Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 558: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on home school community co-ordinators incorporating healthy life skills within the wider framework of home visitations; her views on the promotion of courses and classes for parents; if she will develop and implement such a policy; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3602/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Home School Community Liaison (HSCL) is a major mainstream preventative strategy under DEIS and the Action Plan for Educational Inclusion focuses directly on the salient adults in children's educational lives and seeking indirect benefits for the children themselves.

450 local HSCL coordinators serve 651 schools (281 post primary and 370 primary) addressing the development of the parent-teacher relationship in collaboration with the local community in order to enhance the nurturing of the whole child — this implies noting personal and leisure needs, the curricular and learning needs of parents so as to promote their self-worth and self-confidence and secondly, addressing the development of staff and teacher attitudes and behaviour so that the school becomes a place where all young people can reach potential.

HSCL initiatives are focused primarily on adults including parents, teachers and others whose roles or responsibilities impact upon or influence the lives of children. The initiatives are concerned with:

promoting parents' education, development, growth and involvement.

the participation of parents in their children's education including homework support.

providing a parents' room and child care facilities for parents who attend programmes in the school.

developing principal and teacher attitudes towards partnership and a whole-school approach. Parents and teachers are encouraged to collaborate in sharing their complementary skills, experiences and knowledge.

Almost all HSCL activities, including courses and classes for parents, are organised as a direct result of a needs identification process conducted by the local HSCL coordinators. Examples of HSCL activities for parents, organised by coordinators, can be categorised on four broad levels as follows:

Leisure time activities, which are a non-threatening starting point for marginalised parents.

Curricular activities, which enable parents to come closer to their children's learning.

Personal development courses including parenting, leadership skills development, and involvement in formal learning take place.

Parents support and become a resource to their own child/children, to coordinators and to teachers by organising activities. These parents pass on their skills to children by acting as teacher aides in the classroom and as support persons in the community.

Developing life-skills which lead towards and promote healthy lifestyles involves working at many levels with schools, communities and families as well as with other agencies in an integrated way. Co-ordinators commonly work at school level through their involvement with SPHE teachers and through their engagement with the Stay Safe Programme. Coordinators also engage with Early Start teachers and childcare workers and all pre-schools.

The promotion of positive healthy life-skills is a key objective in the context of home visitation as well as at the community level where the Local Committee (LC) of the HSCL Scheme arrange courses on school attendance issues, substance misuse, self-image courses, health and environmental issues, healthy eating and sports activities.

The Scheme also works in close collaboration with the National College of Ireland in its national outreach of 'Parents in Education' — including parenting programmes and The Early Learning Initiative. Further collaboration with agencies such as the Drugs Task Force, Public Health Nurse, Sporting Agencies and clubs is also an essential feature of the scheme.