Effective Home-School Collaborative Education

In recent years, an array of legislation and guidance has emerged under the present new Labour government to bring together a co-ordinated framework of services to address the care and educational needs of children. The government has expressed its intention, DfES (1997) and DfES (2003) to place schools at the heart of a new multidisciplinary approach to children 's services with improved communication and consultation between schools, together with other service providers, and parents, as one of its principle aims. Many commentators such as Nind et al (2003); Williams (2004) and Berk (2004) have noted the importance of parents as the prime educators of their children and the issue of establishing successful partnerships between schools and parents has been addressed through a number of different perspectives. It seems that the strategies employed to overcome barriers and build constructive relationships must be situated within a school ethos of genuine inclusion which values parents ' views and contribution which, in turn, can only enhance children 's attitudes to learning. Effective Home-School collaborative education stimulates and imbues
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is at the forefront of facilitating this challenge and connecting home and school through an array of initiatives. Firstly it offers wholesale opportunities for children by providing continuity of learning outside regular school hours and parents provide appropriate mentoring, challenge and support. This presupposes the ICT infrastructure within schools can cope with the rapid growth of collaborative learning and schools need to formulate cohesive and appropriate e-learning