Below, find a number of activities which promote parent engagement.
Communicating with parents
Using a variety of communications methods can help improve communications. Consider:
- Print such as postcards, calendars, daily logs/agendas
- Media such as email, text messaging, automated or personal phone calls
- Face-to-face such as parent seminars or meetings
Translating information into different languages and pointing parents to existing resources available in multiple languages increases the number of parents you can reach.
Newsletters, the school’s website and social media channels are proven methods for reaching parents. Some tips to maximize the communications impact include:
Tips for newsletters:
- At the beginning of the school year, create a calendar of topics and submission deadlines for the year
- Invite parents who have expertise on a topic to be a guest writer
- Dedicate a spot in the newsletter for parent communication and use the same spot consistently
- Invite parent volunteers to translate the newsletter into relevant languages
- Place a link to the newsletter on the school’s website
- Request regular feedback from parents about the content, format, readability and relevance
Tips for the school website – Parent’s Corner
- Have a regular space dedicated for parent information (for example, Parent’s Corner) and use this space to communicate about school events, to showcase students’ work (such as art projects or short stories) and to display parenting or health information videos and tips
- Post parent surveys on the website
- Include a link to the HaltonParents.ca which has parenting articles, blogs, and videos
Tips for social media
- Review board-wide social media guidelines as a first step
- Invite parents with expertise in social media to help with writing, maintaining or monitoring
- Ask parents what interests them to guide the information being created and posted
- Recruit youth to support the school’s social media initiative
- Invite parents to connect with HaltonParents.ca, Twitter or Facebook for parenting information
Giving parents a voice
Giving parents opportunities to be heard helps school staff to understand community issues from a parent perspective and engages parents in decision making about important issues that impact their families
Parent feedback can be used to gain insight and is useful for gauging:
- Satisfaction with classroom teaching strategies and extracurricular programs
- Level of current family engagement at home and at school
- Priority community issues; and
- Need for specific family services, programs or events.
Tips for gathering parent feedback:
- Ensure that an ethnically diverse group of parents contribute feedback
- Use a variety of methods to collect parents’ feedback, including:
- Focus groups held in, or outside of school
- Community forum
- Social media - blogs or Facebook
Tips for parent surveys:
- Be clear about the purpose of the survey and have parents help to develop the survey questions
- Pilot test the questions with a small group of parents before sending it out
- Consider the most convenient time and method for parents to receive the survey
- Assure parents that action is possible if they identify changes that they would like to see implemented
Hosting parent sessions and events
Get parents involved in planning activities that will:
- meet the needs and interests of families attending your school
- increase their involvement with their child and their child’s learning
Tips for hosting events:
- Involve parents and students in planning events and workshops
- Plan events around activities (family fitness night, literacy night, curriculum night, musicals/plays, sports events) and/or meals/refreshments (BBQs, dinner, coffee)
- Look for a variety of funding opportunities to support the event
- Consider convenient dates, times and locations to encourage parent attendance
- Host an event off-site at a safe and welcoming community location other than the school to increase accessibility and community connections
- Use video conferencing where possible: have the option for parents to participate from home via video link if they are not able to attend
How to plan coffee talks for your school
Purpose of a coffee chat:
- Create opportunities for parents to connect and socialize
- Help connect parents to volunteer opportunities within the school
- Bring more caring adults into the building
- Provide information and enhance learning on a given topic
Steps:
- Getting started
Tips to recruit a parent coordinator
- Approach school council
- Post a job “call out” for an expression of interest
- Send email to all parents
- Use the school board telephone system “synrevoice”
- Personally invite parents that you have existing relationships with
- For Secondary Schools: Use Grade 8 parent nights to advertise opportunities
- Assessment – What do parents want to know about?
- Obtain information about the needs of your parents (common issues, hot topics, community related issues)
- Collect information in a parent wide school survey
- Provide a list of popular topics
- Create a list of topics and seek out speakers from local community organizations at ‘low cost or no cost’
- Set a consistent time and day for meetings throughout the year
- Decide together with parents, the best time of the day to offer the event (during the school day, in the evening, or both)
- Provide a sample agenda that can be used to structure each session
Time |
Agenda Item |
9:45 |
Join us for coffee and talk with other parents |
10:00 |
Speaker presents topic highlights |
10:20 |
Interactive discussion and sharing |
10:40 |
Questions and further sharing |
10:50 |
Principal updates |
11:00 |
Wrap-up and thank you for coming |
- Evaluation and planning for the next year
- Use a standard evaluation to assess how each topic/presentation was received
- Create a schedule of topics and speakers in the spring to prepare for the upcoming school year. Remember to invite grade 8 parents from feeder schools to get involved in planning for these events.
Providing volunteer opportunities
Parents volunteering for school activities fosters positive relationships between youth and adults, creates a welcoming environment and a sense of community. Parents can be offered different ways to become involved, such as:
Tips for increasing parent volunteering
- Be strategic in how you ask parents to become involved:
- Ask early in the year
- Make the request small and simple
- Ask parents whose children are new to the school
- Ask parents about interest, passions, skills
- Acknowledge volunteer contributions through notes of thanks and recognition
- Spread the workload among parents
- Align volunteering opportunities with parents’ skill sets, expertise and interests
Parent-teacher interviews
Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to engage parents and discuss ways for them to become involved at your school.
Parent-teacher interviews
Parent-teacher interviews are a great opportunity to engage parents and discuss ways for them to become involved at your school.
Tips for parent-teacher interviews
- Advise parents ahead of time when they will be receiving reports on their child’s progress
- Consider sending parents information on how they can prepare for the parent-teacher interview
- Encourage staff and parents to share ideas on how they can work together to help the child/youth meet their goals
- Advise parents ahead of time when they will be receiving reports on their child’s progress
- Consider sending parents information on how they can prepare for the parent-teacher interview
- Encourage staff and parents to share ideas on how they can work together to help the child/youth meet their goals
Parent-teacher interviews provide an opportunity for the parents to build a bridge between the home and school. Collaborative relationships between teachers and parents help to improve students’ chances for success.
Harris and Goodall, 2007 People for Education
Resources
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