependable in equal measure. A village in all its honesty.
The village, without a doubt, is one of the most important elements of our school identity. It is, of course, the parents, carers, friends and family members who entrust us with the most important role that we undertake, the educational development of their children. The future generations of the village in which we serve. As the elders before us, we are there to nurture and steer the way, ensuring that our wider school communities have a clear understanding of our plans, strategies and methodologies that we will use to create the legacy which we leave for others to live within.
As leaders, parents and carers play an important role in our school improvement journey and we must include their voices within our plans to shape and develop our working practices. Many of our parents could have been pupils at our schools thus having a strong understanding of the community in which we serve and, importantly, the role of the school and the history and legacy of previous leaders.
This valuable resource is sometimes untapped and overlooked, especially when relationships with parents and carers may not be where we want them to be. However, discussion and consultation are two powerful ways to broker engagement and build that powerful bond between school and home.
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