The start of a new school year is a great opportunity for schools to build and renew relationships with families. First impressions matter: how a school welcomes parents in September can shape how confident and involved they feel for the rest of the year. By working in partnership with parents, schools can build positive relationships, valuing the important role that they have in their children’s learning.
Getting this right isn’t always straightforward. But with a few intentional steps early in the term, schools can lay the groundwork for stronger, more genuine partnerships with families — ones that last well beyond the first few weeks.
Below are some practical, tried-and-tested ways to build parental engagement at the start of term.
Building positive relationships with parents
Many families have had a bad experience of schooling and feel disconnected from their child’s learning. Take time to get to know your families. If your school addresses parents using ‘Mum’ or ‘Dad’ , think about using their names instead and give them space to share their own ideas about their children’s education. They are experts in their children so involve them in the process of setting achievable goals.
At your first parent meetings of the year, discuss parents’ own aspirations for their child’s learning as well as the targets and goals you have for them. Think about how the meeting is set up. Does it reflect the partnership you want to achieve? For example, make sure parents are able to sit in adult chairs and not the children’s chairs.
“Lots of our parents have had a bad school experience themselves and can feel intimidated by school and teachers. Very few of our families were engaging in the worksheets we were previously sending home as they did not have the confidence to ask us how they could support their child with them. We have been using Learning with Parents since 2021 and this has made home-learning become much more meaningful.”
Julie Shingler, Causeway Green Primary School
Supporting parental engagement at home
Learning doesn’t stop at the school gate, and small changes to how schools communicate can make it much easier for families to stay involved at home:
Build in two-way communication: Parental engagement works best as a conversation, not a one-way stream of instructions. Give families a simple way to feed back on what’s working, what their child enjoyed, or where they got stuck.
Celebrate effort, not just results: Recognising when a family has made time for home learning — through a mention in a newsletter, a comment at pick-up, or a note home — reinforces that their contribution is noticed and valued, encouraging them to keep going.
Keep tasks small and specific: Rather than a vague ask like “read with your child,” give parents something concrete and quick — a five-minute activity, a specific question to talk through, or a short passage to read together. The smaller and clearer the ask, the more likely families are to actually do it.
Reduce barriers to access: Not every family has the same time, resources, or confidence to support learning at home. Where possible, provide clear, step-by-step instructions. A short video or audio explanation can work wonders for parents who find written instructions harder to follow.
Building children's enthusiasm for home learning
When you introduce a new topic, share it with your class and talk about what they’ll be doing with their families at home. Acknowledge and celebrate it when children complete activities or bring in something they’ve done together — a quick mention or a photo shared in class goes a long way.
Children who feel proud of their home learning are often motivated to talk about it with their families off their own back. By discussing topics in class and celebrating achievements, teachers can build genuine enthusiasm for learning at home, which in turn boosts engagement in reading and learning more broadly.
Improving communication with parents
Face-to-face events can be one of the most effective ways to build confidence and trust with families. One of our schools organised a ‘Books and biscuits‘ event — a relaxed, informal opportunity for parents to come into school, which also gave teachers the chance to meet them and provide support.
Outside of organised events, everyday moments matter too. Some teachers like to approach families during drop-off and pick-up to praise the learning they’ve seen happening at home.
“We held an in-school parent event where we went through the process of signing up, shared an example video and had the parent letters available in different languages. Parents who had previously used the programme were able to advocate how easy it is to use and how much their children have enjoyed it. I was able to solve any problems there and then and having the face-to-face conversations made this event feel very personal.”
– Michala Warner, Edward Worlledge Ormiston Academy
Other top tips for supporting parental engagement
At Learning with Parents, we always recommend that schools invite parents to an in-school launch when launching the programme to highlight to parents how important their role in their child’s learning is. Children could fill in our ‘postcard invite’ inviting their parents to the launch! Make the launch interactive and allow parents to try some of the activities together with their child.
This launch could also be an opportunity to let parents know that you want to work with them and involve them throughout the year in their child’s learning. Establish a way to communicate that works well for both you and families – you might want to ask families their preferred way to communicate with the school.
Use weekly newsletters or assemblies to celebrate family achievements and let your parents know that you value their input in supporting their child’s learning.
All parents want to support their child’s learning but some face so many barriers they can feel disempowered or lack the confidence in how to help. Building effective parental engagement can take time but making a couple of small changes can go a long way in supporting the families in your school and increasing parents’ engagement in learning at home.
Read some more top tips for encouraging parental engagement!
