Leading and developing parental engagement

In 2009-10, the College worked with 10 settings around the country to gather case studies on good practice in parental engagement. The resulting report, Leadership for parental engagement was published in 2010 and it examines a range of schools and children's centres working together in clusters.

The project identified a number of factors that contribute to the successful leadership of parental engagement and the development of strategies to meet the needs of local communities. Five key themes emerged:

Vision, values, culture and strategic direction
Leadership of parental engagement
Parental engagement in practice
Collaborative work beyond the school, centre and cluster
Sustainability

These findings clearly articulate the need for effective vision and strategic direction, underpinned by a collected leadership commitment and a strong collaborative approach that takes leaders beyond their own schools and centres into their communities to respond to parental and children's needs.

How to audit and improve your own practice

The findings of the project have led to the development of a practical auditing tool that helps leaders of schools and children’s centres, as well as stakeholders, to audit and evaluate their current practice in the leadership of parental engagement.

The auditing templates that are based around the five themes listed above are available to download seperately. This enables you and your team to identify the areas that you are strong in and the areas you need to develop. By summarising your own practice you can then focus on how you prioritise future development.

Further information and resources about improving parental engagement can be found on the working with parents page.