Parental engagement: strategies and examples

Find out how to improve parental engagement, including how to set expectations and build positive relationships from the start. Find practical strategies to engage parents and carers with their child's learning and your school community, and see examples from other schools.

Last reviewed on 14 January 2025
School types: AllSchool phases: AllRef: 8764
Contents
  1. Parental engagement has an impact on all pupils
  2. Set expectations from the start 
  3. Build positive relationships
  4. Communicate regularly to boost engagement 
  5. Use parent surveys to capture views 
  6. Involve parents/carers in decision-making through a forum
  7. Include parents/carers in pupils' learning
  8. Build the home-school relationship through family support workers
  9. Support all parents/carers with an inclusive approach 

Parental engagement has an impact on all pupils

Involving parents and carers in their child’s learning and school life benefits the whole school community and leads to better outcomes. A 2021 review by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) found that parental engagement had a positive impact "on average of 4 months' additional progress". 

Parents/carers face challenges such as time and financial constraints, and it’s important to address low engagement with empathy. It can happen for many reasons, and your experience will be individual to your school and local context – e.g. schools in areas with high levels of deprivation are likely to face additional challenges. 

There are different possible approaches to improving parental engagement, so choose those that work best for your school.

Set expectations from the start 

Welcome new parents and carers

Sending a