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Home-School Engagement Toolkit

Home-School Engagement Toolkit

Good school-home engagement is key to providing holistic care to students and supporting their academic development. In this toolkit we look at principles for enabling effective and mutually supportive school and caregiver relationships with families from sanctuary seeking backgrounds and signpost to a range of supporting resources.

First and foremost, it is helpful to hear from caregivers and understand what they wish schools knew about their experiences. Have a look at the results of research from Young Minds to learn more:

Parent Insight: Feedback from refugee and asylum seeking parents (Young Minds)

Key Principles

  1. It starts from Day 1

Enabling good communication and long-term engagement with the “grown-ups” of pupils in school really does start from day 1 with admissions meetings, open days and first days of school playing a massive role in fostering trusting relationships. 

These are opportunities not only to get the information you need to identify the needs of children in school and at home, but also gives the grown-up opportunity to understand your school’s values, feel comfortable coming into school and know who they can contact if they have any questions or queries. For these first meetings, make sure you have a qualified interpreter (if necessary) present so that there are no misunderstandings or miscommunications and help parent/carers feel confident asking any questions.

  1. Translation/Interpretation is important – but don’t stop there!

Whilst using translators when necessary and translating important information is a really important step, this doesn’t always ensure two-way communication and understanding. Whilst caregivers might be able to understand the information being shared with them, if sent online (via parent platforms/forums, the website of email) depending on digital literacy skills, they might not feel confident accessing these updates. Equally, even if they can access and understand the information they might not feel confident taking action due to language or other barriers. Make sure to make opportunities to speak with parent/carers in person and to have regular check-ins with those who may need additional support.

  1. Targeted opportunities

Look for targeted and meaningful opportunities to bring caregivers into school – not only will this help them feel more comfortable coming to school when/if there are problems but also can be an opportunity to offer additional support to them: helping to enhance wider family wellbeing. 

For instance, if your school runs an initial transition programme for students very new to English, why not finish the programme with a graduation programme where students celebrate what they have learnt and caregivers can come into school to celebrate with them, whilst getting a sense of your schools’ values and key staff members.

Another popular idea is organising a regular coffee/tea morning for caregivers – perhaps aimed at those from sanctuary-seeking or EAL backgrounds, but open to anyone. This is an opportunity for caregivers to socialise, learn more about the school, and practice English. You can use these mornings as an opportunity to share updates in person, answer questions they may have about school expectations, classes or progression, or support use of digital tools. Other schools with large numbers of sanctuary-seeking/EAL families have gone even further – offering ESOL classes for parents or working with service providers (the local council, refugee organisations/ food bank organisers) to help parent/carers access the support they need during their regular meetings.

  1. Understand the wider needs

To enable family and parent/carer engagement recognise that this is a two-way, mutual relationship – it’s not just about communicating school updates to them, but taking time to listen and understand their needs and priorities. 

This starts from day 1 – identifying any particular challenges families are experiencing and helping to signpost them to additional support. This might be related to acquiring uniform or digital devices, but might also including housing, ESOL classes, immigration advice, food banks – or more! Parent/carers might also need support in understanding the education system, expectations for their children and for them and how they can better support their children with their education –  or they might simply want opportunities to meet and socialise with other parent/carers.

If you make it clear from day 1 that you seek to understand and meet the wider needs of the families, this makes it more likely they will let school know if their circumstances change or any problems arise.

  1. Build community connections

Many new arrivals value opportunities to connect with the wider school community. Setting up parent champion schemes where more long-standing EAL parent/carers are supported and empowered to work with new families can have a positive impact on the engagement of new families, whilst helping them to build important relationships. In a school with historically few refugee students, but who suddenly welcomed several families upon the opening of a local hotel, staff set up a ‘Friendly Faces’ scheme where every new family was specifically matched with another parent/carer in the same class as their children – they then were on hand to greet new families during school events and parent/evenings and answer any questions that came up about what has happening in school, all while helping to foster a wider sense of community belonging.

Advice/Guidance

Resources