Communicating Effectively With Parents

Course Code: T0223 £249.00

ABOUT THIS COURSE

This new course is aimed at all school staff who communicate with parents as part of their role. This includes support staff and admin staff. This course explores ways of positively and proactively building relationships with parents. The focus of the course is that, by taking the time to cultivate two-way open communication, conflicts are less likely to occur. Where they do occur, there are understood processes for addressing them.

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

  • Gain and understanding of the benefits of a proactive school approach to parental communication
  • Appreciate the different strategies needed to communicate effectively with Parents according to the medium
  • Explore the impact of how the school communicates with parents regarding their children.
  • Understand the reasons for potential conflict with portents and how to manage them if they occur
  • Take away a blueprint for developing a whole-school working parental communication approach

PROGRAMME

The Importance of Proactive Parental Communication

10.00am
  • Why proactively building communication with parents is important
  • The negative consequences of keeping parents at arms length
  • Examples of effective school and parent communication strategies
 

Break

11.00pm

Effective Strategies to Communicate Effectively with Parents

11.15pm
  • The impact of how the school communicates with parents regarding their children
  • Phone and video communication. Face to face communication, including parents evening. Written communication. Whole school and individual.
  • Communication through formal forms. Such as, permission forms, reading records, planners and behaviour reports
  • Information communication, at the school gate

The Parent, the Child and the Teacher: The Communication Triangle

  • The child as the centre of communication: academic and pastoral impact
  • How do parents initiate contact with the school?
  • The school website and parental communication
  • Parents evenings: Do they work? In secondary schools.
  • Examples of successful school strategies
  • Parent communication policy: A working document

Lunch

1.00pm

Managing Conflict with Parents

2.00pm
  • Communicating with parents on difficult topics related to their child.
  • Why conflicts with parents occur. What is within the schools control?
  • Understand the reasons for potential conflict with parents and how to manage them if they occur
  • Understand the drivers and motivations displayed by individuals who may become disruptive/aggressive when distressed
  • Utilising de-escalation strategies, the importance of targeted communication
  • Managing conflict: Formal strategies and interpersonal strategies

Open Discussion and Tea

3.00pm
  • Presenting your ideas to your groups today
  • Creating an action plan to share with your teams at school
  • Celebrating the individual

Depart

3.30pm  
Leadership - Code: T0223

Communicating Effectively With Parents

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

  • Headteachers and members of senior leadership teams.
  • Heads of Year, Phase Leaders and Pastoral staff.
  • Mental health staff who liaise with parents, e.g., school counsellor.
  • Parent governor.
  • Designated Safeguarding Lead.
  • All school staff, including support staff, who communicate with parents.

Course Leader

Katharine Radice is an education consultant specialising in dispositions which facilitate academic progress and personal growth.  Katharine has a broad range of experience: she has taught in independent and maintained sector schools and at undergraduate university level.  She has worked in mixed, single-sex, boarding and day schools and studied adolescent development at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust.  She brings to the sessions her practical perspective on classroom teaching, middle and senior management roles.  Previous attendees have described her training sessions as inspiring, thought-provoking, full of practical advice and engaging.

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