Parents make a difference.
In fact, they make the greatest contribution to their child’s education at home.
Research shows that Positive Parental Behaviour is vital. This includes all forms of Positive Parental Behaviour in everyday activities and when their children are not in school. This idea lies at the heart of what is meant by parental engagement.
Regardless of what the research states, common sense tells us that engaged parents equal successful students. There is no doubt that parent involvement is critical to a student’s success.
How can schools enhance parents’ engagement better post-Covid?
- Parenting – Schools can offer information and tools that help parents better understand their child’s development and create a home that facilitates learning.
- Communicating – Schools can communicate important school events and information with parents for better child growth and development.
- Volunteering – Schools can recruit parents and families to volunteer at the school and community events.
- Learning at home – Parents need information on classroom activities so they can help their children continue the learning at home.
- Decision making – Parents want to be involved in important school decisions. Survey says parents teachers meetings and community discussions provide that opportunity.
- Community Collaboration – Schools can develop partnerships with neighbouring businesses and organizations to provide services to the community to enhance positive parental involvement.
Dimensions of Parenting Style based on NPP Questionnaire
Do Schools effectively reach out to parents?
So what can schools do to promote and improve parent engagement? What’s the best way to increase parent engagement? In what areas should schools focus on their energy?
If you’re not getting the desired response from your engagement efforts, it may be that you’re not communicating with them effectively. Many schools still rely on traditional forms of communication, like emailing newsletters in the form of PDF attachments or sending home paper announcements in students’ folders.
You probably know as well as anyone that parents are busy these days. There may be two working parents in the home who are trying to juggle their child’s growth and development with their careers. Schools likely have many students who are raised by single parents.
To reach these busy parents, schools have to make communication convenient and quick to read. You have to target your outreach efforts in a way that is more likely to be received. For most parents that means online communication. Here are four best practices that schools can adopt:
1. Create a Mobile friendly parent strategy
More than anything else, parents want information. They want to know how their children are doing in school. They want to know what activities are on the horizon for their children. They want to know when assignments are due, as this will help the child’s growth and development.
Then the next strategy will be to provide a notification system that allows parents to receive instant, user-specific targeted messages, voice, email, social media, and website alerts for time-sensitive news and information.
Also Read: 5 reasons why a physical learning environment is the best for students in the long run
2. Engage parents in school activities
There is no better way to promote engagement than to share stories of other parents who are actively involved; positive parental behaviour can effectively influence other parents.
Ask the involved parents to contribute to your school’s blog or newsletter. Maybe a parent who volunteers in the classroom could share his or her story and why volunteering is so beneficial.
A parent who was in a parent-teacher meeting or who helped organize a school function could write about his or her positive experience and share it with other parents.
3. Embrace social media
Your student’s parents are on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and LinkedIn. You must go where they spend their time if you want to reach them. That means making a social media outreach effort.
Use Facebook to post links to your blog, announcements and other important information. Facebook is also great for pictures, so use it to post images from your most recent event. This way, interested parents can get involved in the next event.
4. Feedback to improve school management
Want parents’ input on important school decisions? Get them involved early through online surveys. Schools can use a service like Google forms to create and distribute online surveys to parents. Email, social media, and even the school website can be used for outreach.
A short, five-question survey could be enough to pique a parent’s interest in a particular menu or to spark some online conversation. Suppose you could send out a survey about changes to the school’s art program and a parent would complete it and become more interested in the outcome.
That could drive them to attend meetings, participate in planning committees, and contribute to the school’s decision-making process, resulting in positive parental behaviour.
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