Engaging Families in their children's learning

Every year in our schools there are a multiplicity of opportunities to engage families in their children's learning both onsite and at home. We just have to look closely as they are often disguised as family involvements and with a little imagination can be tweaked to become higher impacting family engagements in learning. These opportunities are what I call the "magic moments" when we are challenged to do "different " not "more"

Each school term presents schools with opportunities that are always on the agenda and too which families respond to. In first term for example we have the traditional "meet the teacher" occasion in which families are invited to meet the teacher, see the classrooms, be told the routines , expectations and timetable and the opportunities for them to be involved.

One does not really need to be a magician to tweak this traditional involvement all it takes is a shift in name to "meet the family" night, same location, reverse who does the talking (families) with great questions that invite families to share their parent knowledge , their expectations and their own family learning journeys. Paying attention to how we seat people is also important moving from this

To this, in which people gather in a circle in small groups to talk and converse with each other about learning with children also present. There are also many other traditional occasions such as,

• Mothers, Fathers and Grandparents day celebrations,
• 100 days of school moments Art shows, Transition evenings, Parent nights.
• Parent teacher interviews/conferences , book weeks, family days, teachers day, principals day etc. all of which many parents eagerly attend if it is possible

With very little effort all of these opportunities can be easily tweaked to become engagements in learning, all we need to do is to set them up for success

This is a criteria that I encourage my schools to use in setting up to use existing opportunities (involvement) to transform them to become high impact Family Engagements in Learning

1. All voices in proportion including students, teachers and parents
2. Dynamic, interactive workshop style, with movement and conversation
3. Based on the needs of families as opposed to the school
4. Combination of formal and informal structure with a strong emphasis on strengthening relationships (recognition and utilization of both parent and teacher knowledge)
5. Students learning as the focus
6. Strong hospitality and enjoyable interactions

Recently many of my schools are changing the way in which they conduct school tours for new families wanting to enrol their children in future years. School leaders are moving away from the traditional walking tour of the school to a much more strategic Guided learning walk for parents in which the focus is put directly on children's learning in the school and shifting the need for the walk from the schools need to tell and sell to the families Inquiry about learning at the school.

In making this shift from a tour to a Guided Learning walk they have been trained in the use of the Learning walk protocol. They are well convinced of the value of this for families and for the school and its future enrolments