The helpful team over at Primary Technology have put together a really easy website which shows school holidays dates. Currently available are the school holiday 2011 and school holiday 2012 dates.

You can easily put the school holiday dates on your website to share them with parents at your school. Some widgets are also in development which you will be able to embed on your site. The service is completely free and schools can edit their INSET days and adjust their holiday dates.

Don’t forget the other fantastic resources from Primary Techology, such as PrimaryPad, PrimaryWall and Primary Games Arena.

Kids and Media is a new charitable organisation which gives information and advice about children’s use of digital media. Their aim is to ‘help parents to guide and guard their children in a digital world, different from the media world they themselves experienced as children’.

Although the site is still very new, there are lots of useful articles and resources online already. I particularly liked the game and film review sections, which give detailed descriptions and information about appropriate age ranges.

This is definitely something to share with parents and colleagues at school. You can also follow the site on Twitter, Facebook and via their blog.

Parent Notes is designed to provide useful and concise information for parents of children aged 4 to 11 years. The site has useful articles in a range of categories, including learning, behaviour, health, holidays and school life.

parentnotes.net

The site is written by primary school teachers who are also parents and provides lots of valuable advice and ideas. The Parent Portal is another useful site for parents, which was mentioned on Teaching News here.

What are your favourite sites for parents? Could you share these on your school website?

The Parent Portal is a fantastic new website which aims to support parents with their children’s journey through school. It has been set up by Simon Haughton with contributions from lots of other teachers.

The site is constantly evolving and currently has information about:

• Different ways that children learn,
• Ideas for healthy eating,
• Advice about helping children with reading, writing and maths,
• Internet safety information,
• Helpful tips about supporting children with their homework.

It’s a useful (and growing) resource… why not tell the parents at your school about it? Mention it in your newsletters and emails, or add a link on your school website - www.theparentportal.co.uk.

The majority of parents frequently struggle to support their child’s learning outside the classroom according to a new report commissioned by Becta – the Government’s agency for technology in education.

The study of 2000 parents and 2000 nine to 13 year olds, found that:

• There is a desire from parents to become more involved in their child’s education with the majority (81%) calling for more guidance and advice on how best to support their children’s learning outside of the classroom
• 84% of parents revealed that currently their child’s school offered little or no resource to help support their child’s out of school learning.
• Nearly a quarter (22%) of parents admitted they frequently feel unable to support their child with their education at home.
• The core subjects of Maths and Science top the list as the most difficult for parents, according to 37% and 27% of parents respectively.
• More than one in three (37%) children admitted they were sometimes unable to complete their homework because there was no one to help them
• If they can’t complete their homework, 36% of children feel frustrated and want to give up completely, 29% feel embarrassed and 27% say it makes them feel like they are no good at the subject

Anson Primary School in Brent was recently awarded an ICT Excellence award for the pioneering work it has done to extend learning beyond the classroom. Headmaster Jeff Smith, comments: “Parents want to take an active role in their children’s education and the school works hard to make the most of this valuable relationship. However, it is essential that there is a consistency in teaching styles and techniques. Anson offers training sessions for parents on subjects such as Maths so that they can be informed of the ways that we teach different processes. Each parent is then empowered to support their child at home.”

“Our learning platform provides links, materials and tutorials for the child and parent to work through together. There is no doubt that helping parents to support their children has had a significant impact upon learning outcomes as well as developing even stronger links between the school, parent and child.”

Niel McLean, Executive Director of Becta, said; “Becta believes that when used effectively both in schools and at home, technology can be extremely beneficial to a child’s education. Schools benefit from proactive involvement from parents and if children feel they are getting the right support from the schools and families, this has a positive effect on their grades.”

“Many schools are already using technology in innovative yet practical ways to advise parents on how best to support children’s education at home and are reaping the rewards as children’s performance improves at school.”

How does your school support parents with homework and learning at home?

I’ve been using Twitter for a few years now, using it to connect with other teachers and share ideas / resources with them. Lots of schools are now using Twitter too, as a way of communicating with parents and their communities, as well as posting updates about school events.

Image – Twitter website screenshot

As I recently set up a Twitter account for my own school, I asked for suggestions from other teachers about ways of using it. Here are some of the ideas:

• Celebrating children’s work, with links to examples of work online.
• Asking for feedback… so followers can add comments and share valuable feedback with the pupils. Tweet a sentence from a ‘Big Write’ and get instant feedback for the pupil,
• Posting school news,
• Posting live updates about school events (e.g. sports matches),
• Post updates from an educational visit (e.g. residential),
• Reporting school closure information,
• Send reminders about events in school or homework,
• Use to pose questions for children to debate/answer.

There is also a Twitter list of tweeting schools at http://twitter.com/SchoolDuggery/uk-schools.

Do you use Twitter at school? Feel free to add a comment to share your experiences.

learndirect has launched two FREE online storybooks to help families make the most of their time together and have fun while learning.

learndirect research has revealed that almost one in three parents admit to wanting to brush up on their basic English and maths to support their children’s learning and development. Backed by celebrity mum and Waterloo Road actress, Angela Griffin, the new storybooks “The Journey to Darkest Somewhere” and “The House of Scary Words” let kids become the lead characters and change details within the stories.

Here’s a video which gives more information about the project:

The books also encourage readers to use basic English language while they play, so kids and parents can learn together. The new storybooks are available at www.learndirect.co.uk/readtogether. Kids also have the chance to win a professionally printed version of their book. Entrants simply need to register their personal storybook on the website before 31 December 2009.