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There are many websites aimed at parents. Some are provided by government, others by charities and other independent organisations. We've identified the ones we think you will find most relevant, useful and easy to use.
We welcome any suggestions you may have for extra links, but please note we cannot endorse commercial organisations.
ParentsCentre
www.parentscentre.gov.uk
Description: 'Helping you to help your child'. A Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) site giving information and support to parents on helping with their child's learning, including advice on choosing a school and finding childcare.
Review: A complex but comprehensive site with information on every aspect of parenting, including family finances, choosing schools, parental control of the internet and tackling truancy.
Navigation: Links to the main Directgov site. There is a bewildering number of options, so take your time. If a link takes you to the main Directgov site for more information you might find it difficult to get back to the ParentsCentre.
Target audience: All parents with children from newborn to university age.
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DirectGov parents' area
www.direct.gov.uk/parents/fs/en
Description: DirectGov is the Government's 'one stop shop' information source. It has a specific parents' section which looks at all aspects of parenting. Distinct from the ParentsCentre site, which focuses on education.
Review: Clear practical information. 'No frills' pages get you to the information you need with the minimum of fuss. Not a site for casual browsing; the ParentsCentre site is better for that.
Navigation: Text links with few pictures, which makes the site fast and clear but can feel a bit regimented.
Target audience: All parents.
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Parentline plus
www.parentlineplus.org.uk
Description: A registered charity offering support and advice to anyone parenting a child. Advice on all ages, from baby to late teens.
Review: An excellent site, with clear information on every topic you can imagine, whether it be teenagers and alcohol, walking to school, exam nerves or bullying. Also promotes regular 'Parents Together' workshops. A range of publications can be downloaded.
Navigation: Useful A-Z of parent topics. Information sorted into clear age bands, with good links to more specific information on other sites.
Target audience: Parents with children from 0-19.
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Sure Start
www.surestart.gov.uk
Description: Sure Start is a government programme that aims to ensure that every child has the best possible start in life. It brings together early education, childcare, and health and family support.
Review: A simple home page, but the 'early years pastel' colour scheme can make it difficult to read text. All the information you need to find your nearest Sure Start children's centre.
Navigation: Slow. Takes a long time to open links within the site. Once there, however, everything is easy to access. You can find the nearest Sure Start children's centre by clicking areas on a map of the UK or typing in keywords.
Target audience: Parents with pre-school children, aged 0-5.
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Ofsted
www.ofsted.gov.uk
Description: The website for Ofsted, formerly the Office for Standards in Education. As the inspectorate for schools, the site is principally a source for school inspection reports for every part of the country.
Review: Recently updated, and now much more parent-friendly, with a specific parents' section. Bright colours and pictures encourage you to stay with the site. Easy to find the inspection report you want by a simple alphabetical/date order directory. You can also search across Ofsted's many other publications on education issues.
Navigation: Very clear links to information on the site, and to other relevant organisations.
Target audience: Parents, just about everyone in education, and local authorities.
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Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA)
www.qca.org.uk
Description: The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority regulates and develops the national curriculum used in schools, sets standards for assessment tools to assess pupils, and regulates examinations and qualifications.
Review: No specific parents section. For a determined parent wanting to understand how the national curriculum is put together and monitored it has a wealth of information.
Navigation: Easy. Helped by guiding your search by age group : 3-14, 14-19, and adult.
Target audience: Teachers and education authorities, but also parents with a particular interest in or query about the curriculum.
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Advisory Centre for Education
www.ace-ed.org.uk
Description: The Advisory Centre for Education (ACE) is an independent charity offering advice to parents about every aspect of state education. ACE provides free telephone advice and a number of publications.
Review: A straightforward site which is distinctive because it represents the views of parents, drawn from the thousands of phone calls to ACE each year. ACE gathers these views together and publishes reports on issues such as bullying, special educational needs in mainstream schools and truancy.
Navigation: Easy and functional.
Target audience: All parents.
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Bullying Online
www.bullying.co.uk
Description: Practical online advice for parents, pupils and teachers on tackling bullying. Also legal advice on your child's rights at school. Email inquiry service, which Bullying Online aims to respond to within 24 hours.
Review: A friendly, practical site divided into boxes of information, which you click on. An excellent directory of web links to relevant organisations. The very long sections of text that you often scroll through can be tiring, but the information itself is of high quality.
Navigation: Easy. A very accessible site.
Target audience: Parents, pupils and teachers.
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School attendance
www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance
Description: Part of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) main website. Aimed at those concerned with improving school attendance, with parents as one element in this.
Review: Shares good practice from across the country. Covers what works and what doesn't in improving young people's behaviour and getting them to be positive about school. A site more for the professional than the parent, with sets of guidance and project reports rather than simple tips. Interesting link to the DfES anti-bullying website, highlighting how bullying can often be a cause of poor attendance.
Navigation: Navigation not clear for the amateur. You have to pick your way through detailed guidance, though this guidance can be very interesting once you examine it in depth.
Target audience: Teachers, social workers and parents with time to sift through documents aimed at professionals.
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National Curriculum
www.nc.uk.net
Description: This government site gives you detailed information on the curriculum your child will experience at school. It also describes the attainment targets suggested for each stage.
Review: A functional information-driven site. It is not meant to entertain but give you the information you want quickly and simply. Information is easy to find by subject heading and key stage. There is also useful guidance on 'inclusion' and covers how the curriculum should accommodate children with particular issues, such as special educational needs or English as a second language.
Navigation: Easy and functional.
Target audience: Teachers and parents.
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Food in Schools
www.foodinschools.org
Description: A joint website between the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health to encourage healthy eating in schools.
Review: Fascinating facts and figures about our children's diet and how it can affect them. Also some useful links to food-related websites, games for children, and recipe tips.
Navigation: Easy.
Target audience: Teachers primarily but also parents.
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Parental Involvement
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/parentalinvolvement
Description: This site outlines the home - school agreement and parental declaration that every state funded school in England has to use. The agreement describes the duties of the school to its pupils and the responsibilities of the pupils and their parents.
Review: A fairly basic site, but its role is simply to describe the home - school agreement system and how it is acted upon.
Navigation: Simple.
Target audience: Teachers and some parents needing specific information.
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Homework
www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/homework
Description: A Department for Education and Skills site which describes the homework guidelines for primary and secondary schools issued in 1998. The guidelines promote the idea of a partnership between school and parents. In many cases a commitment to completing homework is part of the home - school agreement all schools now have.
Review: A very basic and dated site, which is difficult to read. The original guidelines in publication form can be downloaded as PDF documents from the website. The text is long and difficult to read online, but includes a lot of interesting information and statistics about the value of homework.
Navigation: Basic but easy.
Target audience: Teachers and some parents needing specific information.
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The General Teaching Council is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Listing shall not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over availability of the linked pages.
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