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Share Building meaningful relationships with parents isn’t just a “nice-to-have” — it’s critical for student success. From improved attendance and behaviour to stronger academic outcomes, effective parental engagement makes a measurable impact on pupils’ learning journeys.
At Edurio, we’ve identified schools and trusts that are leading the way in this area. In this blog, we’re sharing practical, proven strategies from the winners of our 2023/24 Parental Engagement Awards, based on real feedback from thousands of families across the country. These schools didn’t just guess what works; they listened to parents and made engagement a priority. Before we dive into their approaches, here’s what we learned from the 2023/2024 academic year data in the Edurio Parent Experience Survey.
58% of staff reported that they were completely or quite satisfied with their child’s school’s efforts to engage them as a parent.
Source: Edurio Parent Experience Survey
69% of the parents we asked were completely or quite satisfied with their child’s school’s communication with them.
Source: Edurio Parent Experience Survey
70% of parents reported being likely to recommend their child’s school to other parents. In November 2024, as part of the Edurio Awards, we recognised 10 outstanding schools and trusts for their success in engaging parents and families, based on the latest national Parent Experience Survey results. All the schools selected for this award were above the national benchmarks for their phase for all three questions!
Source: Edurio Parent Experience Survey
This blog shares practical parental engagement strategies from these award winners, offering a guide for other schools and trusts looking to enhance parent communication, parent satisfaction, and overall parental involvement.
How we measured parental engagement success
To determine award recipients, we analysed feedback from our Edurio Parent Experience Survey, focusing on three key areas:
- Parent satisfaction with school engagement efforts
- Quality of communication between schools and parents
- Likelihood of parents recommending their school to others
The schools recognised created environments where parents feel valued, heard, and empowered — essential foundations for student success.
Note: The award winners featured here are predominantly primary schools. However, the practical strategies they share can inspire leaders across all phases, including secondary settings.
4 key areas to strengthen parental engagement
1. Maintaining high-quality communication with parents
Effective parental engagement starts with clear, timely, and accessible communication.
Top strategies shared by our award winners include:
- Pacing and timing messages
Headteacher Halil Tamgumus, Braunstone Community Primary School, recommends spreading out communications thoughtfully to avoid overwhelming parents with translations into the top spoken languages in the community.
- Using familiar communication platforms
Deputy Headteacher Sharon Walker, Braunstone Community Primary School, highlights the value of consistent electronic newsletters and letters, ensuring parents know where to find updates. Using platforms familiar to parents such as emails, texts, WhatsApp messages, social media platforms- Twitter/Facebook/Instagram, face-to-face events, open classroom sessions, - Interactive tools
Deputy Headteacher Matthew Snowden, Appleton Roebuck Primary School, successfully uses Class Dojo to facilitate two-way conversations, allowing parents to celebrate and question in real-time. Also, sharing communications, such as a newsletter via Class Dojo, works well.
- Clear, jargon-free language
Sally-Jo Wilkinson, Windsor Olympus Academy, prioritises accessible communication that all families can easily understand, regardless of background. - Personalised communication
Claire Gungah, Linden Bridge School, suggests that individualised approaches build trust, adapting messaging to the needs of different families.
2. Successfully engaging all parents — including harder-to-reach families
Inclusive engagement was a common strength among the award-winning schools:
- Proactive personal contact
Sharon Walker recommends telephone calls and home visits for parents who may not engage digitally. Offering family learning events to help skill up these parents too. - Positive relationship building
Claire Gungah focuses on fostering positive relationships early, making it easier for parents to stay engaged long-term.
- Removing barriers to engagement
Maximilian Wakeman, Headteacher at Goldsmith Primary Academy, highlights the benefits of a dedicated student services team who are each assigned as the key worker for a group of the hardest to reach parents.
3. Strengthening parental engagement with trust-wide support
Trust-level leadership and collaboration also played a significant role:
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- Motivational league tables
Halil Tamgumus mentions that internal trust league tables for schools recognising engagement efforts helped motivate continuous improvement.
- Peer support among school leaders
Matthew Snowden shares that regular headteacher and deputy meetings within their trust create vital spaces to share ideas and support each other, which supports the generation of new ideas and initiatives to improve parental engagement further.
- Meeting community needs
Marc O’Malley, Principal at Cockshut Hill, explains how their trust has a summit base camp that supports parents with the cost of food/health products/uniform, putting the school and trust at the centre of their communities for support. - Social media support
Richard Boase, Headteacher at Wilton CE Primary School, highlights the importance of trust-wide social media support in reaching and assisting parents within the community who need it, and encouraging engagement from those who are often hardest to engage.
- Motivational league tables
4. Turning parent feedback into positive change
Using Edurio Parent Experience Survey feedback, these schools made real, meaningful changes:
- Involve parents in decision making
Barbara Sims, Executive Principal at Kaizen Primary School, reignited their PTA as a result of feedback from their parent survey. Their survey highlighted that their parents wanted to get even more involved with school life. - Enhanced parent-teacher consultations
Matthew Snowden adjusted parent meetings to make academic discussions clearer and more parent-friendly. They also included time to discuss how children were doing socially at school, which has improved engagement.
- Openness and clarity in comms
Nicola Brooke, Headteacher of Durweston CE VA Primary School, explains that demonstrating the actioning of feedback and being open about negative feedback encourages engagement through parents feeling heard. - Listening and acting on feedback
Sally-Jo Wilkinson emphasises that demonstrating action based on feedback significantly boosted parent trust and satisfaction. As a result of parent feedback, their school introduced a half-termly ‘who’s who’ as part of their newsletter, where staff (admin, premises, specialist teachers, etc) write a short blurb about themselves and what they support with.
Bonus tips for boosting parental engagement
- Space out communications thoughtfully to avoid overwhelming parents.
- Stick to familiar, accessible communication platforms.
- Use clear, jargon-free language every time.
- Create opportunities for two-way communication.
- Personalise your engagement strategies to meet family needs.
- Act visibly on parent feedback to build trust and community spirit.
Adapting these tips for secondary schools
While most examples here come from primary schools, the principles of effective parental engagement apply just as strongly to secondary settings. Secondary leaders can adapt these strategies by:
- Using year group–specific newsletters or digital platforms for communication.
- Offering online consultations or webinars to increase flexibility for busy parents.
- Targeting transition points such as Year 7 entry, GCSE years, or Sixth Form pathways.
- Empowering older students to act as engagement ambassadors, helping strengthen the parent-school connection.
- Maintaining personalised communication, especially when celebrating achievements or discussing progress.
Adapting these proven strategies can help secondary schools foster deeper parental involvement even within larger, more complex structures.
Final thoughts: building stronger school communities
Strong parental engagement is more than an add-on — it’s an essential part of building a thriving school community.
These award-winning schools and trusts show that by investing in consistent communication, listening carefully to families, and turning feedback into action, schools can create environments where every parent feels valued.
Congratulations once again to all our Parental Engagement Award winners — and thank you for inspiring the wider education community.
Ready to strengthen parental engagement at your school or trust?
If you’d like to learn more about how the Edurio Parent Experience Survey can help you measure, understand, and improve parental involvement, contact us today.