Access My School Portal
Improving parental engagement in schools: Why communicaton technology matters
Parental engagement is intrinsically linked to pupil performance and outcomes — the Education Endowment Fund has found that it has a positive impact of, on average, four months’ additional progress for students. Ofsted has stated that parental engagement can be a powerful lever for raising achievement in schools, with research showing the value of schools and parents working together to support pupils’ learning. So what are the key points to understand when improving parental engagement in schools and what tools are needed to implement best practices, drive change and scale strategies?
Technology can play an important role in parental engagement, helping to automate communication and make processes simpler and more streamlined, for schools as well as for parents and carers. When used effectively, an all-in-one hub or portal where parents/carers can access real-time information is an inclusive and convenient way to communicate.
In many cases, technology goes a long way towards bridging the gap between parents and teachers to ensure students receive the support they need, at home and in school. Learn more about the role of technology in improving parental engagement and explore ways to make parent communication strategies more seamless and impactful.
Common obstacles when improving parental engagement in schools
Parental engagement is worth the investment, but it’s not always simple. These are some of the common obstacles that schools might come up against when engaging parents:
- Methods of communication. Do communications actually reach parents, carers and responsible adults? When letters are given to pupils or ad-hoc emails are sent home, the answer may be no, and receipt is difficult to track.
- Hard-to-reach parents and carers. Parents are busy, and looked after children may be in transitory situations or experiencing other challenges with their living situations. The National Parent Survey by Parentkind highlights difficulties for time-poor parents — less than a third have time for their hobbies, 38% struggle to spend time on family activities due to work responsibilities and 33% say household chores and caring responsibilities get in the way of spending time with their children.
- Language and accessibility barriers. Many children in British schools speak English as an additional language and their families may require or prefer communications to be translated. This poses an additional challenge for schools when finding ways to make communications accessible for all parents.
- Information overload. School trips, lunch payments, term dates, school plays, detentions, homework clubs… there are so many messages that schools need to convey to parents, and they can easily get lost or missed.
- Constraints on staff time. Teachers have limited time and numerous priorities to juggle, making it challenging to build in effective parent communication. 75% of teachers reported that they spend too much time on tasks other than teaching, which includes communication. Taking teachers away from their roles to drive parent engagement strategies is a key concern.
Ditch the paper and modernise your parental communication
The role of communication technology in improving parental engagement in schools
Communication technology can help to improve parental engagement in schools and combat some of the issues faced by teachers and school staff. Parental engagement software can make communications more accessible and help level the playing field — translation tools, time-saving features and flexible usage render them a great option for schools and parents in a variety of situations.
Communications technology can mean a number of different things. These are some of the key features to look for that will help support parents in a meaningful way:
- Centralised portals for messaging and updates. Parents can log in to a portal where they can access everything the school needs them to know: news, updates, key dates, information about academic attainment, their child’s individual schedule and more.
- Multi-channel communication via a centralised system. Handling multi-channel communication from one place will simplify the experience and streamline communications processes. Channels might include SMS, email and apps, with the option to send out notifications when communications are received via the app.
- Translation and accessibility features. Ensure any parental communication apps, portals or systems that are onboarded meet accessibility requirements. This should include considerations around language selection or automatic translation options for parents.
- Tracking and reporting. Are communications being received and read? Have parents paid for school trips? Have pupils’ details been updated? Tracking and reporting features will help schools understand and process information to identify gaps and missing details without manual effort. Reporting on usage can also help optimise future communications strategies to make them even better for parents.
- Automatic notifications and follow-up features. Parents can be notified when new communications are received so they don’t need to check apps and portals all the time. If they don’t respond, follow-ups can be sent automatically so nothing is missed.
Benefits of improving parental engagement in schools using digital tools
Parental communication tools for schools can help build a stronger connection between schools and parents by making messaging simpler and more impactful. These are some of the top benefits of choosing digital tools to improve parental engagement strategies.
Improved attendance, behaviour and achievement
Evidence suggests that increasing engagement among the community of parents and carers is linked to better school attendance, as well as improved academic achievement and more positive classroom behaviour. Digital tools can help build connections — for example, text messages were shown to have particularly positive effects on increasing engagement among fathers.
Increased parental involvement in learning
85% of parents want to play an active role in their child’s education, but only 57% feel listened to at school level. Two-way, timely communication via apps and portals can help parents become more involved in learning, which is crucial to attainment. Studies show that parental involvement in the form of ‘at-home’ interest and support is a major force in shaping pupils’ educational outcomes.
Speed and simplicity
For busy parents, fast access to information is a game changer. And for schools, the potential for reduced admin can save time and promote better use of internal resources. For Bethany School, the use of an intuitive portal to create and manage forms more efficiently has saved hours of manual work each week.
In addition, Ewell Castle School can now achieve work that used to take two hours in just 30 minutes, through the expanded use of their communication solutions.
How Access Education supports schools in improving parental engagement
Access Education offers all-in-one parental engagement software which can be the perfect solution to improving parental engagement in schools, academies and multi-academy trusts of all sizes. Access My School Portal offers:
- Integrated communication tools
- An easy-to-use platform for staff and parents
- Automated messaging and options for personalised communication
- Insightful reporting to track engagement
Access Education’s parental engagement software is designed to strengthen parent-teacher relationships, reduce administrative burdens and integrate tasks that can get split up and siloed by disparate systems.
The software has helped St Edmund’s School deliver unified communications via one platform, creating coherence and entering into ongoing dialogue with parents that goes much deeper than termly reports.
"Access My School Portal unified everything," said Edward O’Connor, the school’s Headmaster. "It gave parents access to everything from timetables to assessment data whenever they wanted it. It’s been a great success for us.” As a result, the school has seen improved engagement, and it’s saved considerable sums of money by eliminating the need for multiple communication tools. “It’s saved the school thousands," Edward noted.
Improving parental engagement in schools starts with the right communication tools
Access Education’s My School Portal is already used by more than 2,000 schools globally. Learn more about the tool and how it can support your school.
