Effective parental engagement is a crucial ingredient in both academic and social success, especially for our most vulnerable pupils. Cornwall Council’s Together for Families Directorate, supported by Parent Carer Cornwall, have developed a framework and toolkit to promote the partnership between pupils, parents, and school to help create a culture of mutual collaboration to support all learners to succeed.
The Framework and toolkit
This resource is designed to be a working document that supports education settings in the development of a parent carer engagement strategy and to be central to the work they do to raise aspirations and achievement.
The resource includes
- A framework based on principles and criteria for building the education setting’s approach, structured around seven themes
- Descriptors for what all education settings should be doing as well as what successful schools do – aiming to provide a direction of travel for future work
- A ‘selection box’ of practical resources and references that education settings can select from, each designed to encourage reflection, action planning, and to provide practical examples.
Customer feedback
‘’We have found both the PEF and the support incredibly helpful in supporting our priority of improving parental engagement at every level within and beyond our school community. The framework aligns perfectly with our whole school attendance and community priorities’ (Deputy Head Budehaven Community School).
‘We deeply value the positive impact of the support from the LA team with the PEF. The high-quality resources and their bespoke, responsive approach have been instrumental in supporting our priority of improving Parental Engagement. They’ve listened carefully to our context, adapted training to suit our needs, and created a safe, respectful space for staff to engage. We look forward to putting the theory into practice and seeing the impact of their expertise “(Headteacher St Stephens Community Academy).
This Framework and Toolkit is free to all education settings in Cornwall.
Schools can use the Framework to support their partnership work with parent carers. All education settings will be invited to an online community of practice meeting once per term free of charge to share and develop practice to support their partnership work with parents.