Understanding the importance of communicating with, involving and supporting parents/guardians

1. Why is communication important?

1.1. Strong communication between teachers and parents is crucial for building a sense of community between home and school

1.2. Schools that successfully engage parents are inclusive, in that they reach out to parents who may not have felt included, or to families whose children may be experiencing challenges

1.3. Positive, authentic family-school partnerships are focused on enhancing student success

1.4. When parents are encouraged to be involved and engaged in the school community, this has a very positive effect on student achievement

1.5. Creating authentic connections helps to foster caring, inclusive classroom environments, where open conversations can flourish and all voices are honoured

1.6. Building trust with parents and students is essential in developing productive and supportive school-home relationships

2. The Role of the Teacher

2.1. In order to maximize effective communication with parents, teachers must consider all avenues of communication

2.2. Teachers must take into consideration the uniqueness of each family based on their own cultural practices, and respond accordingly

3. What Can We Learn From This?

3.1. With every positive interchange, this will increase trust and build stronger relationships, not only with individual parents, but with the community as a whole

3.2. In order to support student learning, schools should be working to build positive relationships and provide parents with strategies to create a strong educational culture in their homes

3.3. Parents who have confidence in the school can make a significant difference in their children’s learning and future success

4. Avenues of communication

4.1. Newsletters

4.2. Agendas/Notebooks

4.3. Report Cards

4.4. Phone Calls

4.5. Parent/Teacher Conferences

4.6. Online Announcements

4.7. Websites/Blogs

5. The Issues At Hand

5.1. Teachers require adequate knowledge and skills to effectively communicate with the parent community, however, many teachers are not trained for this

5.2. Research shows that many parents and guardians feel unsupported, misunderstood, and overwhelmed

5.3. A parent’s negative school experiences may influence their relationship with the teacher, regardless of how positive the relationship is, which can become problematic if it causes tension that impacts a child’s behaviour or academic process

5.4. A lack of technology can limit teacher-parent communication opportunities; teachers should never assume that students/parents have regular access to computers/internet at home

6. Resources

6.1. Ontario Ministry of Education. (2012) Parent engagement. Capacity Building Series K-12. Retrieved from http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/literacynumeracy/inspire/research/CBS_parentEngage.pdf

6.2. Graham-Clay, S. (2005). Communicating with parents: Strategies for teachers. The School Community Journal 15(1), 117-130. Retrieved from http://www.adi.org/journal/ss05/Graham-Clay.pdf