This one is an update to the Parental Engagement post on the (linked) Technology blog. The full posting for this is at: http://wilsonm01.blogspot.com/2009/12/parental-engagement.html
Blogs
Using blogs has helped us to connect at a far more dynamic level with parents. There are micro blogs running for classes, and for specific topics that our parents are accessing regularly. Our Reception class blog gets 100's of hits per day, 100's per week.
The list of blogs is at: http://www.robinhood.leeds.sch.uk/pupils/blogs.php
There is also a Headteacher blog with linked blogs for each of the phases in school, that explains Home Learning that that week, what's been learned in the past week and what's coming up for the following week, etc... that tends to get 300 to 400 hits per week... which is a very high percentage for a school with 367 pupils.
http://robinhoodnewsletter.blogspot.com/
Facebook
We also copy the blog into a Facebook page that over fifty parents at the moment are members of... which goes direct to their Facebook page and can, of course, be accessed on mobile devices as well as on computers. Search robinhoodpri on Facebook if you're interested in having a look at this.
All of these methods give those parents who want it access and rich information. As a school we , I believe, benefit a great deal from the social and community capital that communicating often through these means brings.
