Family Engagement Taskforce launches to find the best means of building consistent and meaningful engagement with parents and carers

At the beginning of this academic year, ImpactEd Group launched a nationwide research initiative focused on engagement in schools, to determine whether levels of engagement of key stakeholder groups could act as an early warning sign for future educational outcomes, such as attendance and attainment. Utilising the TEP platform, we are now conducting a termly census with school employees and over 100,000 young people, measuring staff and pupils' cognitive, emotional, and behavioural engagement with school. But we know that if we want to understand the full picture of school engagement, we also need to be capturing insights from families.  That is why today we are establishing a Family Engagement Taskforce, as a sub-group of our main Research Commission, to gather insight and best practice into how to engage with parents consistently and effectively.

We know that family engagement matters. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has documented 97 studies linking parental engagement to improved outcomes, with data suggesting it can contribute approximately four months of additional progress for students. But measuring family engagement presents some challenges. Schools often struggle to reach parents consistently, and conventional surveys typically receive limited responses. Additionally, no standardised measurement framework exists to track parental engagement, with live benchmarks, over time. This makes it difficult for schools to evaluate their effectiveness and progress in a contextual way.

The Family Engagement Taskforce will explore the best mode and mechanism for engagement. Chaired by Kat Agar from Oasis Community Partnerships, and working alongside Parentkind, The Brilliant Club Parent Power and school leaders, the Taskforce will explore various data collection methods, such as text messaging and incentives, while considering potential .

The taskforce wants to hear from schools and Trusts who are leading the way in parental engagement, asking you to share practice, tell us what has worked and hopefully join us as participants on this exciting research project. By developing the engagement picture across employees, pupils and families, we can support more schools with the data and actionable insights that they need to predict, intervene and support our young people to thrive.  

Tell us what has worked here and join us as participants on this research project as we build the picture of family engagement across the country. Do you have any questions? Contact us on: hello@impactedgroup.uk

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