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2.1: Family Engagement

4.6.1 - Describe the advantages and importance of family or caregiver

involvement in learner development.

It is immensely important to have family or caregiver involvement in student

development. To gain family involvement, communication is essential. A few ways to

communicate include newsletters, emails, phone calls, letters, etc. There are also

several advantages to parent involvement that impact the students, parents, teachers

and the school as a whole. Family and community involvement is extremely important to

learner development.

Since family involvement is so important to learner development, it is important to

communicate with the families. One of those ways to do this is weekly newsletters.

Newsletters are a good way to tell parents about what students are learning that week,

homework and important dates and information (2.1.2). This allows parents to know

what is going on in the classroom and what their student is doing. These newsletters

can be printed and sent home or emailed to parents. Phone calls, emails and letters are

all good forms of communication. By directly calling parents, they can immediately know

what is going on whether it is behavior problems or praise. It is important to not only

communicate the problems but to also praising the student. Communication with

parents builds a relationship between the parent and teacher.

There are many advantages to parent involvement. One of these advantages is

that it builds a bridge between school and home. When the family gets involved, the

student starts to see the teacher as someone they can trust. Trust helps the student be

able to open up to the teacher and communicate when issues arise. Parent and teacher
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communication builds parent - teacher relationships. This allows teachers to know what

the families and students need. Another advantage is that the parents and teachers can

collaborate to help the student. The parents can help the teacher know what problems

are going on in the students life so the teacher can adjust. When the parent is involved,

the student can have assignment and learner support (2.1.5).

While parent involvement is important, it is also important for community

members to be involved also. One way for community members to contribute to learning

is participate in school board meetings. In those meetings, community members can

discuss ways to improve schools and the community. Another way for community

members to participate in learning experiences is to volunteer for after school activities

such as sports (2.1.3). These extracurricular activities help students have more balance

to their day. Learner development is also affected by external support agencies.

External support agencies are involved in watching out for abused and neglected

students and helping them (2.1.4).

Parent and caregiver involvement positively impacts learner development.

Multiple types of communication help with involving parents and caregivers. There are

several advantages that come with parent involvement that benefit not only the students

but the teachers, parents and school.