How Do We Better Prepare Teachers to Facilitate Effective Parent-School Partnerships?

Euan
Jun 25
8 min read

Man presenting to a diverse group seated at desks in a classroom. A sign reads "ITE Training: Parent-Teacher Partnerships." Smiling faces.

Teachers are vital to forging strong partnerships with parents, but are we equipping them for this part of the job? Recent UK research suggests not. Many teachers leave their training with plenty of strategies for classroom management and curriculum delivery, yet little preparation for working with parents. This gap matters because when schools and families work together, children benefit. So how can we better prepare teachers to build effective parent-school partnerships?

Why Parent-School Partnerships Matter

We know that when parents are engaged in their children’s learning, it boosts outcomes. A 2021 Education Endowment Foundation review found effective parental engagement can add +4 months of progress in a child’s learning over a year . Multiple studies link strong parent-school partnerships to higher pupil achievement, better attendance and behaviour . Some researchers argue that parental engagement can impact student success even more than factors like school quality or socioeconomic status .

Beyond grades, genuine partnerships build trust and community. When parents feel valued and included, they are more likely to communicate openly with teachers and support learning at home. Children see a consistent message that school and home are working together, which bolsters their motivation and well-being. In short, engaging parents is not a fluffy add-on. It is a powerful lever for equity and improved outcomes.

Yet despite this, many teachers do not feel confident or prepared to engage with parents. The issue is not willingness. Teachers generally recognise parents’ importance, but training, time, and support have not kept pace with the growing expectations.

The Confidence Gap: Are Teachers Prepared to Work With Parents?

Recent evidence from 2025 paints a concerning picture of teacher preparedness in the UK. A national survey of 1,782 English teachers found significant gaps in training and confidence around parental engagement . For example, fewer than 3 in 10 teachers (under 29%) said their initial teacher education covered even the basics of what parental engagement is or why it’s important . Only 13% learned which types of parent involvement actually help children, and less than 7% received training on engaging parents from diverse backgrounds or overcoming barriers like poverty, language, or negative past experiences . In other words, the majority of new teachers enter the classroom without formal preparation for partnering with parents.

It’s no surprise, then, that teachers report lower confidence in this area. In the same survey, while almost all teachers felt confident holding regular parent-teacher meetings (96%) and involving parents in basic school activities (91%), their confidence dropped on more complex tasks . Only 60% felt confident identifying and removing barriers that prevent some parents from engaging, and just 50% felt confident engaging parents who speak languages other than English . In essence, teachers feel least confident working with the families who may need the most support. As one analysis put it, teachers have an obligation to work with all parents, but they admit they’re least confident engaging those who face additional disadvantages.

What Holds Teachers Back? Barriers Beyond Willingness

It’s important to acknowledge the systemic barriers teachers face, without laying blame on individuals. Even the most dedicated teacher can struggle to build parent partnerships amid these challenges:

Time and workload: Teaching is demanding. Finding time to call parents, hold workshops, or even chat informally can be hard when teachers are juggling planning, marking, and meetings. Heavy workloads leave limited bandwidth for relationship-building, especially outside school hours. Research indicates perceived workload and stress negatively affect teachers’ capacity to engage parents .
Lack of training: As noted, many teachers haven’t been trained how to foster parent engagement. If you’re not shown effective strategies during training or early career development, it’s daunting to figure it out on the fly. This can lead to sticking with minimal "tick-box" approaches or avoiding parent interactions beyond the essentials.
Low confidence: Without experience or guidance, teachers may feel insecure about reaching out to parents – especially if they anticipate tough questions or if parents come from different backgrounds. The 2025 survey found teachers’ self-efficacy (belief in their abilities) is a strong predictor of their parental engagement skills . Build confidence, and you likely build capability.
Limited leadership support: School leadership sets the tone. If engaging parents is not a clear priority from the headteacher or trust, teachers may assume it’s not valued – or they may not get the structural support (time in the schedule, training opportunities) to do it well. Conversely, leaders who model positive parent interactions and allocate time for partnership work empower their staff to follow suit.
Fear of conflict or misunderstanding: Some teachers worry about encounters with “challenging” parents – for example, a parent upset about a problem, or families who had negative school experiences themselves. Without tools for navigating difficult conversations, teachers might avoid proactive communication, which can inadvertently worsen trust. It’s easier to engage the already-engaged parents than to reach out to those who seem disengaged or hostile. Yet those are the relationships that often need the most care.

