1b Rationale
Curriculum initiatives designed to make links with homes and families can be thought of as having one of three aims:
- to inform parents and the community of children’s progress in school (aspects of this are statutorily required in the UK)
- to support families in particular as partners in the education of their children
- to make school learning relevant to, and reflective of, home and community
The rationale for making such links with homes is based on a growing understanding that schools can maximise children’s learning by developing a productive relationship between what is valued, taught and learned in schools and what children value, learn and are taught at home and in their communities.
Evidence supporting this understanding comes from a variety of research into:
- the role of parental support in the development of young children’s language
- the existence of community literacy practices and young children’s home based literacy experiences
- children’s capabilities in developing multi media communication skills outside schooling
- evaluations of family learning programmes
Meanwhile, the political drive to make schools accountable to their communities has resulted in the UK government’s making it a statutory requirement for school governors to make a public report on their school’s curriculum provision through their contribution to the on-line provision of the school’s Self Evaluation Form and for schools to report children’s progress through the curriculum to parents.
The UK National Curriculum’s description of its aims includes “valuing ourselves, our families and other relationships” as well as the wider community and the environment. Schools responding to the implementation of National Curriculum aims need to develop a curricular context in which they “work in collaboration with families and the local community.”
While there are no specific National Curriculum in English learning objectives requiring curriculum links with home and school, these are implicit in the requirements for all children to address a range of audiences and purposes in all aspects of language. The aims for inclusion in relationship to speaking and listening are more precise: teachers should “build on pupils’ experiences of language at home and in the wider community” including those home languages other than English.
 
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