Why It's Important To Stay Engaged In Your Child's Education As They Grow

"Don't let your surly teenager fob you off," says Jenny Donovan from the New South Wales Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation (CESE). In their most recent publication they highlighted that parental engagement in their children's schooling, begins to drop in the early primary years, continues to fall during high school, and doesn't lift even during the Higher School Certificate years.

Your child naturally becomes more autonomous and the way that you supported your Junior School student becomes more challenging. Here at St Philip’s Christian College Cessnock we very much value and encourage authentic parental engagement across K-12. Our parent information evenings and more formal parent teacher interviews are increasingly well attended. We value your ongoing input, as there is strong research to suggest that parental involvement improves student engagement, grades, attendance, self-esteem and student mental health.

Even if your Middle or Senior School child appears to be more independent or is trying to keep you at arm’s length try the following:

Talk about school matters even if the responses are short. It shows that you value their learning – keep your questions open.

What did you enjoy most at school today?

Which class to you find easiest/most challenging?

Which class has your favourite group of students in it?

What do you think you should do more of at school?

What part of the day do you look forward to?

If you had to go to only one class every day, which class would it be?

If your day at school were an emoji, which one would it be?

What are their strengths and areas to develop?

Be a partner in your child’s learning. Your involvement in your child’s learning does not depend on you understanding everything they are learning in school. Work with them and their teachers to set realistic but high goals and standards.

Keep the lines of communication open and work with us to support your child. Your child’s teachers still welcome your involvement as much as they did in the Junior School. Subscribe to school newsletters and social media accounts.

Attend school events and parent teacher interviews. Don’t let any bad experiences you might have had from your own Middle and Senior School years put you off.

Don’t be a stranger. Collect your child from school if you get the opportunity, attend sporting/other events and take up opportunities to volunteer.

You are pivotal to making a real difference to your student and their learning at school as we know that when we can engage students and their parents we can hit the learning jackpot.

For further suggestions and supporting resources why not download the Learning Potential app from the App Store or Google Play.

Paul Ivey

Director of Innovation in Learning