Parental Engagement
Report 2023
Parental Engagement
We asked 38,000 parents and carers what they really want to see from their child’s school
We asked 38,000 parents and carers what they really want to see from their child’s school
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A deep-dive into how engaged parents really feel
Parental involvement is often key to student success, and the extent to which schools nurture positive relationships with families — and vice versa — makes all the difference. The new Ofsted framework specifically mentions engagement under the key judgement of 'Leadership and Management’ too.
Our new Parental Engagement Report looks into the feedback from 38,000 parents and carers from 266 schools across 30 trusts in the 2022/2023 school year. Additionally, by reviewing the feedback of 86,000 parents from the past 4 years, the report uncovers how they really feel about efforts to engage them.
Inside, you will find key facts, insights and expert commentary on:
- The biggest changes from the previous academic year
- How the views of parents change depending on the school year of their child
- How informed parents feel about various elements about the child in school
- The factors with the strongest correlations with parent satisfaction of engagement
Complete the form to receive a copy of the report.
Introduction
In this report we focus on parent satisfaction with the school’s efforts to engage them.
There are many aspects that work together to build a general satisfaction of engagement for parents and carers, such as being satisfied with the school's communication, feeling respected by the school, and being informed about how their child is progressing academically and socially.
The report will cover these elements and more, taking the voices of 38,000 parents and carers across the UK into account and showing the strengths and areas of growth for schools in their work with parents and carers by bringing to light valuable information to nurture this vital, yet at times difficult relationship.
Who will find this report useful?
This report is for trust and school leaders, as well as teaching staff and parents themselves, who want to better understand and facilitate the relationship between the school and pupil parents. This can be used as a conversation starter to open opportunities for more engagement, or to bring topics to light that haven’t been addressed in the school-parent partnership.
Trust and school leaders can use this report to reflect on and revise parental engagement strategies currently in place in their organisations.
Teaching staff can find insights to inform day to day work with the parents and carers of their pupils to work proactively and productively to engage families.
Parents and carers reading this report will be able to see how parents in the UK are feeling about school efforts of engagement, relating the broader experience to their own child’s school.
What impacts parental engagement?
Parental engagement is a topic that comes up frequently when talking about pupil progress and wellbeing, but it is difficult to measure what impacts parental engagement and if there truly is a connection to higher achievement and wellbeing for pupils.
The emphasis to measure how schools engage with parents has been placed on schools by Ofsted since September 2009. The focus has been on building positive relationships with parents, the quality of communications, reporting to parents on progress, and the mechanisms for helping parents to support their children’s learning.
Additionally, research shows us that “schools that successfully engage parents in learning, consistently reinforce the fact that ‘parents matter’. They develop a two way relationship with parents based on mutual trust, respect and a commitment to improving learning outcomes.”
We therefore review the elements of parental engagement that leading organisations and research in the field highlight as key, and provide a look into the relationship as it stands at the end of the academic year 2022/2023, giving readers the opportunity to reflect on how this relationship is facilitated in their own organisation.
Parental engagement is a topic that comes up frequently when talking about pupil progress and wellbeing, but it is difficult to measure what impacts parental engagement and if there truly is a connection to higher achievement and wellbeing for pupils.
The emphasis to measure how schools engage with parents has been placed on schools by Ofsted since September 2009. The focus has been on building positive relationships with parents, the quality of communications, reporting to parents on progress, and the mechanisms for helping parents to support their children’s learning.
Additionally, research shows us that “schools that successfully engage parents in learning, consistently reinforce the fact that ‘parents matter’. They develop a two way relationship with parents based on mutual trust, respect and a commitment to improving learning outcomes.”
We therefore review the elements of parental engagement that leading organisations and research in the field highlight as key, and provide a look into the relationship as it stands at the end of the academic year 2022/2023, giving readers the opportunity to reflect on how this relationship is facilitated in their own organisation.
Methodology
The data in this report is collected from about 38,000 parents and carers who participated in an Edurio Parent Experience survey during the 2022/2023 academic year and 46,000 staff participating in the Edurio Staff Experience and Wellbeing survey during the 2022/2023 academic year. It is further supported by feedback from 86,000 parents and carers collected over the past four years.