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Opinion: Parents' interest 'vital' to a child's education

02 September 2015

How parents interact with their children strongly influences the way they see the world, this includes their attitudes and approach to education.

There is no question that parents want the best for their children. Parental instincts will tell them that engaging in their child’s learning will give them a good start in life. Most parents will have high aspirations for their children, and often, to have a better life than their own.

There is an expectation though, that parents will know how to support their child’s learning. But in today’s busy world, parents may be time poor or lack the confidence or some of the skills to help their children with their education.

Parental engagement is more than attending school fetes, volunteering on the P&C and attending parent/teacher nights. It’s also about parents taking an active interest and getting involved in their child’s learning journey.

It means supporting what they are being taught in the classroom with learning activities within the family, but it doesn’t mean parents have to be experts in what their children are studying. They don’t have to spend unlimited hours to make a difference. The evidence is clear that the key is parents being genuinely interested and actively engaged in their child’s learning.

The strongest influence on a child’s future is a parent’s expectations and aspirations for their child – the value they place on education and what they believe their child can achieve.

Children and young people with engaged parents, no matter what their income or background, are more likely to do well at school, graduate from school and go on to higher education.

Encouragingly, given the current focus on improving educational outcomes for students from low socioeconomic backgrounds, parental engagement in learning is a tool that can help close the gap in achievement.

An increased focus on parental engagement is not intended to add to the burden generated by the ever-expanding list of things parents are ‘meant’ to do. It can be as simple as conversations about what their child is learning and is interested in, parent-child reading, a positive environment for homework, and having learning resources at home. Family outings provide great opportunities to extend children’s learning in interesting and fun ways.

Parental engagement is a shared responsibility between families, schools and communities. The culture of a school and how welcoming it is to parents from a range of backgrounds can impact on their confidence in building a relationship with their child’s teachers.

Many teachers however, report feeling ill-equipped to engage parents in their children’s education. This is especially true among new teachers. Guidance for teachers on how to navigate and develop these important relationships would help to bridge this gap.

We also need more focus on, and resources for, parents to provide an effective home learning environment for their children. The Australian Government’s new Learning Potential app offers some useful tips for parents to implement in the home.

Parents who are unable to engage in their child’s education are unknowingly risking the quality of their child’s educational outcomes. If they feel unable to support their child’s education at home, through lack of encouragement, inability to provide resources, or through their own negative experiences of school, their child may lose interest in their education altogether. 

When children fall behind at school, they may give up entirely. The knock-on effect is early-school leaving, poorer job outcomes, and potentially a reliance on welfare later in life. At The Smith Family we’re working with families to break this cycle.

Guiding parents on how to support their child’s early reading and numeracy skills, keeping parents connected to the school, helping motivate children to stay at school, and to understand how to best support their career aspirations – are all key to improving a child’s educational outcomes.

All parents want the best for their children. The more we can do to facilitate their engagement in their children’s learning, the better the long-term outcomes will be. Supporting parents to engage in their children’s education is critical, particularly among families from our nation’s poorer communities, where education is a key enabler to a better future.

Media contacts:

Andrew Dickson | National Media Manager (National) - 0421 285 529 | andrew.dickson@thesmithfamily.com.au
Carla Horton | Senior Media Advisor (QLD & WA) - 0423 618 776 | carla.horton@thesmithfamily.com.au
Reid Jermyn | Media Advisor (VIC, SA & NT) - 0412 803 566 | reid.jermyn@thesmithfamily.com.au 
Ben Chenoweth | Senior Media Advisor (NSW, ACT & TAS) - 0413 346 934 | ben.chenoweth@thesmithfamily.com.au

The Smith Family is a national children’s education charity that helps young Australians experiencing disadvantage to create better futures for themselves through harnessing the power of education. We partner with around 800 Australian schools and work with over 162,000 children and young people experiencing disadvantage access our education support programs to help them overcome . For more information, visit thesmithfamily.com.au