Parent Portals

The following was included in the Labor Party policy document for the last federal election. ‘Labor recognises that parents play a critical role in their child's education. To better support parents, a Rudd Labor Government will encourage State and Territory Governments to provide consistent parent web portals which enable them to:

• Keep up to date with what their children are learning and studying, including recommended texts.
• Know what homework and other projects have been set, deadlines for completing work and teacher expectations.
• Interact with the teacher on a more regular basis than parent-teacher nights allow.
•  Obtain guidance about how best to supervise or assist with homework,  support children’s literacy and numeracy skill development, encourage children’s interest in reading, and help them to prepare for tests.’

This is an initiative that has the potential to greatly improve the communication between the home and the school. There is continuing debate on the introduction of portals as part of the government’s Digital Revolution policy implementation and parents are urged to seek further information on the introduction of portals from government representatives.