Four Pillars of Parental Engagement

Empowering schools to connect better with parents and pupils

Justin Robbins, Karen Dempster

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781781353950
• eBook ISBN: 9781781353981
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation générale

In this groundbreaking book, Justin Robbins and Karen Dempster offer a unique approach to the holy grail of parental engagement for the 21st century. Rather than setting it as a separate activity, they consider parental engagement as a planned, sustained and integral part of the whole-school approach: an approach which starts with the school vision and positions parents and schools equally as fundamental to student learning.

The authors describe the challenges of successful parental engagement encompassing both traditional approaches and the use of technology and examine these challenges through their four pillars model of knowledge, environment, culture and communication. They recognise that before any school can expect parental engagement as a 'given', there must be knowledge of the what, why, when, where and how concerning effective interaction and in this book they cover all bases, providing a toolkit of tried-and-tested approaches and strategies to choose from.

After all, the evidence shows that when families engage with the school's vision and provision, it is the children that ultimately benefit.

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Chapter 1

The Four Pillars of Parental Engagement Model

Whether or not you are aware that you have made one, every school makes a promise to its parents. This is created through what you and other people have said (and implied) about your school. Parents have formed expectations that need to be fulfilled. Your promise needs to be kept; otherwise, you risk giving parents a negative perception, perhaps even a negative experience, of your school. This will lead to difficult conversations with parents about the school falling short, followed by lots of negativity and potentially damaging feedback – possibly parents moving their child to another school.

Greater parental choice has led to more competition among schools and, in turn, a greater focus on pupil attraction and retention. To excel, schools need to adopt a customer experience mindset to parental engagement. The parent experience should be intentional and planned, carefully guiding parents through the critical moments of truth, when your school demonstrates how it will deliver on its promise to the school team, pupils, local community and, of course, parents.

The parent experience begins before their child goes to your school. Parents start to form an impression of what you are promising through what your marketing materials (e.g. your website) say about life at your school, what other parents say about your school and how your school and pupils are perceived in the local community. Every touchpoint plays a part in parental experience.

When you actively manage this experience through parental engagement, parents will have a positive impression of your school, which looks like the following figure.

If you can deliver the parent promise (almost) all of the time, you will build trust and strong parental relationships that will support you in the good and the more difficult times. As an additional benefit, parents will talk positively about your school as advocates. 2021

The four pillars of active parental engagement

The four pillars model is designed to create a great parent experience at your school. The model contains the four pillars of knowledge, environment, culture and communication. Each pillar has five outcomes. Achieving each of these will deliver active parental engagement for your school.

Keep in mind that each pillar should not be mutually exclusive. Working on one area of the model is likely to have an impact on other areas. For example, when you start to build parents’ knowledge about just how much positive influence they can have on their children’s learning, this may cause them to demand more information from you, which could have an effect on the communication pillar.

The four pillars parental engagement model is based on our belief that pupils have a significant influence on the engagement level of their parents. It is not simply a one-way process from school to parent, which is the general philosophy to which most parental engagement models seem to adhere. When you have successfully implemented the four pillars model, you will benefit from all of the following:

● You will develop a positive and trusted alliance with parents to support pupils.

● Parents and pupils will have a positive perception of your school.

● Your school will understand what is important to parents.

● Parents and pupils will feel involved and want to participate more in school life.

● An ongoing conversation about learning will spill out into the community.

We will now look at each pillar of the parental engagement model in more detail, so you can identify the outcomes you should be achieving for each one. In further chapters, we will help you to understand how you are doing against each of these pillars and what actions you can take to close any gaps, so that you can achieve your parental engagement goals.

Pillar 1: Knowledge

‘Knowledge is power’, as the saying goes. No one, not even the smartest of people, is able to take actions based on things they don’t know. Parents are no different – so, knowledge is the first pillar of the parental engagement model. 22

Clear expectations

Outcome: Parents, school team and pupils know what is expected of them in the partnership.

The need to set clear expectations is obvious and fundamental, which is why it is first in our list. What this looks like to school team members might be much more apparent than to parents and pupils. For example, it is certain that your school has performance outcomes and expectations for the school team related to their roles, even if these do not focus specifically on parental engagement. The Department for Education’s 2019 model teacher appraisal policy is not statutory, but schools can choose to adopt it. The policy states: ‘The objectives set for each teacher will, if achieved, contribute to the school’s plans for improving the school’s educational provision and performance and improving the education of pupils at that school’ (Department for Education, 2019: 8). There is no specific mention of parental engagement, although, of course, it is implied throughout. That said, based on our experience of other organisations, it is often said that ‘what gets measured gets done’. This may seem like a simple tick, but there is more to it than initially meets the eye. Specific actions such as ‘Understand X about each pupil’s family by X date’ would be a simple and demonstrable way to confirm what is expected of school team members (not just teachers) in their relationship with parents and pupils.

