FEATURE: PARENTAL ENGAGEMENT
Do tell the parents
work and activities at home is the key one today, especially for parents of primary-age children. Then there’s reading to and with them, attending activities (in normal times) and supporting their interests. Encouraging and supporting these activities will
only help to strengthen the relationship between parents and schools. For some schools it is already a given, but for others it may still be an ambition and a challenge to achieve. However, there are some simple steps that schools can take to simplify the process and bring parents more fully into the learning conversation.
S
chools are closer to parents than ever before as a result of the pandemic. In our
final feature this month, Simon Hay, co- founder and CEO at Firefly, looks at parental engagement and outlines a number of ways the relationship between schools and parents can be improved to deliver real benefits into the future.
The long shadow cast by Covid has revealed a few fault lines – and many strengths – in our education system. One aspect very clearly highlighted is the
relationship between home and school, because
parents up and down the country have had to play a much more active and prominent role in their children’s education. I heard it described in December as the ‘biggest parental engagement pilot ever’. The pandemic has shown just how vital the
parent-school relationship is, but school leaders and teachers have always known that it is important. They know that good communications will result in high levels of parent engagement and that this this will have a strong, positive impact on student outcomes. There are various ways parents can be involved in the education of their child. Supervising their
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www.education-today.co.uk
Enlist parental support from the outset There’s a honeymoon period when both parent and child are excited by all the rich possibilities of a new learning environment. This is a teaching moment: the ideal time to promote good communication habits and a collaborative approach. Investing time in induction will save hours in the long term. Positive interactions with parents from the start to ease the way for more challenging conversations later on.
Get personal Parents will become more engaged in school life if they receive messages and information from the school that are relevant and interesting. Thinking carefully about the information you send to parents will help you avoid ‘spamming’ them with unnecessary information. Make sure that your communications reflect your school’s messaging and remember to use different information channels for different types of information. For
February 2021
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