Effective parent-practitioner partnerships in children's secondary education

This paper presents results from a qualitative case study project into effective strategies for fostering parent-practitioner partnerships in secondary education in England. It discusses the nature of a true ‘community partnership’ as a dialogic and productive partnership as opposed to a more common ‘information sharing partnership’. In doing so, the paper demonstrates that effective partnerships engage parents, teachers, school staff, but also students to develop a ‘three-way-partnership’ (parent-student-teacher), making the schools more welcoming places. Finally, the authors argue that schools should find out about and share the values that are important in their communities.