Research School Network: Engaging Parents: Tips for Schools The key recommendations from the EEF’s guidance report

There are compelling reasons to ensure that schools’ relationships with parents/​carers are strong, not least the fact that the home learning environment has a significant effect on how well children do at school. But beyond parents’ evenings and written reports (although many schools are dropping these), there is less consistency on how schools approach parental engagement.
What does the evidence say schools should do? This is one of those areas where the evidence is less extensive, so in this blog we will explore some of the ​‘best bets’ according to the EEF’s ​‘Working With Parents to Support Children’s Learning’ guidance report.

Provide Practical Strategies to Support Learning at Home

It’s important to support parents with specific actions to support their children, rather than simply give general information and curriculum content.

Depending on the age range of pupils, this will take a different form. It is common for schools to promote the idea of parents reading with their children, but there should be attempts to make this more interactive, as parent-child interactions are an important ingredient for success. The EEF recommend the ORIM framework:

Opportunities—for example, providing books or other print materials;
Recognition—noticing and valuing children’s early achievements;
Interactions—sharing and working on activities together; and
Modelling—parents leading by example, demonstrating a skill.

For homework, it is best if ​‘short and focused’ at primary, and about one and two hours at secondary. The benefit of homework increases with age, so long as the quality is high. High quality homework would be tied to main class teaching and feedback would be received.

Parental support for homework is most useful in helping pupils to develop good habits, including ​‘goal-setting, planning, perseverance, and the management of time, materials, attentiveness, and emotions. This blog from Dixons Kings Academy is an example of how we can support parents with their understanding of successful approaches.

Tailor school communications to encourage positive dialogue about learning

Communications with home are more effective if they are ​‘personalised, linked to learning, and framed positively’. The more personal, the better: face-to-face, telephone calls or directly addressed text messages all fare better than generic letters home in generating engagement with schools.

In the early years and primary school, messages should focus on activities that families can complete together, games they can play, or facts/​tips that highlight particular skills. At secondary, factual information relating to academic progress and upcoming tasks seems to have more impact. Any requests of parents to support their children should be about general approaches rather than curriculum content. 

Text messages are a relatively new approach where evidence is emerging. We recommend spending time reading this section of the guidance report and some of the studies it cites if you are intending to hone this approach. You can read about how they are using text messages to improve attendance at St. Mary’s Catholic Academy in Blackpool here.

The report gives a useful series of questions to help you review your approach:

• Do you know how your parents view the school’s communication with them (for example, frequency, content, mode)?
• Does it give them the information they want?
• Are there any time-consuming communications that you currently use? Are these having the desired impact?
• Are you reaching the parents you want to?
• What do you do for parents who do not speak English or read well?
• What channels do parents have for contacting the school?
  

Offer more sustained and intensive support where needed

There will be occasions where more sustained and intensive support for parents is desirable, but there are a range of pitfalls when considering how to go about this.

Group-based sessions can be effective, but only when planned for carefully as they can be costly and often can have poor attendance. A welcoming environment, a convenient time and accessible location are all important. Speaking to parents face-to-face beforehand increases engagement and is more likely to lead to attendance. 

Communication is key to engagement, but poor communication is a barrier. Avoid education jargon, inaccessible language and a tone which stigmatises. Explore various ways to communicate, including parent ambassadors, referrals peers, advertising in local places. Build trust. Home visits can be useful, particularly with younger pupils and can be the most helpful first steps to engagement.