Working with Parents / Sharing with Parents - creating partnerships to enhance home learning

Working with Parents / Sharing with Parents - creating partnerships to enhance home learning

The relationship between the learner and the teacher is very clearly defined in the classroom. It is the teacher's domain and it is he or she who orchestrates the learning and how it is taught. This is far from the case when the learner is working remotely, usually at home.  The main influence is likely to be a parent or an older sibling. This influence will vary greatly depending on the type of family, the commitments of the parents and the level to which they were educated themselves. Where education has been a positive part of their lives parents are likely to be supportive and provide help and guidance for their offspring. For those parents who have negative memories of school and who maybe did not do well or did not have good experiences they may find the whole experience of having to supervise home learning very uncomfortable. 

There is one thing nearly every parent has in common and that is that they want the best for their child.  We have designed a course to look at the issues and how through very clear strategies for effective communication the relationship with parents and carers at home can be more positive and lead to successful outcomes for learners.

This live webinar is broken down into five sections that will delivered over two half day sessions of two hours each with one week in between.

The content includes:-

• Recognising and breaking down the barriers and highligting some of the perceptions and misconceptions that might impede positive communication.
• A focus on how schools can communicate effectively with parents to provide guidance on how they can best support their children with their work
• A review of the practical tips and solutions that can be conveyed to parents to encourage learning using technology, physical resources and both asynchronous and synchronous learning
• Identifying parent's own learning needs and finding ways of encouraging a partnership of learning that creates the strength of a triad with the three participants being the learner voice, the teacher and the involvement of parents
• Moving forward with strategic planning tools and some coaching techniques that can help to win hearts and minds and build lasting relationships

Whatever happens next there will be a need to rethink many things. Our relationship as teachers with parents is usually at parent's evenings, when there is a problem or at a charity event, fete, assembly or school play. Their role has changed and if we can build positive relationships especially with the hard to reach the opportunities for enhancing learning are profound.

Who is this for?

All staff who have a pupil facing role and need to demonstrate that home schooling is achieving the same impact as teaching in the classroom. It will never be the same but we can focus on what is positive as far as learning remotely is concerned. Senior, middle and subject leaders will also benefit from hearing the messages and helping classroom teachers to forge effective and lasting relationships with parents and carers. This could be run as an INSET for all staff so that a cohesive whole school strategy on parental and community interaction is forged.