Parental participation significantly impacts learning The establishment of strong links between schools and families are essential to realizing optimal learning outcomes. However, a paucity of literature in relation to parent’s voices exists. In Australia, there is a strong government imperative for a focus on building stronger parent partnerships for learning. Additionally, since 2007, there has been a major streamlining and transformative agenda of Queensland’s education facilities under the State Schools of Tomorrow initiative (Queensland Government, 2007). As a consequence of this government strategy, a number of smaller schools were closed and many others were amalgamated to become larger hubs of education provision. The site of the research reported in this paper was of the latter, situated approximately 30 km from Brisbane, on the coastal fringe of south east Queensland. This school was opened in 2011, seeing the amalgamation of three previously existing smaller rural/urban schools, visioned as enhancing educational opportunities, enhancing partnerships, and enhancing sustainably (Queensland Government, 2007). The school now has 700 students: 28 classes from preparatory to year 6 and a complement of 80 staff. This paper presents findings of a study of small-scale locality (Eriksen, 2001), focused on constructing a comprehensive investigation of the ways in which a pedagogical focus on parent engagement and connection to school from the outset affects the ways in which the school is positioned as a hub within this newly amalgamated community. Therefore the research questions are: How do parents experience transition to this school context? How does the school promote the participation and engagement of families and the community? In a research partnership the goal of developing an inclusive, engaged community culture was explored. A participatory action research approach was adopted and a process of continual collaborative critical reflection (Henderson & Noble, 2015) allowed the participants to reflect on their daily actions and interactions, as teachers, school leadership and parents in the early years worked on intentionally developing a culture of inclusion. A phenomenographic approach was adopted and data from semi-structured interviews with parents analyzed to reveal the variation of the ways in which parents experienced the transition and engagement with the school community. This analysis revealed four categories of description: Connectedness, Socialization, Learning Partnerships and Communication. While specific to this context, these findings may also provide new understandings for other educators in building authentic and sustainable learning partnerships with parents and their community in current neoliberal times.

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