Primary school websites in Ireland: how are they used to inform and involve parents?

Abstract

Online sources are increasingly the most likely starting place when seeking information about any topic. Parents of prospective students may access school websites in advance of enrolling their child. Parents of current students are likely to access a school’s website for information about the school’s current activities or to learn more about the teaching and learning taking place in their child’s classroom. With a few notable exceptions, there is limited research on the quality of school websites internationally, particularly at primary level. For this paper, the online presence of 100 Irish primary schools was examined. Of the 90 schools for whom some web presence was established, information provided to parents of current students and parents of prospective students was examined. Findings show that primary school websites do not comprehensively address the information needs of either group of parents and highlight areas of potential improvement.

Keywords:

• Website
• primary
• religion
• parental involvement
• school choice

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the advice of anonymous reviewers and that of Aine Lynch, Chief Executive Officer of the National Parents Council – Primary, on the type of information that would be of use to parents of current and prospective enrolment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest is reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Lorraine Gilleece is a Research Associate at the Educational Research Centre, currently working on the analysis and reporting of Ireland’s performance in PIRLS 2016. She has previously worked on the administration and analysis of other large-scale educational surveys. Research interests include parental involvement in education.

Eemer Eivers is a Research Fellow at the Educational Research Centre, with specific responsibility for the development of the Drumcondra Online Testing System. She has also led the updating and development of the new Drumcondra Reasoning Test. Eemer oversees a number of international assessment studies, including PIRLS and TIMSS.

Notes

1 Publication of achievement data and methods of comparison between schools are highly contested in many countries.

2 The largest international assessment of primary school reading (see https://timssandpirls.bc.edu/).

3 We acknowledge that web publishing and social media use are fast evolving and progress has likely been made in the quality of school websites since this analysis was completed.

4 Although primary education is free in Ireland, schools often experience a shortfall in funding and request contributions from parents to cover costs of art materials, photocopying, sports, etc.

5 http://www.pdsttechnologyineducation.ie/en/Training/Courses/Using-Scoilnet-Blogs-to-Design-Manage-a-School-Website-online-.html

6 https://www.scoilnet.ie/scoilnet-services/scoilnet-webhostingblogs/