Engaging parents in their children’s education

Many parents gained new insights into their children’s learning strengths and interests during periods of remote learning in 2020 and 2021. Fostering parental engagement with their children’s learning supports student achievement.

• To strengthen parental engagement with their children’s education, the Australian Government could commission a scoping study of programs and resources supporting parental engagement which are available nationally and within jurisdictions, to identify gaps and to assist in developing new resources. For example, during COVID-19 lockdowns, schools developed resources for parents to gain IT skills, to demonstrate ways to contribute to their children’s learning or to assist parents promote their children’s physical activity and overall health and wellbeing. While some national online resources for parents are already available through ESA hubs, expansion of these and of resources for schools to encourage parental engagement would help strengthen students’ home support for their school-based learning.

More examples of how strengths-based policies can rapidly strengthen Australia’s school system:
• Supporting the digital transformation of Australian education
• Upskilling the teaching profession
• Re-establishing & strengthening students’ learning journeys  
• Supporting student wellbeing
• Strengthening all levels of school leadership