St James's Primary School in Paisley is setting a 'glowing' example to schools all over Scotland as parents and carers embrace a new pilot project.
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Keen to explore the full potential of Glow, Scotland's intranet for education, teachers at St James's realised that if families were to get the most out of it, it was important everyone learned more about how the technology worked. The school already involves parents in many different ways and involving them in this latest development fits very well with their overall aim to involve all parents in the school and in their children's learning.
Pupils at St James's are no strangers to Glow – it has become successfully embedded in many of the school's day-to-day learning activities. However, whilst the children were becoming experts and logging on to Glow in lessons and for homework, many parents hadn't had the chance to discover just how exciting it could be.
Exploring Glow
To remedy the situation, the headteacher of St James's invited parents and carers to a hands-on Glow tutorial. Anne Louise Nicholson, acting principal teacher at the school, explains: 'Glow lets us bring really relevant teaching and really relevant experiences into the classroom. Today was about giving parents a really clear understanding of the potential for Glow.'
Parents and carers were given their own password and encouraged to 'play around' with Glow and familiarise themselves with the various areas on the intranet. Many were interested to discover a forum where they could chat with other parents and carers online, as well as access updates on lessons, homework and attendance records. Mums and Dads could even check out what pupils were having for lunch! The school encourages families to help with homework and because homework is often linked with Glow, knowing how to use it is even more important.
Benefits
The fact that parents and carers can log on from any computer is particularly helpful for those juggling the demands of a full time job with family life. Samantha, who has a son in P3, says that seeing how frequently her son used Glow made her want to learn more about it: 'It's important for parents to find out what their kids are doing at school and to help them, so that we know what we can help them with more at home. I've got a full time job, so I've not got a lot of time to come into the school. So it's helpful for me, from my home, to go into Glow and get any updates.'
Mum, Karen agrees: 'The teachers are teaching them, but the children are also learning to teach themselves. Mirrin and I are interacting a lot more at home and that can only be a benefit to both of us. I'm learning and she's learning.' And young Mirrin agrees: 'When we're sitting down together it's really nice because my mum's helping me out and I'm helping my mum out. We're there for each other.'
Next steps
As well as helping families become more involved with their children's learning, the Glow tutorials encourage parents to develop their own ICT skills. The pilot has proved extremely popular – so much so that the school now hopes to host evening tutorials. In fact, the project has even been hitting the headlines, with local press singing its praises. And with their newly enhanced computer skills, no doubt pupils and parents can 'read all about it'... online!
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