February 2010     The Australian Parents Council (APC) has released an important on-line resource for parents: How to get the best out of the My School website.

APC executive director, Ian Dalton, said that with the amount of 'experts' promulgating conflicting opinions about My School, APC felt it was important that a readily accessible resource be made available to parents that provided simple, unbiased but accurate information about My School so that parents can use the website effectively, but with a sense of proportion.

“APC research across a number of years has clearly shown that parents want good information about schools,” Mr Dalton said. “My School provides good information, but it has limitations, is open to misinterpretation if not considered in context and might be relied upon too heavily by parents in making judgements about the performance of schools. It is therefore important that parents are helped to understand and interpret My School information, so that they can use it to its best effect.”

Mr Dalton added that there are a number of fact sheets on the My School website, but many parents are time poor, so APC's intention in producing 'How to get the best out of the My School website' was to distil the information for parents and provide context using APC's research findings.

The brochure can be downloaded from the Latest News area of the APC website www.austparents.edu.au

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