Information sharing and building learning partnerships 

Information sharing and building partnerships is about developing three-way genuine relationships that focus on learning and progress. Together you support a child’s learning and wellbeing.  

Why are three-way partnerships important? 

• Students want to learn and progress – to do so, they need to take risks, make changes, and share their thinking with others.  
• Teachers make a difference – they are the best in-school influence on learning. Teachers know and understand pedagogy and curriculum.  
• Parents and whānau know their child best.  

"I love being in control of what I am doing, it means I get to do what I love and makes me feel more capable, strong and trusted. Being told what to do is not learning, it is just being told what to do." - 11 year old, year 7

"Good teachers, teachers who are helpful, they make the difference between me achieving and failing." - Student in alternative education – He manu kai matauranga: He tirohanga Māori – Education Matters to Me: Experiences of Tamariki and Rangatahi Māori (March, 2018).

Ākonga are more likely to make progress and succeed when parents, whānau, and their teachers:  

• work together with a focus on learning  
• share information and acknowledge expertise  
• understand and celebrate similarities and differences.  

School conditions should support parents, whānau, and students to be active partners in learning.  

"You know your child better than anyone, including their strengths and weaknesses, their interests and talents, and what works for them. 

You are the most important out-of-school influence on your child’s educational success." - Education Review Office: Partners in Learning (2016 p..3).

"I would like to be part of the team who creates plans for my child. I would like to understand the system and support my child." - Parent/whānau – European 

"I want an inclusive environment which respects diversity of the learners at school. I want teachers to recognise prior learning and respect cultural capital of each learner." - Parent/whānau – New Zealand European/Pākehā, Filipino 

Examples of schools developing the conditions for students, parents and whānau to participate

Engaging our community at Sylvia Park School 

Sylvia Park School has focused on supporting parents and whānau to understand what achievement information means. 

Reflect on your own school context 

• Sylvia Park School has focused on supporting parents and whānau to understand what achievement information means. 
• Staff at Sylvia Park School are working with parents to improve educational outcomes for students. Discuss their approach. 
• Are the current ways you are engaging with parents and whānau making a difference to student outcomes?  
• When you engage with parents, what is the main purpose of the interaction?  Does this need to change?  Be made more clear? 
• How much do your parents know about the assessment processes in the school, and how their children are progressing against those standards or assessments? Is there a need to share more information? Is this information delivered in a range of ways to ensure understanding by all? 
• What does having successful home-school partnerships mean to your school and whānau?  Do they mean the same thing to all participants? 

Preparing for student led conferences in a new entrant classroom 

A teacher at Flanshaw Road School has supported five year olds to lead their three-way conversations. 

Reflect on your own school context 

• How could you develop a common language of learning at your school? What would it look like? 
• How could you involve parents more in the preparation of conferences? 
• Fina uses five methods to teach her students how to talk about their learning in a meaningful way. Consider asking all the teachers in your school to trial these in their classrooms. 

Conversations about student progress and achievement across the curriculum require meaningful, ongoing information sharing processes. It’s important that roles and expectations are clear for students, teachers, parents, whānau, and the wider community. Sharing information is an essential part of creating relationships for learning.  

When it comes to sharing information for learning, there is broad agreement about what we don’t want. We don’t want accountability-driven, one-way flow of information processes such as those shown in the table in the activity below.  

Activity: Information sharing that informs learning and builds partnerships 

Using the table, create indicators that are meaningful for you that you want to go under the heading, "Information sharing that informs learning and builds partnerships".  

• What else would parents and whānau add to the criteria? Treat it as a living draft.  
• Use these indicators as a set of criteria to check the work you actually do (note that you will use these criteria for other activities in this guide). These criteria will help you to make decisions about what to stop, start, and do more.  

Example of how Owairaka School engaged in strong reciprocal relationships 

Look at the ways that Owairaka School supported parents and whānau to see they are genuine in wanting to develop strong reciprocal relationships. 

