Parent engagement

Genuine parent engagement exists when there is a meaningful relationship between parents and teachers with the shared goal of maximising learning and wellbeing outcomes for students.

• Parents are generally a child’s first teacher in their early years. A large body of evidence, spanning several decades, identifies the benefits of continued parent engagement throughout schooling for student learning outcomes.
• Parent engagement has been shown to improve students’ self-esteem, school attendance, and behaviour at school. In fact, Hattie (2008) estimated that effective parent engagement could add the equivalent of 2 or 3 extra years to a child’s education.
• Parent engagement extends beyond parent involvement in volunteering at the school, to having a deliberate focus on influencing and improving learning and wellbeing outcomes. Parents are provided with ideas and strategies and are encouraged to collaborate with the school and community to strengthen partnerships and directly assist in supporting their child’s learning.
• Effective parent engagement creates authentic relationships valued by each party.
• While the mode of engagement will vary with the child’s age, stage of learning, school and teachers, it may include parents:
  ` being supported to understand ways to discuss learning goals and aspirations with their child
  ` being kept up to date with their child’s learning in the classroom and how they can support this at home
  ` using appropriate games to improve their child’s literacy and numeracy
  ` being assisted to arrange effective learning spaces for their child
  ` being assisted to develop effective strategies and techniques to enhance their child’s wellbeing

At St. Pat's we invite all parents, grandparents, carers and friends to volunteer in our school. This week we welcome Jo and Dana who gave a few hours of their time to assisting in our school.