In its schools white paper, the Department for Education committed to “minimum expectations” for home-to-school partnerships as support for children’s education. It could prove to be a significant shift in the relationship between schools and families.
For years, parental engagement has been widely encouraged as good practice but rarely defined.
Data from our parent-friendly schools accreditation programme shows schools are generally engaging well with parents, but not yet as strategically as they could be.
The white paper has moved parental engagement from being a “nice to have” to a focus for all schools.
It’s part of a broader political recognition that improving outcomes for children requires stronger partnerships between schools and families.
When secretary of state for education Bridget Phillipson spoke at the launch of the national parent survey last year, she told us that “over the last decade, I believe that parents have been underrepresented in our national conversation”.
She also provided a solution, getting all in education to “treat parents as genuine partners”, adding that “the hallmarks of a good partnership are trust, support and responsibility”.
Learning at home focus
The work of Dr Cat Jones and others has shown how important this partnership is.
Jones’s work has shown that parent engagement is too often focused on providing information about school-centric activities, not on engaging parents with learning at home.
A lack of training for teachers is a key issue in her analysis, with only 10 per cent of teachers reporting they have received any training in parental engagement.
Evidence from the Education Endowment Foundation demonstrates that effective parental engagement leads to an average of four months’ additional academic progress a year.
Despite this, Parentkind’s national parent survey from 2024 found that more than half of secondary school parents do not get clear information to support their child’s learning at home.
For school leaders, the government’s “minimum expectation” raises practical questions about who in a school is responsible for engagement, what these minimum expectations will be and what schools will need to do to meet them.
The white paper sets out expectations in five areas: effective and timely communications, high expectations of families, support for effective transitions, empowering families to support home learning and creating a strong school culture of parental involvement.
This is a strong guide for schools to build these partnerships and mirrors our blueprint framework for parent participation developed with Canterbury Christ Church University.
Teachers untrained
Our exclusive polling of 5,400 teachers conducted with TeacherTapp last month found 93 per cent have received no training in handling parent complaints and 83 per cent of schools have no staff member with specific responsibility for parent engagement.
This shows us all where we need to begin.
A quiet revolution is taking place in our schools system, with one in every 100 or so schools in England committed to becoming an accredited parent-friendly school.
The white paper gives both the DfE and schools plenty of work to do. Politically, the department will be working with schools, trusts and parents to develop these expectations so they are not imposed but designed to support improvement.
They will need to work for schools and parents to ensure this is a true partnership. If we have expectations, they should work both ways on parents and on schools.
The government’s “minimum expectations” should not be seen as another compliance exercise.
They are a signal that the education system, as well as the government, is beginning to recognise parents as the missing piece of the jigsaw.
Anyone working in schools will recognise that not all parents get it right all of the time, but we can also recognise the potential for better relationships and stronger partnerships to support children.
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