Partnerships with parents: why they’re good for children, teachers and parents
Strong parent-school partnerships are one of the best ways to support children’s learning, development and wellbeing. These partnerships also have benefits for teachers and parents.
Children whose parents have strong partnerships with their schools:
- attend school more regularly
- usually feel positive about school
- perform better at school
- feel valued because their parents are taking an interest in their school lives
- develop positive social skills by watching parents and school staff interact respectfully
- have better social, physical and emotional wellbeing
- are more likely to go on to TAFE, university or apprenticeships.
When parents work in partnership with schools, teachers and other school staff:
- have higher job satisfaction
- experience less stress
- can tailor their approaches to learning and teaching because they have more insight into children’s needs
- can work together with parents to foster children’s learning and wellbeing.
Parents who have good partnerships with schools:
- get to know teachers and staff better, which improves communication
- feel empowered to share information about children’s strengths, interests, needs and anything else that might affect children’s learning
- experience less stress, because they know they can work with staff on concerns about children’s learning or development.
Strong partnerships with parents can also mean that teachers and other school staff get to know the community better. This allows the school to offer services that are relevant to the community’s needs. This can improve community wellbeing and give the school the opportunity to work with community groups.
Building partnerships with parents is important not just in schools but in early childhood education and care services too. If you’re an early childhood educator, you can use many of the suggestions in this article to build beneficial partnerships with the parents you work with.
Getting to know families: the foundation of strong partnerships
Getting to know families is key to developing strong partnerships. When you get to know families, you can better connect with and support children and parents, based on their circumstances.
One way to get to know families is to use a questionnaire before children start at your school. You could ask questions like the following:
- What are you and your child hoping to get from our school?
- How do you like to be kept informed about school?
- What kind of information do you need to help us to support you?
- In what ways do you think you might like to be involved in our school?
- Does your child have any additional learning or other needs?
- Does your family have any special circumstances or support needs?
When you know your families better, you can provide options to suit their needs. For example, you might offer school information in community languages for parents with limited English. Or perhaps you could invite families with no email or poor internet connections to use computers in your school library. Or parents who work full time might appreciate out-of-hours meeting times.
You can also offer a range of ways for parents to get involved, like school excursions or working bees, parents committees, and events like Harmony Day, Chinese New Year, NAIDOC Week or Easter Parade. This kind of involvement helps to strengthen the sense of partnership between you and the families you support.
When parents have or can easily get information about your school, they’re more likely to feel comfortable and confident about working in partnership with you. It’s important to make sure your school website is up to date. It’s also important for parents to know who to contact if they need information or support from the school.
Establishing partnerships: classroom teachers and parents
For classroom teachers, a welcome or greeting is a great way to get a partnership going. This greeting could be a note or an email, but just make sure it’s accessible for parents from low-literacy backgrounds, parents who speak languages other than English, and parents who have limited email or internet access.
You could use your greeting to give a short summary of your philosophy and teaching practices. Parents aren’t teaching experts, so avoid professional jargon and use plain English that everyone can understand.
The greeting can also be a chance for you to set out classroom policies, like what the school does to encourage positive behaviour and handle challenging behaviour. It can also be used to let parents know that they can contact you with any queries or concerns.
And if you send a welcome greeting, you can also take the opportunity to learn more from parents, perhaps by including a short questionnaire. For example, you could ask how they think their child is going at school, what they hope to achieve during the year, whether their family or child has any additional needs, and how they’d like to be contacted.
It’s always good to let parents know what the school policy is for contacting teachers – for example, in informal conversations before and after school, or by email, phone or appointment. Your school might also invite all parents to a class meeting in the first or second week.
Keeping in regular touch: classroom teachers and parents
After you’ve settled into class with your students, parents will appreciate regular updates on what’s happening.
The more you can tell parents about what’s happening in the classroom and playground, the better your partnership will be. And when you have regular contact about everyday classroom activities and experiences, it makes it easier to talk with parents if there’s ever a problem.
There are a few ways you can keep in regular touch with parents.
You could choose one parent per day and speak to them either on the phone or in person, before or after class. Try to offer plenty of ‘good news’ about children’s behaviour and progress. This is better than communicating only when there’s a problem.
An electronic newsletter is also a good idea. Some teachers use apps, websites or emails for news. Whichever option you choose, you can use it to:
- Let parents know what has been happening.
- Tell parents about upcoming events.
- Invite parents to help in the classroom.
Learning isn’t limited to the classroom. Encouraging parents to continue children’s learning at home can enhance education. You can do this by updating parents on children’s learning and suggesting what they can do at home. For example, ‘We’re practising fractions in class. Your children could show you the fractions they learned by adding up slices of apple’.