Removing the barriers to parental engagement

Teachers and parents at Apeltun Primary School began using the itslearning parent portal in September 2010. Six months on, the school can already see the benefits, especially at student-parent-teacher meetings.

“We believe that there is a star in every child,” says Kristi Odéen, headteacher at Apeltun Primary School. “Our goal is to find this potential in each child and develop it – and we want the parents to help.”

To help realise this vision, Apeltun Primary School adopted the itslearning parent portal. Initially run as a pilot project at the school, parents of Year 6 students each received a unique log-on code and password in September 2010. The parents can access their individual version of the parent portal from any internet-connected computer. Once there, they can find details of their children’s weekly study plans, grades, study resources, attendance records and individual learning plan (ILP), as well as important class and school news.

“We love the ILPs, particularly” says Year 6 teacher Annichen Morken. “As well as giving an overview of the student’s learning targets in each subject, the ILPs now form the basis of our student-parent-teacher meeting. Parents can check their child’s ILP on the parent portal – and can add comments to it – before the meeting. As a result, we’re all on the same page from the start and there are no surprises.”

Replacing the textbook

At Apeltun Primary School, teachers have abandoned the rigid textbook approach to teaching. Instead, they mix and match resources to find the best activities to suit the needs of their students. While the approach is working for the school’s students, it has come at a price for the parents.

Kristi explains. “Textbooks are a valuable source of information for many parents and when we took them away, some
of the parents felt unsafe as they could no longer had a simple record of what their child has learnt and will learn next. They feel parent portal is a good replacement.”

Striking a balance with email

Apeltun Primary School wants to replace all paper-based communication with digital communication by 2012 – and the parent portal is part of this vision. But Annichen is keen to stress that the parent portal should complement, rather than replace, other communication channels.

“Email is a great way of notifying parents of news. But one email to 22 parents usually results in a lot of individual replies that take time to answer,” she explains. “The key is to only use email for very important notifications and put everything else on the parent portal.”

Increasing value for parents

So far, the biggest obstacle has been getting parents to log in to the parent portal regularly. But this is improving – around 75% of parents have added comments to their child’s goals in the ILP in preparation for this term’s student-parent-teacher meeting – and the school is confident that these numbers will increase the longer the parent portal is used.

“Most parents saw the benefits of the parent portal when we first put the idea forward in September,” says Kristi. “They’ve seen the possibilities and they welcome it as a simple way to follow their child’s education.”

Find out more

Read the press release
Find out more about the itslearning parent portal