Ideas to engage your community 

Diana Tregoweth outlines some of the approaches in place at Owairaka School to encourage parent, family, whānau, and community engagement in the school. 

Reflect on your own school context 

The 2007 New Zealand Curriculum’s teaching as inquiry approach can be adapted by schools planning to develop their community engagement. Just as teachers do, you can ask these questions: 

• What is important and worth spending time on, given where our partnership is at? 
• What strategies are most likely to help us make the changes we want to make? 
• What happened as a result of using these strategies, and what are the implications for the next steps in our partnership? 

Listen to parents’ responses and gather data on an ongoing basis to monitor the results and guide future planning. 

An open door policy that works

Chrissie Rumpler from Owairaka School discusses how to ensure an effective open-classroom-door policy through making connections with the community and having a school structure that values the engagement. She shares some of the things her school has done to ensure that teachers understand why and how to engage with the diverse cultures represented in their school.   

Reflect on your own school context 

• What does an 'open door policy' mean for you? 
• How could you generate an open door policy at your school? 
• How could you challenge your own pre conceived ideas about learners, or those of your colleagues? 
• What are some of the ways that you already engage with the community? How could you build on that to deepen the relationship and improve student outcomes? 

Supporting teachers with community engagement in the classroom 

Teacher Chrissie Rumpler explains how Owairaka School has supported staff to understand and engage with the different cultures in their school community. She also provides inspirational examples of what engaging communities can look like.  

Reflect on your own school context 

• How do you encourage teachers to work collaboratively with parents and whānau? 
• What systems do you use to tell parents about their child’s progress and involve them in processes to support student success? 
• How could you adapt your practice to support the inclusion of all members of your school community? 

Community engagement – a parent’s perspective  

Saga Frost is a parent at Owairaka School in Auckland. She discusses what it is like to be a partner in the learning community at her school and reveals that she didn't realise, until she got involved, how much she could impact on her child's learning. She challenges other parents to see themselves as someone who can add value. "You add value at home, you add value at your church, you can add value at your school as well." 

Reflect on your own school context 

• How do the partnerships with parents and whānau at your school help parents to support their children’s learning? 
• Do partnerships with parents and whānau enable consideration about students’ competencies across school and home contexts? 
• What systems, initiatives, and programmes in your school best support the achievement of an inclusive school community? 

Engaging Pacific Peoples – Owairaka School builds a fale 

The staff at Owairaka School have explored ways to build deep connections and partnerships with the many cultural groups and families at their school. Principal Diana Tregoweth and her staff went on a professional development trip to Samoa to help them to understand the culture of their Samoan students. This story tells how the community subsequently worked together to bring an element of Samoan culture to the school in the construction of a traditional fale.   

Reflect on your own school context 

• How could you work together with diverse families to enhance student outcomes? 
• How could you draw on the resources in your parent community to support teaching and learning? 
• What opportunities does your current planning provide for including the knowledge and expertise of our diverse school community? 

Further resource for guidance  

The Education Review Office has developed a set of indicators and examples of effective practice for educationally powerful connections and relationships. 

You may find it useful to discuss the following effective practices – School Evaluation Indicators – Domain 3: Educationally Powerful Connections and Relationships p. 26 

Parents and whānau expressed their views through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation. They said they would like more:  

• information about their child’s progress, including how they can support learning  
• information beyond academic achievement, including student wellbeing, social, and cultural learning  
• opportunities to contribute to local curriculum and other decisions that impact students.  

"[We] would like to be consulted with before education decisions that affect my child’s future are made and implemented."- Parent/whānau – Māori 

"My son’s teacher has asked about his interests and they have been [uptaken] for use in classes." - Parent/whānau – European 

"Information that addresses their holistic learning including cultural, as opposed to just academic." - Parent/whānau – Tongan 

Through Kōrero Mātauranga | Education Conversation, teachers expressed that they want to share what students are doing across the curriculum, including their successes. Teachers said they wanted to help when things get a bit tough. They want conversations that focus on future actions and summarise learning progress at key points in time.  

