Parents play their part, too, says Stuart Thackrah, Headmaster of Holmwood House School and Chairman of IAPS

Providing a love of learning is the key to a successful school and indeed a successful education. Our schools are happy places and the pastoral care offered by our staff has a very high priority, and rightly so. The children look forward to coming to school each day, primarily because they are meeting their friends again in a friendly, secure and familiar environment. Our playgrounds are generally happy places where our pupils learn social skills; our classrooms, where we deliver the mainstream curriculum, are bright and appealing; and we have good facilities to encourage extracurricular activities.

It is not uncommon for our pupils to move seamlessly from the classroom to the hockey pitch, and to finish with an activity such as ballet, pottery or bridge. This diversity ensures that the good parts of each day far outweigh the bad. Our schools are able to offer all children something that they value and at which they are successful. They are therefore keen to attend, keen to learn and they love the experience of learning in at least some parts of the curriculum we offer.

It saddens me to read stories highlighting truancy figures, unruly children, staff absenteeism or abusive parents. The children concerned often come from homes where either they or education is not valued – and that unfortunately is beyond any school’s control. Preparatory schools start off with a great advantage: our parents are generally supportive of their children and are very much in favour of good education. They have actively chosen a particular school for their children. By selecting us they start with the belief, well founded we hope, that they have already played a positive and major part in their children’s education.

A sizeable amount of my time is taken up showing prospective parents round, persuading them that this is the school that can give their child not just the best general education but specifically the best education that they would wish for their child. Parents need to be reassured that the education offered is understandable to them and that they can be included in the process. It is for this reason that when their beloved is safely ensconced in school we encourage parents to keep tabs on progress with a bewildering array of reports, parents’ evenings, school magazines, newsletters and suchlike.

We expect them to play their part by attending the school plays, carol services, sports days, matches and concerts and to take pleasure from the talents of their offspring, whilst coincidentally, of course, appreciating the wide-ranging opportunities on offer at their school. We encourage them to come in to the school, but I wonder how often we invite them to participate? How often do we use parents to assist within the school not just to listen to children reading but as people with expertise that we ourselves do not possess? Children will learn more about stocks and shares and money if a stockbroker or investment banker comes in and explains to them how he earns his living. A visit to the hospital, farm or business is a valuable and rewarding experience, well worth the time spent out of school.

Parents will happily arrange these visits, they will loan items of interest for projects and generally bend over backwards to help make the education for their child and his friends exciting and stimulating. They can provide an easy and effective way of enriching the curriculum whilst cementing still further the parent/school relationship. For a parent, as for a child, participation is much more enjoyable than merely watching.

The single most important source of information that parents rely upon is the view of their own children and sometimes that of the children who share the school run. From their conversations comes the knowledge about life in the classroom. So and so teacher is boring; Tuesday is fun because we have double art. Mr Bloggs shouts all the time and Mrs Bliggs dresses funnily. Parents will thank you for everything you have done for little Archie – so shy when he started but so confident and full of joy now. That Mr Woolley, you know, really brought history alive for him and the science trip in Year 5 showed him that he actually had a talent for practical science. From these comments stem the real grumbles or real accolades. These are then stored by the parents and repeated at dinner parties, providing us with an alternative prospectus!

If the children have fun learning we are likely to have a full school and plenty of people waiting. Mission statements, policy documents, all the writing in the world will never take the place of children’s comments. Fun, the love of learning, is our real prospectus.

Parents and children help us, the head teachers, by giving us their feedback all the time. If we listen, this drip feed of information back to us is like a constant mini inspection and should be used positively. The poor teaching staff, of course, do not like us using this ‘second hand’ knowledge but the good staff thrive on it. Good teachers make good schools.

This article was part of Stuart Thackrah’s address to the IAPS Conference at Stratford-upon-Avon

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