Parent Conference 2009
Conference summary
On 13 June 2009 around 180 parents and Parent Council members from across Scotland attended a conference at Hampden Park in Glasgow. This was the second conference organised by the Scottish Government and Learning and Teaching Scotland since Parent Councils came into existence in August 2007.
'I want to rise up and touch the sky!'
Following coffee and bacon rolls, the conference opened to songs from Taylor High School in North Lanarkshire. It was a strong positive start that was greatly appreciated by the delegates.
One delegate commented afterwards: 'Taylor High - fantastic!'
Fiona Hyslop
'The involvement of parents in their own children’s learning and in their own schools is hugely important.'
This was the view of Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, who was the first speaker of the day.
Ms Hyslop began by giving an update on the new qualifications that will be introduced from 2012/13 onwards to complement the changes being made under Curriculum for Excellence to Scottish education. She focused on reassuring parents about the changes by saying the new qualifications were intended 'to ensure that Scottish qualifications retain their great reputation'.
She went on to talk about the parental involvement projects that had been running over the last year and can be seen on the Sharing Ideas section of Parentzone. Finally, she outlined her thoughts on national representation for Parent Councils, giving her support to the creation of a National Parents' Forum to represent parents' views.
'As Cabinet Secretary I can assure you that I would very much welcome the prospect of dialogue and engagement with a new National Parents' Forum.'
The text from the Cabinet Secretary’s speech can be read, although please note that she did add in some additional comments to her speech which are not recorded.
After her speech, Ms Hsylop answered a few questions from delegates on national representation and changes to qualifications.
Carol Craig
When it comes to confidence, parents can help by reinforcing the idea that most things are achieved in life not as a result of natural talent or ability but through hard work, perseverance and good learning strategies. These were some of keynote speaker Carol Craig’s thoughts on the role parents had in helping their children to develop.
Carol Craig from the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing focused on how young people shouldn’t be protected from making mistakes and should be encouraged to work hard to develop new skills that would build up their confidence and equip them for the challenges of the modern world.
Afternoon session
After Carol Craig’s presentation, delegates went to a total of 12 workshops. Lorraine Sanda, the National Parental Involvement Co-ordinator, then gave a summary of the morning and delegates went for lunch.
The afternoon session focused on national representation. It opened with a presentation from Carole Millar of her report Views on a National Representative Body for Parent Councils. Delegates then broke into groups to discuss the proposal that a National Parents' Forum should be set up.
