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Parental involvement can have a huge impact on a child鈥檚 performance at school. Many聽聽show that it is the foremost predictor of academic success, when all other factors have been taken into account. However, the older your students are, the more difficult it can be to maintain a meaningful relationship with parents, especially when children transition from primary to secondary school.

But when it makes such a huge difference to homework completion, attendance, good behaviour, self-esteem and overall achievement, it is clear that we should be prioritising ways to promote parental involvement in our schools.

So as teachers, what can we do to make our classrooms a welcoming space for parents? How can we open up channels of communication to get parents interested and excited about participating in their child鈥檚 education?

Here are five suggestions which could help to improve parental engagement at your school.

1. Tackle language barriers聽

At international schools, students typically come from a wide variety of linguistic backgrounds. If parents don鈥檛 have the same command of English that their child does, this linguistic barrier might inhibit their involvement in their child鈥檚 school life and keep communication with the teacher to a minimum. However, if you make an effort to initiate that communication, perhaps enlisting the student or even other parents to help with translation, it builds a sense of collective effort and community. This will make it much more likely for parents to get involved in school life, come in for a chat, and see the school as a place where they have a voice too.

2. Open up the classroom

Cherine Magdi teaches at the聽, where they hold regular open days. 鈥淥ur school sets one day a week,鈥� she says, 鈥渨hen parents can come and meet with teachers.鈥�

This might sound like a big commitment, but it鈥檚 highly unlikely that all the parents would descend at once 鈥� you鈥檇 probably only have a few parents coming by each week. You could even start small, and have one afternoon every few weeks when parents know your door is open and they can come by to say hello, ask questions or share any concerns.

You could also host an open evening once a term where students can come in with their families. It鈥檚 an opportunity for parents to see the classroom and catch up with you without the Parents鈥� Night pressure of a formal meeting to discuss their child鈥檚 performance. What鈥檚 more, it gives the parents the opportunity to get to know each other too.

3. Utilise social media and messaging platforms聽

Technology has transformed our classrooms, giving us resources and tools which we couldn鈥檛 have imagined a generation ago, but it also has the power to transform the way that we interact with our students鈥� parents.聽聽is a digital learning space where students can collaborate with their teachers and peers. Parents can sign up for weekly or daily alerts, showing their child鈥檚 progress and letting them know of upcoming assignments and class activities.

Some schools run active Facebook groups for parents, and there are other social media platforms such as聽听补苍诲听聽which are specifically designed with education in mind. There are also apps and messaging platforms which teachers use to keep in touch with parents.

Alison Sexton, a teacher at the International School of Myanmar, finds that communicating through technology has other benefits too. 鈥溙�补苍诲听聽help when you have limited contact with families. I use Dojo which has helped with communication, and my families prefer it as many do not speak English.鈥�

It鈥檚 also a way of including those parents who work long hours and aren鈥檛 able to pick their children up from school or attend open days.

4. Share the good news as well as the bad

Too often, teachers only contact parents when they need to report a problem with a student鈥檚 work or behaviour, and because of this, parents often view communication with their child鈥檚 teacher in a negative light. If you make a point of getting in touch to share achievements and successes, it opens up that channel of communication and generates interest in a positive way.

With twenty students in your class, if you write two notes a week celebrating an achievement or praising good behaviour of different students, that鈥檚 each parent receiving good news three or four times throughout the school year.

You could send a physical note or contact parents using shared messaging platform like the ones mentioned above.This small effort can make an enormous difference to levels of parental engagement, especially in hard-to-reach families. What鈥檚 more, notes from school will no longer be a source of dread!

5. Use newsletters, blogs and home-school books

Sarah Preval teaches at Ambrosoli International School where the teachers use the school newsletter and blog to keep parents informed about what鈥檚 going on both in the classroom and at the school as a whole. 鈥淲e send out class newsletters on Mondays, school newsletters on Fridays, have a very active Facebook page and a website where every class posts weekly blogs.鈥�

While this might sound like a lot of work, you don鈥檛 have to write a whole newsletter yourself. You could include pieces of work by your students, talk about what they鈥檝e been learning, do a quick survey in class to find out what their favourite activity was from the week before 鈥� all things which will make the students feel more involved in their own education.

And that communication doesn鈥檛 have to go in one direction. Sarah鈥檚 school also promotes the use of 鈥渉ome-school books, where the kids stick in special work or photos from things they鈥檝e done outside school.鈥� This can give you an insight into how stimulating a child鈥檚 home life is.

Does your school have a newsletter or blog? How do you stay in contact with parents or encourage them to get more involved in their child鈥檚 education? Let us know in the comments!