But now, the Government wants to extend the role of the VLE to include parents. Greater frequency and quality of communication with parents is a cornerstone of the Government's education policy and features in The Children's Plan, Every Child Matters, Extended Schools, Sure Start and the Respect Agenda.
The information that parents want to know about their children, on their achievement, behaviour and whether they are attending lessons, is already being gathered in schools' management information system (MIS). The challenge for schools now is to present it on a timely basis, in a way that parents can understand and gain value from.
By September 2010, Becta - the Government's ICT partner - expects all schools to be engaging with parents online, giving them real-time access to achievement, progress, attendance, behaviour and special needs information wherever they are and whenever they want. Primary schools must meet this real-time requirement by 2012.
This is not just about getting parents to visit a school's website, it's about being able to give them something meaningful when they get there. Reporting achievement, attendance, SEN and behaviour information will - the theory goes - give parents what they need to get more involved in their child's education. More involvement, means more support and a child that learns effectively, which is good news all round.
"Even before Becta announced their deadlines, we were already exploring how to involve parents more in their child's school life," says Mark Leighton of Blatchington Mill School, which uses Capita's Sims system.
"We had conducted a survey of parents and it confirmed our belief of how little of the information sent home via students actually reached its intended audience. "We set up an online parent portal that allowed parents with internet access to get up-to-date information about their child from home or work by publishing student data direct from our management information system (MIS). Since launching the portal in September 2007, we have discovered that parents like access to a wide variety of information on their child's school life. However, two areas that draw them back into the site over and over again are information on homework and attendance," he adds.
Attendance is of particular concern to parents for a number of understandable reasons. Parents need to know that after they say goodbye to their children at the door, they have made it safely to school. Now that teachers can take electronic registers, parents should be able to see immediately online if their children are in class and more importantly if they are not.
Serco - a leading supplier of VLEs has already noted several cases where their online attendance system has led directly to improvements in student behaviour. "Our system allows parents to obtain regular updates of information directly from the school. This has led to many examples where parents have been able to directly improve student behaviour in school, which in turn improves learning. Two such examples are where a mother discovered her son was arriving late to school most days from the online attendance information and where a father restricted pocket money to his son depending upon the conduct log reports available online," says Serco's Laurie Chivers.
Homework can be the bane of many parents' lives. Having to rely on a child's account of what must be done and when can be less than ideal. In addition, it can be difficult to know how best to help with today's homework, which can bear little resemblance to that remembered from one's own childhood. Unfortunately, this can lead to misunderstandings and frayed tempers.
Marica Walker, a parent at Blatchington Mill school says, "Where both my daughter and I found (the VLE) useful was if she had perhaps not fully understood her homework assignment. Previously it would have been difficult to help, but with the parents' portal we could log on and look at the homework log and figure it out together."
"Without having to nag or pester their children, parents can discuss assignments, already knowing what it may be about and when it must be completed by. Many mums and dads have told us that they feel their children really appreciate the fact that they are taking an interest in their school life," adds Mark Leighton.
Once you have parents logging on regularly, achievement data helps further develop home-school support. General school news finds a good home online and events can be publicised more easily. Examination dates and times are also popular with parents, particularly information on what revision has been set, so a parent can see everything they need to support their child.
Schools have also found that parent/teacher evenings have become more valuable as a result of parent portals on the VLE, as parents arrive already briefed on the basics of their child's behaviour and progress and therefore a deeper analysis of goals and targets can be achieved.
But what of those families that may still not have access to a computer? "About 20% of pupils - that's 2 million [young people] - can't go online at home and that figure has plateaued," Valerie Thompson, chief executive of the ELearning Foundation told the Guardian. "Unless something happens, that digital divide will remain."
Gary Swabel, business development director of ICT provider Redstone also believes that schools have a duty to train parents how to get the most out of the VLE. "Schools should be thinking hard about home access, not just in terms of the hardware and software, but the processes involved: what information should be made available to the different stakeholder groups - pupils, parents, teachers, governors and how? It's not enough to simply offer home access - people need to know how to use it," he says.
Val Cameron, headteacher at The Park Lane Primary and Nursery School (which has gone live with online parental communication using Capita) has this advice for schools looking to use their VLE to strengthen links with parents. "Ideally have one system to record all your information on children. It's time to get rid of all the different spreadsheets around school. My recommendation is to use your management information system. This will make it easier to share data on your pupils.
"When class teachers enter information about pupils they need to ensure that it is correct and appropriate to be shared so that no data cleansing is required. For example, if a behaviour incident occurs then parents should not have access to the names of other children involved. Understand that everyday data for school use may be confusing for parents. Make it clear and simple and provide benchmarks so parents can compare their child against others. Remember not to bombard parents with too much information," she adds.
Most schools find that there is a core of parents who can always be relied upon to participate and communicate. The most exciting aspect of the VLE is that it allows the flexibility and convenience necessary to establish closer links with "invisible" parents who may be unable to attend parents meetings or who may not be confident enough to make contact with the school in any other way. The internet is a great leveller, but it is essential to ensure that everyone has access to it - especially if the school is looking to go down the route of paperless reports.
There are various schemes operating around the country where children are loaned laptops or computers are leased to families. Birmingham has a student access-at-home scheme that has been running for two years, and more than 18,000 pupils have received computers and there are now plans to create a city-wide wifi cloud to create free internet access. "I call it 'the classroom in the bedroom'," says Andy Jackson, head of service delivery at Birmingham city council.
"The secret is to keep things simple," he adds That includes going for one type of computer, so that servicing and support are cheaper and easier, "My motto is: Don't spend money twice." The classroom in the bedroom will provide a learning curve for everyone - local authorities, schools and parents as well as students. But it is a great opportunity for parents to be able to use the internet to get closer to their children and their education.
