ABSTRACT
Ethos is concerned with attitudes and values, but appearance is also important. In the early 1900s Margaret McMillan's pioneering work in her nursery in Deptford set out to decrease the gap which she felt existed between home and school. She deliberately tried to convince parents that their attitudes to education played an important part in shaping their children's educational attainment. The Milwaukee Project and the Head Start programme in America concentrated on family intervention and compensatory education in support of children who were socially and culturally deprived. An alternative concept, and one that would attribute due regard to the worth of individuals and their right to accept responsibility and to make choices, would be complementary rather than compensatory education. The school needs to come to terms with the values and aspirations of the community it serves rather than implicitly opposing them, thus establishing a smoother and more understanding relationship between the home and the school.