"We’ve been sharing progress about literacy and maths and suggesting to parents what they could be doing at home, but we have rarely said much about the whole curriculum. Even our conferencing has focused on literacy and maths, yet children’s artwork and other project work is all around the room. It would be good to focus on and celebrate the whole child when we talk with parents."  - Teacher, Taranaki Full Primary 

Activity – Good practice in building relationships with parents and whānau  

What does good practice in building relationships with parents and whānau look like?  

Explore the stories in this guide of schools building strong relationships with parents and whānau.  

Reviewing your information-sharing approach  

Discuss what you would like to share with parents and whānau. Think about the whole curriculum, certain events you have at school, your school vision, and individual student goals. Work in small groups such as in syndicates or learning areas.  

Compare and contrast what you want to share.  

• Does it change as children get older?  
• Is it the same for all learning areas?  
• Do you think you have captured the essence of what is important for your setting? How will you ensure this approach reflects a genuine partnership between school and home?  

How does your description of what all parties want to share match your criteria for information sharing and building partnerships?  

What schools are doing to find out what parents want  

These schools have used surveys, hui and fono to actively engage with parents and whānau, including what they want to know about their child’s learning.  

Te Kopuru School – Engaging with our community

There is no one way to engage the community in the life of a school. The uniqueness of location, size, and dynamics determines the strategies schools use to encourage community support and interaction. Te Kopuru School provides an example of how one school works with their parents and community.  

Supporting whānau with learning at Pomaria School

Improved teaching and learning, greater community engagement, and enhanced student achievement are just some of the outcomes of Pomaria School's journey of curriculum design and review. In this story, parents and teachers describe the way whānau are engaged at the school and the way whānau voice is used to create directions for learning. This film is the third in a series, designed to provide support and inspiration to schools that are in the process of reviewing their own school curriculum. 

Reflect on your own school context 

The School Leadership and Student Outcomes BES found that the most effective home-school partnerships are those in which: 

• parents and teachers are involved together in children's learning 
• teachers make connections to students' lives 
• family and community knowledge is incorporated into the curriculum and teaching practices. 

The Family and Community Engagement BES found that the most effective partnerships: 

• treat families with dignity and respect and add to family practices, experiences, values, and competencies (rather than undermining them) 
• build on the strong aspirations and motivation that most parents have for their children's development 
• offer structured and specific suggestions rather than general advice 
• provide group opportunities as well as opportunities for one-to-one contact (especially informal contact) 
• empower those involved by fostering autonomy and self-reliance within families, schools, and communities. 

Discuss: 

• Which of the effective partnership indicators are demonstrated at Pomaria School? 
• What do you do at your school to build effective partnerships with your parents, whānau, and communities? 
• How can you further empower parents and whānau to support their children’s learning? 

It’s a good idea to plan the learning conversations that you want to take place over the year. There are many opportunities for conversations about learning and progress with these three purposes:  

• setting goals and developing new relationships at the beginning of the year  
• ongoing sharing, for example, celebrating particular successes at home or school  
• summarising learning progress at key points in time to illuminate what has been learnt and inform future learning

Some conversations are more critical than others. For example:  

• setting goals and developing relationships with new families and students at the beginning of the year or when they arrive at the school  
• ongoing conversations to ensure success and wellbeing for students whose wellbeing is at risk and/or learning progress needs focused support.  

Helping to get the critical conversations right  

Everyone wants information sharing to be timely and manageable. This can look different for different people. There needs to be careful consideration about when and how.  

