Parents and families play a major role in the success of their children’s education. Types of investment such as time taken to monitor academic progress, committing to school activities and working with the school to support their children. A successful home-school partnership has shown positive outcomes in students.
So how can parents play an active part in partnering with schools?
Work with the school to support their children
A successful partnership goes beyond just activities and strategies. It relies on a foundation of trust between parents and school, which takes time to build.
Parents need to set aside time and make the effort to communicate with the school – including via email, in-person conversations, phone calls, or quick text updates. These communications can center around both academic and non-academic topics about students. However, parents should respect teachers’ preferences on communication mode, and also exercise patience if teachers do not respond immediately.
Parents should also feel welcome in school and attend parent-teacher conferences as much as possible, to have uninterrupted time with teachers. Parents and teachers are experts about the children in their own ways and only through such open communication will both sides gain a better understanding of how to work together to help the children.
Help children develop good habits
Every family has its unique culture, strengths and challenges. However, parents should always create as conducive an environment as possible at home for children and their education. Simple things like encouraging a balanced lifestyle with enough time for play, setting up a study corner for deep focus on work, or a time limit for homework to promote efficient working.
Pushing for good learning habits at home will benefit teachers at school. Schools can then focus on doing what they do best - imparting knowledge.
Help children empathize and manage their behavior
Through supportive relationships at home, children learn how to think, understand, communicate, behave, express emotions and develop social skills. Their relationships shape their worldview and will determine how they express themselves. By observing how parents respond to their cries, laughs, tantrums and questions, they learn how to think, behave, communicate and socialize.
Parents can also work with teachers to help children respect each other’s differences and get along in school. Any disagreements they may have would be able to be resolved amicably. If incidents do happen in school, allow the school to first handle it and verify facts before getting involved. Strong relationships in early childhood mean that children would likely have better mental health and potentially fewer behavioral problems. This eases the load on schools.
Ultimately, a home-school partnership is not one that happens overnight. It involves a commitment from parents and school. To smoothen this process, aids like an effective school management system could make relationship building easier. For example, LittleLives not only helps schools monitor and analyze data related to students, staff, parents and daily administration, but also offers an intuitive school communication platform for teachers and parents to keep one another updated.
If you would like to find out more, talk to LittleLives at sales@littlelives.com!
