2.

1 Family Engagement
4.6.1 Describe the advantages and importance of family or caregiver involvement in learner
development

Family engagement is important for teachers, parents and students. Family

engagement is important because it betters the overall atmosphere in schools
and homes. Without family engagement, parents would not know what is going
on in their students' class and are receiving all their information about the child's
class from the student themselves which leads to a lot of questions and
accusations that could be avoided. Without family engagement teachers would
not be able to express student needs to parents and students would feel excluded
and not have the esteem they need to be active in their classroom.
Family engagement is important for students because it makes students
feel welcomed in the class, they feel more motivated, and they are willing to take
risks. Family engagement also increases student success rate and self esteem.
According to an article on the benefits of parent involvement, family engagement
is important for students because students do better in school, do their
homework, have improved behavior and fewer students are put in extra support
classes. (Evidence 1.2.1) Family engagement is important for parents because it
keeps them informed, they feel more and better included. Family engagement
helps parents know what and why certain things are happening in the class. The
result of parents being well informed reduces the amount of parents that are
suspicious of what's happening and feeling out of the loop. The same article
mentioned earlier also states that parents are more responsive to their students’
social, emotion, and intellectual needs. Parents are also more engaging and active
in their students' education. (Evidence 1.2.1) Family engagement is important for
teachers because it builds rapport with parents and they will be more open with
problems with the students. There are fewer student problems, teachers get
better parent support and understand student problems better, and they get to
know the student below the iceberg. This also helps teachers differentiate. The
article previously mentioned twice finishes with benefits for educators. Some
included teachers experience a higher morale when parents are involved, gain
respect from families, have good communication with parents and have increased
job satisfaction. (Evidence 1.2.1)
There are many ways that teachers can be engaging and involved with
families/parents. Being engaged and involved means actively communicating with
the parents and families of students. Some of the easiest ways to communicate
with parents is a newsletter or email. I had to create a newsletter and email that
could be sent out to parents informing them of upcoming news. A newsletter has
a simple format that makes it easy for parents to read in a short amount of time
and understand the most important news and information that I as a teacher
would need them to know. (Evidence 1.2.2) The email was a more in-depth type
of media for reaching the parents, in which I include more detailed descriptions
and information. (Evidence 1.2.3) At the beginning of the year, the teacher can
send out a start-of-the-year email that explains what their goals are for the
upcoming year, any specifics parents need to know off the bat and any other
important information (Evidence 1.2.3) To let parents and more specifically
students get to know the teacher more personally, the teacher can send out a
‘meet the teacher’ paper, like the one I created, that gives some of their hobbies
or information that would help students get to know them. (Evidence 1.2.4) Once
the school year is further underway, the teacher has other means of
communication they can use. The teacher can hold parent-teacher conferences,
or student-led parent-teacher conferences. When the teacher has students create
the parent-teacher conference, like the one I made, it gets a triangle of
communication and understanding flowing between the parents, teacher and
student. (Evidence 2.1.5) Having a student-led parent-teacher conference is a way
to support the importance for family engagement.
Family engagement is important for everyone. It creates understanding and
report. Teachers have many different ways and means of communicating with
parents. They can send emails, phone calls, and newsletters. Teachers can also
meet face to face with parents and can meet them through school events as well.
Family engagement is what keeps teachers and their students’ families connected
and understanding.