"Taking a multi-modal approach including paper surveys, online surveys, hui, events, focus groups." - Principal – New Zealand European/Pākehā 

"Offering a variety of ways for engagement – digital, face to face, and offering multiple opportunities." - Tumaki – Māori 

"Face to face meetings. Hui that involve students performing or showing their learning. Visits to homes when parents don’t come to school." - Principal – New Zealand European/Pākehā 

"We are invited to hui and asked for input on our children’s education. The kura consults with us the whānau on what better works for our children." - Parent/whānau – Māori 

Activity: Sharing information with students, parents, and whānau  

Map when and how you share information with students, parents, and whānau. In small groups, discuss your context and then fill in the left-hand cell of this table. 

Now take what you share and use the questions below to help fill in the other two cells of the table. 

• What conversations happen at the classroom level? (For example, during goal setting, capability building, regular informal communication, student conferencing, development of portfolios (digital and hard copy), three-way conferencing) 
• What conversations happen at the school level? (For example, consultation on annual goals and actions, discussions with particular groups, reporting on progress) 
• Identify the “flow” and connections between classroom-level and school-level conversations. Are they clear to all teachers? Would students and their parents and whānau understand them? 
• Identify any gaps or bottlenecks in communication. 
• How does your mapping match your criteria for information sharing and building learning partnerships? 

Reviewing community expectations  

• How do you know what forms of communication different parents expect from the school? Is it timely to ask again? 
• Do you find it difficult to communicate with particular families? Have we asked them what works best for them? 
• Who in your community can help you make connections with whānau? (For example, fluent language speakers) 

Example of a school explaining expectations around a student-led conference  

Point Chevalier School – Student led conferences
Point Chevalier School describes the purpose of three-way conversations, why they are important, and how parents can help their child before, during, and after conferences. 

Get more inspiration and explore what other schools have done  

This report has examples of schools implementing deliberate strategies to improve their learning partnerships. Each case explores the review the school undertook and the changes they are making. ERO also has some starter questions that may be useful for your discussions.  

• Building genuine learning partnerships with parents, ERO 2018. 

Some examples from the report: 

• Belmont School is moving to genuine relational and learning partnerships with parents and whānau. The school has been identifying the extent of their partnerships, changing to genuine partnerships, and looking at ways to sustain the improvements.   
• Oratia School is using and responding to a leader-led inquiry to improve learner-centred relationships with parents. They have developed several partnership strategies.  
• Papatoetoe North School is developing genuine learning partnerships with parents to help children and teachers. They sought and acted on parents’ views and knowledge, shared information, and resources with parents while at the same time reinforcing the benefits of the parents’ role.  
• Christ the King School is improving educationally powerful connections with parents, particularly with parents of Māori children involved in targeted support.  
• Sylvia Park School is exploring how comprehensive information enables parents to support their child’s learning at home. They collect and share comprehensive assessment information about children’s goals and next learning steps and involve parents in their children’s learning.  
• Woodend School, Gleniti School, and Milson School are working with parents on transitions to and within a school. 

Activity: Starting the year fresh 

What could you do differently when goal setting with students, their parents, and whānau? 

Review your criteria for information sharing and building partnerships. How can you use this opportunity to: 

• create the conditions so parents, whānau, and students can be active partners in learning 
• find out what parents and whānau want to share, when and how 
• focus on building partnerships for learning 
• support parents, whānau, and students to understand how learning conversations connect over the year. 

Create a timeline for information-sharing 

When you have agreement on what should be shared when, and how.  

• The next step is to develop a visual timeline graphic for students and their whānau about information sharing about goals and progress (there might be different graphics for different year groups). 
• Share this visual graphic to parents and whānau so it becomes part of the fabric of your school – for example, you may want to put it on your website, and bring it in hard copy when talking with parents face-to-face. 

Innovate – trial some new ideas 

There may be some teachers, with parents and whānau, who are willing to trial some new ideas. For example, you might want to trial: a new way of digitally sharing, new topics on a written report, having students contribute to the written report. Make sure the ideas to be trialled have: 

• clear criteria and a process for evaluating the impact; and  
• that the trial and its outcome is shared amongst other teachers and the board of trustees. 

Not all trials are successful; however, if the trial shows promise ensure you can resource any changes to practice school wide.