Effective Communication with Parents Jason Marantz and Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum

Why bother? “Parents who take on a supportive role in their child’s learning make a difference in improving achievement and behaviour. The active involvement of parents in the life of the school can help promote a learning community in which pupils can engage positively with school staff and their peers.”

Top 8 Tips to Working in Partnership with Parents

1) Make a positive connection 1.Calling parents with good news about a child's progress also strengthens the teacher- parent relationship. 2.Home visits, done either before or after the school years starts, can also be extremely valuable.

Make a positive connection 2 1.Consider sending a class based newsletter including ideas of how parents can help their children 2.Calling parents with good news about a child's progress 3.Home visits, done either before or after the school years starts, can also be extremely valuable. 4.Inviting parents into the classroom

2) Listen first, talk later 1.Never burst in front of parents 2.Find out what complaints they have and counter them. 3.Once you're done, you can point out what had not been discussed before.

3) Be polite and patient 1.You need to express your concerns without ruffling parents' feathers. 2.It is true that some children are extremely problematic, and with challenging parents, the problem gets worse. 3.Yet you need to remain patient and polite while working with parents.

4) Maintain secrecy to the child of your meetings with parents Sometimes parents ask their kids about the teachers while the latter are right there. This gives some children the chance to come up with a number of complaints. Don't let this embarrassing predicament happen as it will demotivate you to work with the child.

5) Never catch parents ‘for a word’ at the end of the day 1.No one likes to be singled out in public 2.Parents may have other places to go to. 3.The feedback comes across as petty as opposed to planned.

6) Focus on the positive attributes of their child 1.Even the mildest of parents won't appreciate you complaining constantly about their kids. 2.Refer to some of their child's good qualities and appreciate those. 3.However, make sure to inform parents in an encouraging tone about the areas the child needs to work on.

7) Document E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. 1.It is crucial you keep records of all interactions (even in rough) 2.Difficult meetings need to be written out in detail 3.Notes can be sent to parents as a record of the conversation

8) Be motivating 1.Parents like a teacher who can offer them a glimmer of hope when it comes to their child's weaknesses instead of demoralizing them.