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6 - Family and school (end)


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Family, school and participation

The study has covered different elements of the involvement of parents in school life: a) participation in activities; b) presence at Parents Associations; c) participation on the School Council; d) direct and personal relations. Overall, the results of the study do not differ substantially from what is concluded by similar research.




PARTICIPATION IN ACTIVITIES

When asked: "To what extent do you participate in the following aspects of life at your child’s school?", the answers by the respondents are mainly grouped in the options for none or little participation by the parents in the school activities, except as to meetings or talks in which they affirm 51% of the parents affirm they participate "little" or "a lot". 80% of the respondents state they participate little or not at all extracurricular activities by their children and 50% state they do not participate in such activities at all.




PARENTS’ ASSOCIATIONS (AMPAs)

There are Parents’ Associations at 82% of the schools in the survey. This high percentage reveals the consolidation of the parent association movement. As it is a body with its own initiative and promotion, which does not depend on external instances, its mere existence may be considered as an indicator of participation. AMPAs are associations created due to interest by the parents and sustained by their dedication and financing.

However, the real participation by the parents through the AMPAs is quite low: 35% declare they do not participate in them and 51% just pay the fees. Only 14% of the parents declare they participate actively. Apart from that, satisfaction with their functioning is not unanimous: 62% of the parents are very or fairly satisfied, as to 38%, they are scarcely or not satisfied with functioning of the Association to which they belong.

Some comparisons show significant data. For example, at religious schools, the existence of AMPAs is more generalised than at other kinds of schools. Participation in AMPAs is greater in the case of parents with higher education: 42% of them participate and 8% does so on the governing boards, percentages that are clearly above the average in one case and the other.

As a contrast to participation and satisfaction, it seems that parents who do not participate in the association tend to be little or not satisfied with its operation; those whose link is limited to paying the fees scarcely or fairly satisfied, while the management or active members state they are fairly or very satisfied with the functioning of the AMPA.




THE SCHOOL COUNCIL

As to the involvement of parents in the School Council, it is surprising that 40% state they ignore its existence, compared with 58% who state they know of it. It seems evident that, as the School Council is the highest body of participation in the school and as it is restricted to a limited number of members for obvious reasons, the parents who are least involved in the process of participation seem to be the furthest from its operation. In any case, 65% of parents state they are very satisfied or fairly satisfied with the functioning of the School Council which, however, is a fairly positive fact.




FAMILY-SCHOOL RELATIONSHIP

Although the Associations and School Councils are institutional mechanisms of communication and participation, the individual initiatives of the relation between families and schools are especially relevant. The meetings, interviews and written correspondence have the virtual nature of concentrating on the training process of a specific student. As graph 11 shows, the most usual means of communication in this context is the meeting with the tutor and telephone conversations the least frequent.



Graph 11: Parents who affirm that they make normal use of the following channels of communication with their son/daughter’s school

Parents have a very high appraisal of everything that facilitates their relationship with the school. The most appreciated mechanism for relations is the individual interview to deal with problems or individual situations (81% consider it very or fairly important). This fact is reinforced by the high degree of satisfaction by parents as to their interviews with teachers, tutors and other instances of the school (graph 12).



Graph 12: Parents who state they are "fairly" or "very satisfied" with interviews, with the tutor, with teaching staff and with the school

There are few conflicts between schools and families and parents’ wish for a change of school seems a minimal percentage of 7% (graphs 13 and 14).


Graph 13: Conflicts with teachers
 



Graph 14: Parent wish for a change of school


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