Communicating with Parents - How to involve parents in the learning process?

There is an overwhelming number of reasons why teachers should involve parents in the learning process. A child’s school performance is directly linked up with and is affected by parental involvement at home. When the parents take active interest in their ward’s learning process both at the primary or secondary levels, the results are fewer behavioral problems in school, better school attendance, and greater school enjoyment, better problem solving skills, greater cognitive competence and higher academic achievement.

When parents take active interest in their child’s progress in learning and sit down with their wards to help them learn and read and write or assist them in their homework, it leads to significant and positive impact on expressive language skills, language comprehension and reading achievement. The child will find greater interest in learning his assigned tasks, his or her attitudes towards reading and writing will dramatically improve and he/she will also pay more attention in the class.

In short, parental involvement is a very powerful force to reckon with and teachers are nowadays trying to harness that force, so that it may improve the child’s life.

A school and its teachers can at the most provide inspiring lessons and engage young minds, but all round holistic mental nourishment can only be provided by the parents, they are the ones who can encourage the wards to explore further and excel themselves.

A parent might not be able to grasp or deal with GCSE maths, but he can demonstrate a lot of interest in everything that his children do, all the laurels that his child brings in, take active interest in the children’s engagements or school activities, share his own interests and hobbies or enthusiasms with the children and other such things.

When you demonstrate active interest in your child’s achievements or show concern over your child’s failures, it will motivate your child to perform better and he or she can seek emotional support from you. You should also attend parent teacher meetings regularly and discuss your child’s progress and monitor his/her improvements closely and hold dialogues with the class teacher.