The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has released new guidance (external link) to help schools engage with their parents to “improve children’s academic outcomes”. This guidance pulls together the most recent research on parental engagement supplemented with a survey of 180 schools in England and interviews with 16 educational professionals.
The EEF outline that, as there is an “established link” between parental engagement and outcomes for pupils, schools should be positive and optimistic about the possibly of working more closely with parents. The guidance offers four practical tips for schools which will help them better engage parents. These are:
- critically review how you work with parents;
- provide practical strategies to support learning at home;
- tailor school communications to encourage positive dialogue about learning;
- offer more sustained and intensive support where needed.
Particularly relevant for those governing, the EEF recommend that schools should take a strategic and planned approach to engaging with parents. With evidence mixed about the effectiveness of various parental engagement strategies, schools need to understand that parental engagement is not easy and will require “sustained effort and support”.
With most schools currently without a parental engagement plan, the EEF recommend that schools should begin by talking to a range of parents and exploring age appropriate evidence-informed strategies (examples of “what works” are provided in the guidance). They should then establish a plan and monitor this plan in line with a set of “defined aims”. The guidance also encourages schools to engage in better “two–way” communication with parents. The governing board play a critical role in facilitating this by fostering an ethos and culture which values parental engagement.