Review of best practice in parental engagement: Practitioners summary

This summary covers research on parents of children aged 5-19, and includes evidence-based messages on interventions to support parental engagement in their children’s learning. Whilst some evidence refers to primary education it is included here because the principles and behaviours referred to also apply to older children. All messages are aimed at schools, service leaders, practitioners and policymakers.
There is distinction between the types of evidence and interventions summarised here:
• The general features of parental engagement strategies are the subject of extensive and high quality research; many are strongly supported by the evidence. Examples include strong leadership, targeted approaches, and effectively involving parents in school-home links.
• Each general feature is associated with a set of specific actions and practices. For example, effectively involving parents in school home links will include activities such as offering flexible arrangements for parents’ evenings and encouraging parents to ensure that homework diaries are completed. The evidence on specific activities is much less robust than it tends to be for the general features of good practice.
Whilst the evidence is less robust in relation to many of the specific activities required of parents, schools and other services, studies often reach similar conclusions on what is effective, and there is now a sufficient body of information to provide a focus for ongoing development and research. The activities included in this summary are, therefore, offered as examples of good or promising practice that warrant further trialling and experimentation.