Parental engagement

“We are a group of organisations working together with a vision that every child is supported by their parents to fulfil their potential”

In the UK not all children have a fair shot at education.

Despite being a focus for all schools, children from disadvantaged backgrounds are still months behind their peers. At the current rate it will take 500 years to close this gap. The system needs to change.

Parents are the key to narrowing the gap. Parents’ engagement in their child’s learning has a greater impact than the quality of the school. But this potential is yet to be unlocked.

By partnering with schools we are motivating and empowering parents to have this impact. Together we’re creating an environment in which learning spans a meaningful partnership across schools and homes.

Parental Engagement Policy Group

To achieve our vision for every child to be supported at home to fulfil their potential we realise that scaling our programmes alone will not suffice. If we are going to reshape the education system to meaningfully engage all parents, then we cannot do it on our own. In 2019 we launched The Parental Engagement Policy Group, bringing together policy makers, charities working to address educational inequality, parental engagement organisations and researchers.

Some of the organisations involved in this effort are listed below.

The Parental Engagement Policy Group will drive a shared understanding across the sector of effective parental engagement and its pivotal role in addressing the attainment gap. Through collaboration with schools, DfE and Ofsted we will work to transform parents’ role in education.

We recently ran a webinar on the impact of COVID-19, and how we can support disadvantaged parents in their engagement in their children’s learning at this time, with the following speakers:

Tom Harbour (Host) – Founder & CEO, Maths with Parents
Ariel Kalil – Director of Behavioural Insights and Parenting Lab, University of Chicago
Kerry-Jane Packman – Executive Director, Parentkind
Janet Goodall – Associate Professor, Swansea University
Ian Mearns MP – Member of the Education Select Committee
Jonathan Douglas – CEO, National Literacy Trust
Tilly Browne – Primary Headteacher, Reach Academy Feltham

You can view the full recording of the webinar on Vimeo, and if you’d like us to keep you informed about future events, please register using the form below.

Let's keep in touch

To stay informed about our parental engagement policy activities, sign up below: