Parents play a critical and ongoing role in nurturing and supporting their child’s learning at home, at school and in the community. They influence their child’s wellbeing and success in school and life by shaping their values, attitudes and approaches to learning.

The best possible learning and life outcomes are achieved when parents, educators and children work together in partnership. These partnerships help educators understand the strengths and needs of their students and help parents understand how they can best support learning at home.

The Difference Between Parent Engagement And Parent Involvement

Parent engagement extends beyond parent involvement in volunteering at the school and providing community events, to have 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. Engagement in learning is talking about learning that happens in homes, cars, in communities - anywhere that families spend time together, through everyday activities.

Benefits Of Parent Engagement

Research highlights the benefits for students, parents and schools when parents are engaged in their child’s learning.

Importantly, parent engagement is more than attending events or helping with homework. It’s about showing interest, having meaningful conversations and being curious alongside your child. These moments of connection help children feel supported, valued and confident in their learning. Studies show that children whose parents are engaged in their learning: 

• Develop stronger literacy and numeracy skills; 
• Show greater motivation and improved behaviour; 
• Build stronger social and emotional wellbeing.

Engagement can take many forms - and the most meaningful happen in simple, everyday ways. Here are some suggestions: 

• Ask questions about what your child is learning. Instead of ‘What did you do today?’, try ‘What was the most interesting thing you learned today?’ or ‘What challenged you today?’ 
• Encourage curiosity. Explore ideas together, research topics that interest your child or connect school learning to the real world. 
• Celebrate effort. Recognising progress - not just outcomes - builds confidence and a love for learning.

Parent engagement is essential in fostering strong family-school partnerships and it thrives through meaningful collaboration, open communication and shared decision-making between parents, teachers and school leaders. School-based engagement can take many forms, including keeping parents informed about educational expectations, attending school events and assemblies, volunteering and having regular conversations about student progress and wellbeing. At Living Faith, we encourage parents to take an active role in school life and learning and we are deeply committed to further building on ongoing parent engagement. This commitment reflects our belief that partnering with parents enhances student success and strengthens our school community.

Chelsea Formosa 

Director of Junior Primary