Engaging parents with EAL: strategies

Use our practical strategies to engage effectively with parents who have English as an additional language (EAL). Help them become a part of the school community and provide support for them and their children.

Last reviewed on 8 June 2022
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 13588
Contents
  1. Make parents with EAL feel welcome
  2. Celebrate language diversity in your school
  3. Appoint an EAL co-ordinator
  4. Create links with newly-arrived families
  5. Help parents learn English
  6. Case study: how one school boosted its community engagement

Depending on your school's context, it might not be possible to put all these strategies into practice. Nevertheless, even 1 or 2 can help you improve home-school links with parents with EAL

This is a big topic and we’re only sharing enough to get you started.

Make parents with EAL feel welcome

Set up a welcoming environment for parents to help them feel confident joining the school community.

Create a global ‘welcome’ board in all the languages spoken in your school. Ask parents with EAL to contribute with a greeting in their own language. It’s an easy way to involve parents and make sure the greeting is accurate.

Set up EAL coffee mornings to communicate important messages to parents. Smallwood Primary School holds theirs once a half