Parents, on the other hand, might be forgiven for having an expectation that it is the school’s responsibility to engage them. That is simply not true. The hypnotist Paul McKenna has said that he can’t hypnotise someone who doesn’t want to be hypnotised, and the same applies to engagement. Now, engagement isn’t in any way the same as hypnosis (actually it’s much more difficult!), but what it does have in common with it is that people who don’t want to be engaged probably won’t be. We are sure you can think of parents who you would put into this category. These individuals, along with parents at the other extreme – the eager ones responding to your emails, commenting on your Facebook posts and being the first on the list for parents’ evenings – may not be your principal target audience. Excluding these extremes, you are likely to be left with 75–95% of parents in your school, and these are the people you should be targeting. You need to ensure that they know that engagement is also their responsibility. This could be through the school–parent–pupil agreement you set up with them when their children join your school, a specific written communication or even a workshop. Either way, you need to make it crystal clear that there are shared responsibilities on both sides.

Finally, pupils – who are possibly the least likely members of the relationship to expect to have a responsibility for parental engagement. After all, it is all about the 23pupils, so why would they have any responsibility in the process? This is what we believe sets our model apart from anything that has gone before. Taking a family approach, and explicitly listening to pupils, will reap benefits over the long term. Many schools will have a pupil code of conduct, or something similar, that will tend to focus on pupil behaviour rather than pupil involvement. We believe that pupils should have explicit responsibilities that set out their role in engaging their parents. This could be part of a pupil code of conduct. However, it should be supported by something more practical and engaging, such as a pupil workshop which explores how pupils think their parents could be more involved.

Why, when and how

Outcome: Parents know why, when and how to support their children’s learning.

The rationale for the importance of parental engagement, as outlined in the introduction to this book, should be communicated to every single parent at your school, in a way that connects with their motivations and overcomes their concerns.

Our experience is that many school leaders assume that parents understand their critical role in their children’s education. The reality is that many parents will support their children, but don’t really understand the impact of them being fully engaged, partially engaged or completely disengaged. It is important that your school explains to parents exactly why their active engagement is necessary to the future success of their children, beyond the headlines they can read in the newspapers. This needs to be explained in terms that resonate and connect with what is valued by parents, not just schools. We would recommend using some of the evidence presented in the introduction as a starting point.

To explain the when and how, it would be fantastic to invite parents of recent pupils into your school to share their stories during an event or ask them to record a personal testimony that you could share afterwards. This could be supported by school resources such as a parent guidebook. The impact is likely to be greater coming from parents who are similar to them, and with whom they can identify, than hearing the same stories from a teacher. Obviously, the more diverse your parent champions, the more disposed the broader school audience will be to identify with them.

If this isn’t a possibility, you will need to think about specific examples that could apply to your own school situation and communicate these in clear and 24easy-to-digest ways. Whatever approach you take, it needs to be relevant to the different parent types at your school. We will discuss this in more detail later in the book.

From our research

How do parents feel about supporting their child’s learning?

Only 51% of parents felt valued by their child’s school for supporting their child’s learning; 21% felt undervalued and 28% expressed no preference. This is an important finding that schools could easily act upon. As human beings, we will generally do more of something when we feel valued for doing it. For example, a survey from the American Psychological Association (2012) found that feeling valued at work was linked to better physical and mental health, as well as higher levels of engagement, satisfaction and motivation – all the things that lead to healthy and productive relationships.

Technology

Outcome: Parents are able to use school technology, including portals, apps and tools.

In our experience, many schools make new portals, apps or online tools available to parents, but fail to provide adequate support and capability so they know how to use them. In some cases, they are introduced via an email with a link and parents are left to work out the rest for themselves. Best practice involves sharing new apps, websites and portals with the school team first, so they can use and explain them confidently. They are then introduced to the pupils, who are often the ones supporting parents. Finally, parents are given the opportunity to try them out – for example, at a parents’ event where they can be supported by members of the school team.

It is easy to assume that your new digital tool is simple to use, but from the perspective of a parent faced with trying to navigate new technology to understand how their child is doing at school or to book an appointment with a teacher, it can be extremely daunting and an immediate barrier to engaging with the school.

It is also essential to bear in mind the difficulties faced by parents who don’t have a computer or internet access. Those relying on a mobile phone may find that data 25caps and small screens prevent them from accessing some online tools. It is important to be sensitive to these situations and support these parents with alternatives where you can.

By understanding how we adapt to new ways of doing things and what makes us want to change – such as being open to using novel apps and online tools – schools can take a simple and effective human-focused approach to introducing new technology for parents. This will ensure that parents use the new tools and resources, and that your school achieves all of the intended benefits, including saving you time and money. The sa...

Table of contents

• Praise
• Title Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Note from the Authors
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Four Pillars of Parental Engagement Model
• Chapter 2: Where Are You Now?
• Chapter 3: Where Do You Go From Here?
• Chapter 4: Pillar 1: Knowledge
• Chapter 5: Pillar 2: Environment
• Chapter 6: Pillar 3: Culture
• Chapter 7: Pillar 4: Communication
• Final Thoughts
• Appendix I:: The Four Pillars of Parental Engagement
• Appendix II:: Parent Promise Workshop Guide
• Appendix III:: Parental Engagement Activity Template
• Appendix IV:: School Information Finder
• Appendix V:: School Communication Calendar
• Appendix VI:: A Traffic Light Approach to Managing Information
• Appendix VII:: Prepare Your School Message
• Bibliography
• Copyright