In those areas where parents do not feel confident and have other priorities, or where community issues cut across those of the school, then the ability of parents to work with the teachers is curtailed and relations can become hostile. Even in schools with good parental support, the annual meeting to discuss the governors' report to parents is generally noted as an occasion when governors outnumber parents. Lowe (1997, pp. 160-1) documents graphically the effect of increased parental influence in schools:
This reliance upon parents has increased in recent years, due to their concerns about children travel/ing alone (Hillman 1993).
Parents' worries regarding children's safety in modern society also relate to their access to opportunities for physical activity. Hillman's (ibid.) study found a connection between restrictions placed on independent mobility and lack of participation in both organised and
Children learn first and foremost from their parents. In this respect all parents are teachers - and very effective teachers they are. Arguably, children learn more from their parents in the first five years of life than they do from their schools in the next ten. This book is about parents and teachers working together to help children with their learning; more specifically, it is about parents co-operating with teachers over their own children's reading. We have chosen the term PACT (Parents, Children and Teachers) to embody this concept.
In those areas where parents do not feel confident and have other priorities, or where community issues cut across those of the school, then the ability of parents to work with the teachers is curtailed and relations can become hostile. Even in schools with good parental support, the annual meeting to discuss the governors' report to parents is generally noted as an occasion when governors outnumber parents. Lowe (1997, pp. 160-1) documents graphically the effect of increased parental influence in schools: