It’s commonly understood that working in a respectful partnership with parents and carers is important. But did you know that effective parental engagement can boost young children’s learning by five months? That eye-catching finding comes from the Education Endowment Foundation’s Early Years Toolkit, an accessible summary of the best available research evidence.
But it asks us a big question: how can we achieve this in practice?
What Is Parental Engagement?
Parental engagement covers everything from the welcome you give parents and carers as they come into your setting, to your ongoing communication and how you respond to feedback, compliments and complaints. In this article, I am going to focus on the types of parental engagement which can boost children’s development, well-being and learning.
Taking It Step by Step
Very few of us have taken part in any professional development around parental engagement. All too often, it’s just assumed that we’ll learn about this ‘on the job’ and watch how others do it. But if you’re leading a setting, having a clear strategy will help you get the best results.
What Are You Already Doing When It Comes To Parental Engagement?
This is a good place to start. Have a look at your communications which focus on children’s learning and wellbeing. How clearly do you communicate what children have learnt, rather than just saying what they’ve done? It’s common to share photos or to have a chat at the end of the day to share what children have been doing. But do you explain clearly how this has helped their learning or supported their well–being and confidence?
Here is a practical example. Maybe you could replace ‘Adam had a lovely time at Forest School’ with ‘Adam said “look leaves” at Forest School. He’s starting to put two words together now. I expanded on that by saying ‘There are leaves on the trees’”.
You could add by saying: ‘At home, you could try expanding what he says into a short sentence too. When we work together on this, it will really help Adam’s progress.’
You might find that you don’t have time to share as many observations. But the ones you do share will be more informative and give parents ideas for supporting their child at home. They will have more impact.
The infographic from the Progress Check at Age 2 can also prompt conversations with parents and carers.
