Research School Network: Working with parents to support children’s learning Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s learning
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Working with parents to support children’s learning
Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s learning
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by Unity Research School
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We know that levels of parental engagement are consistently associated with children’s academic outcomes. We also know that a parent’s job, education and income matters less to their child’s development than what they actually do with them.
Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s learning, and levels of parental engagement are consistently associated with better academic outcomes. Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Teaching and Learning Toolkit suggests that effective parental engagement can lead to learning gains of +3 months over the course of a year.
The EEF defines parental engagement as ‘the involvement of parents in supporting their children’s academic learning’.
It includes:
approaches and programmes which aim to develop parental skills such as literacy or IT skills;
general approaches which encourage parents to support their children with, for example reading or homework;
the involvement of parents in their children’s learning activities; and
more intensive programmes for families in crisis
Parental engagement is clearly an essential aspect of school practice and culture. It involves a wide range of those employed by any school – teachers, TAs, leaders, pastoral teams, student support staff, attendance officers, governors etc.
Using The Guidance Report
Intentional reflection and consideration of policy and practice is therefore of value in determining how to make further improvements in order to support learning, especially for those most disadvantaged or vulnerable within a school’s community.
However, as with most aspects of education, it is a nuanced and challenging area. Notably:
The EEF has tested a number of interventions designed to improve pupils’ outcomes by engaging parents in different types of skills development. The consistent message from these has been that it is difficult to engage parents in programmes.
‘The association between parental engagement and a child’s academic success is well established and there is a long history of research into parental engagement programmes. However, there is surprisingly little robust evidence about the impact of approaches designed to improve learning through increased parental engagement.’ EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit.
Therefore, access to clear, actionable guidance borne out of evidence as sent out in the guidance report and summary of recommendations is a welcome starting point for leaders and those influencing parental engagement.
Our ‘At A Glance’ one-side guide
Building on to the resource provided by the guidance report we’ve created a handy ‘one-sider’ – we hope you find it a useful developmental resource within professional development and school improvement. It:
summarises the four recommendations
provides quick links to the associated EEF resources
signposts and provides quick links to a range of high quality, readily available evidence forinformed, further reading
Possible themes for exploration, discussion and development might include:
As engagement is often easier to achieve with parents of very young children, how will we maintain parental engagement as children get older?
To what extent do school systems provide a flexible approach to allow parental engagement to fit around parents’ schedules?
How welcoming is our school for parents, especially those whose own experience of school may not have been positive?
What practical support, advice and guidance do we give to parents who are not confident in their ability to support their children’s learning, such as simple strategies to help early readers?
