Encourage parent involvement at your school
Studies show that parent involvement positively affects student success. Attending a workshop, reading with your child at home and volunteering at the school are all examples of parent involvement.
School councils, in collaboration with the principal and school staff, have a role to play in encouraging parent involvement.
Before beginning the promotion of an event, a new family reading program or any other initiative, it's important to plan ahead. Follow the steps below to encourage parent involvement at your school.
Step 1 – Start with your audience:
To help identify and understand your audiences, use this four-point method.
- Who needs to know this?
Make a list of each audience. Include school staff at the top of the list and ensure you keep them informed.
- What do they need to know?
Parents need to know how what you are telling them affects their child (or they probably won't listen). Your messages should answer – how does this affect my child?
- What is the best time and vehicle to communicate to them?
Survey or ask a sample of parents how they would like to receive communication. Doing this at the beginning of the school year will be useful for all campaigns. Use their suggestions to communicate with them.
- How will we know the message has been received?
Decide how you will evaluate the success of your campaign (more volunteers, more interest from parents, etc.)
Step 2 – Set communications goals
What are your key communication priorities? What are you trying to achieve? Set three SMART goals that are specific, measurable, action-oriented, research-based and time-bound. Goals for parent involvement could be:
- To increase attendance at this year's Parents Reaching Out workshop by 20%.
- To recruit 10 new regular members to the school council by the end of the school year, including at least two members whose first language is something other than English.
- To increase the number of instances that parents are spending time reading or doing other educational activities with their child at home.
Step 3 – Identify your key messages
Develop only three key messages that will be repeated in various elements of your campaign. When creating the messages, think: How does this effect my child? For a parent involvement campaign, the messages could be:
- Plan to attend the next Parents Reaching Out workshop for ideas that will help your child succeed in school.
- Learning is fun! Read with your child every night. Modelling reading encourages reading in children.
- Students do better when parents are involved. Your skills and talents are an asset to all children at our school. If you're interested in volunteering, see the principal.
Step 4 – Decide how you're going to communicate
Once you know your audience, what your goals are and what you want to tell them, it's time to start communicating. Use these tips to ensure effective communication:
- Face-to-face communication is most effective. Meet parents on the playground, at school events or in the community.
- Reach out to ethnically diverse communities. Take time to welcome new families and get to know local faith leaders. Invite new parents to join your school council.
- Repeat your messages often, but not all of the time. Be visible – set up a parent involvement bulletin board, or create a special section of the school newsletter.
- Provide useful information like tips, activities or book suggestions.
- Understand that some parents may find it more challenging than others to make time to increase their involvement. Work with those parents to develop new, time-sensitive ideas.
