1.

In this challenging time of pandemic, weather and economic adversities it is very difficult to
engage learners as well parent in their learning tasks. Parents play a vital role in online teaching.
They can be the motivators, monitors, and aides for your students while you are on the other
side of the screen. But you have to actively involve them first. Let them know what to expect
from them, and tell them how they can help.
As teachers, it’s important that we keep parents on side during such a difficult period.
We don’t want them to feel as if we’re palming off our responsibilities to them entirely, but we
do want their help in keeping student learning on track.
Send home a parent support package. In this you can include:
An overview of what content will be covered during the teaching learning period a list of
clear strategies that parents can use to support learning at home login details and access
information for any online and modular teaching tools being used. Most parents will do what
they can, but keep your expectations realistic. It helps to think of parents as assistants, as
opposed to classroom teachers in their own right. Keep them updated on their child’s progress
too. You will leave them feeling confident that their child’s learning is still on track, even if the
classroom has been swapped for the kitchen table.
Discover more strategies for positive parent communication:
Parents are suffering with us teachers during the coronavirus outbreak. Our empty
classrooms are their full nests, and, probably for the first time, they’ve found themselves truly in
charge of their children’s learning.
We can feel for them. Taking full responsibility for a child’s formal education is stressful
enough for a qualified teacher, let alone a parent who already juggles their own working
commitments with the business of… well, parenting itself.
Here are some practices that maybe applicable to them;
Be the teacher in the (virtual) room. Take the pressure off parents by establishing
and maintaining a strong digital presence from the outset. Your students (and their
parents) should feel confident that you are still steering the ship, so that they don’t
have to.
It helps if you use video and/or voice recordings instead of outsourcing your role to
written instructions and worksheets alone. Treat it like a flipped classroom. When
parents see or hear you actively teaching their children, they can breathe a sigh of
relief knowing that you’ve got it covered without them having to intervene.
Of course, parents are an invaluable resource when our students are learning from
home, so suggest clear strategies that they can use in order to facilitate their child’s
continued progress. They should not require sophisticated content knowledge or
teaching know-how – that’s your job – but they can stick their nose in from time to
time just to make sure that their child is staying up to speed.
Getting a parent involved in their child’s education in this way – without ever
expecting too much from them – can have benefits that far outlast the distance
teaching. You’ll become more active partners in facilitating their child’s learning, and
it’s a relationship that you can draw on, time and time again, as new challenges
arise.

2. To increase parent engagement in school’s programs and projects, leaders must make a positive
connection with parents. School leaders should also provide a variety of activities and frequent
opportunities to fully engage parents. School and education leaders can sustain parent
engagement by addressing the common challenges to getting and keeping parents engaged.
 Stakeholder engagement is considered vital to the success and improvement of a
school. The involvement of the broader community of the school with it can improve
communication and public understanding and allows for the incorporation of the perspectives,
experiences and expertise of participating community members to improve reform proposals,
strategies, or processes.
Parent, family and community involvement can have a different meaning for different
people. Here’s how we can involve parents/stakeholders:
 Parenting: Help families by providing them with parenting skills and family support,
make them understand the phases of child development, its complexities and ways to
cope with it. Help schools understand backgrounds and cultures of families and their
goals for children.
 Communicating: Create reliable communication channels between school and home to
communicate with families about school programs and student progress.
 Volunteering: Enable educators to work with volunteers who support students and the
school. Involve families as volunteers and as audiences at the school.
 Learning at Home: Encourage the involvement of families in their children’s academic
learning at home through curriculum-related activities such as including homework and
goal setting.
 Decision Making: Make families participants in school decisions, governance and
advocacy activities.
 Collaborating with the Community: Co-ordinate resources and services for families,
students and the school with community groups such as businesses, cultural and civic
organizations, colleges or universities.