Redesigning Schooling – 6: Engaging parents: why and how

In this sixth pamphlet in the Redesigning Schooling series “Engaging parents: why and how,” Professor Bill Lucas argues for the wholesale adoption of a strategy of parent, family and community engagement. He also makes the case for far higher levels of awareness among school leaders, teachers, parents and other community members about the kinds of parental engagement that really work – both to raise achievement and to develop learners who will thrive in the 21st century. Such activities need to be integral to school strategy, genuinely seen as important by all teachers, and regularly evaluated for their effectiveness.

Lucas argues the evidence for the benefits of a different, deeper, two-way engagement of parents in their children’s schooling is strong. Parents (and/or guardians, carers or other family members in some cases) are a major influence on a child’s success in life. While the quality of schools and the nature of the child’s peer group matter significantly, it is from the home that young people derive lasting effects on their character, mindset and attainment. Parents are, after all, a child’s first teacher well before the formal world of education is encountered. And while estimates vary, somewhere between 75% and 85% of a child’s waking hours are spent outside the school classroom.

In the vast majority of schools, the degree to which parents are or are not truly engaged is impossible to ascertain. This Redesigning Schooling initiative comes at a critical moment in England’s educational history. It offers all schools the chance to redesign what they do: to stop and think afresh about how they can engage parents as allies and champions for a new generation of talented, confident and resourceful learners.

This pamphlet signposts practical resources and provides an audit tool to help schools assess current practices and plan future development.