ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews some of the reasons for interface between home and school, with particular reference to recent legislation, and suggests strategies for enabling more effective liaison between home and school. It appears that successive Ministers of Education have encouraged the development of the parent advocate as a demanding consumer rather than a participant in the educational process. The barely hidden sneer about the competence of professionals suggests that what is called partnership is actually dictatorship, hardly conducive to creating good working relationships between parents and schools. The 1993 Education Act redressed the balance somewhat by formally promoting partnership between schools and parents. Parents of children with special needs have been in the forefront of movements for parental advocacy. Despite all the problems which will undoubtedly surface about the operation of the COP in schools, that section which deals with parental involvement gives a positive framework within which relations between home and school can develop.
