GATHERED TOGETHER is an award winning project working to support ethnic and cultural minority parents to become more involved in their child’s education and the school community. Gathered Together is a partnership between BEMIS and SPTC, funded by the Scottish Government through its Third Sector Early Intervention Fund, managed by the Big Fund. Our work was recognised by the European Parents’ Association and in 2015 Gathered Together won the ALCUIN award for our work highlighting the role of parents in the education of their children. In December 2014 we made a film with City of Glasgow College’s Television department to illustrate the work we are doing and the importance of supporting parents from ethnic minority families to become involved in their children’s learning and school life.
We have worked directly with parents and carers from all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, finding out about their experiences of involvement with their children’s school and education, barriers that they experience to getting more involved and giving them information about their rights as parents, and the role of the Parent Council in being a voice for parents. You can read about the work and research we have been doing with ethnic minority parents here. As many parents we work with are new to Scotland and struggle to understand how the Scottish education system works we are have developed a toolkit for parents, giving them an over view of how the Scottish Education system works.
We have also delivered training for Parent Councils and teachers wanting to engage with all parents- raising awareness of the barriers that Ethnic Minority parents can face to involvement, exploring equalities practice and practical steps to promote parental participation. In partnership with SPTC we developed Parent Council training on “Involving all Parents” and SPTC are continuing to deliver it across Scotland (to see if they are running this session near you check their website). We have also developed good practice guides for schools and Parent Councils wanting to involve all parents, particularly those from other cultures.
In our work we’ve heard lots of great stories of good practice and the difference it makes to families of parents becoming more involved- to hear some of these go to our videos page