These barriers are largely systemic, not due to teachers’ lack of effort. Addressing them requires changes in training, school culture, and policy – not simply asking teachers to “try harder” in their spare time.

Gaps in Initial Teacher Education (ITE)

If we want new teachers to hit the ground running in partnering with parents, initial teacher education providers have a key role to play. However, until recently, parent engagement barely featured in many teacher training programmes. In England, the core content for ITE was updated in 2019 to include working with parents as a requirement . This is a positive step, but it only affects the newest cohorts of teachers. Most current teachers did their training before this change, and even now the implementation of that content varies and hasn’t been formally evaluated yet .

The evidence suggests ITE is still not consistently preparing teachers for this aspect of the job. The 2025 survey found that at least one third of teachers had zero training on every parental engagement topic asked about . More than half of teachers said they’d never been trained in crucial skills like identifying and removing barriers to engagement, or building trust with parents . In fact, almost 75% had no training on engaging parents who face extra barriers (such as families in poverty, with language differences, or who had bad experiences of school) . Those are precisely the scenarios where teachers most need guidance. As Prof. Olympia Palikara observes, teachers’ knowledge gaps mean they remain “preoccupied with parents’ involvement in school-based activities, at the expense of more effective parental engagement with learning beyond school” . In other words, if we don’t train teachers in what works – like helping parents support learning at home – they understandably default to what they know (e.g. inviting parents to assemblies or homework clubs, which may have more limited impact).

What could ITE providers do? First, ensure that every new teacher graduates with a grounding in evidence-based parent engagement practices. This includes: understanding which parental involvement activities actually improve pupil achievement (for example, parent-child reading routines or high parental expectations ); learning strategies to communicate effectively and empathetically with families; and developing skills to work with all parents, not just the easy-to-reach. Trainees should get chances to practice – whether through role-play parent-teacher conferences, community placements, or guided reflections on how to handle common scenarios.

Some countries have developed educator preparation frameworks for family engagement, highlighting core competencies like cultivating mutual trust, creating a welcoming environment, and reaching out to diverse families . Our own policy analysts in England recommend “quality teacher training [that] equips new and experienced teachers with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to facilitate parental engagement with learning.” This means ITE and ongoing CPD should treat parent partnership as a fundamental skill set – not an optional add-on.

Encouragingly, &Parents (the organisation behind this newsletter) is already in discussion with several ITE providers about working with student teachers on this topic. We’re exploring ways to bring real-world parent engagement scenarios and insights into teacher training. We’re keen to collaborate with more universities and training institutions to ensure the next generation of teachers feels ready and confident to build positive relationships with all families. After all, every teacher should enter the profession knowing how to welcome a parent into a conversation about their child.

Why It Matters for Outcomes and Equity

Strengthening teacher preparation in parent engagement is not a theoretical ideal. It is essential for pupil outcomes and educational equity. As noted earlier, parental engagement can yield 2–3 years of extra learning over a student’s school career. It’s a key strategy for narrowing attainment gaps: when teachers know how to engage all parents, not just the ones who naturally show up, children from disadvantaged backgrounds stand to benefit the most. Conversely, if we ignore the hard-to-reach families, our engagement efforts can inadvertently widen gaps (a one-size-fits-all approach tends to only reach the already advantaged). That’s why experts call for an explicit focus on engaging all parents, so that parent-school partnerships become a driver of fairness rather than a reflection of existing inequalities .

There’s also the dimension of trust and community-building. When teachers are equipped to genuinely partner with parents, it fosters mutual respect. Parents who might have felt intimidated by schools can become allies in their children’s learning. Teachers who might have felt wary of parental interference can see parents’ perspectives in a new light. Over time, this can transform the school climate – from wary transactions (“Did you sign the homework diary?”) to a more collaborative spirit (“How can we together support this child?”). Communities grow stronger when schools and families understand each other and pull in the same direction.

Ultimately, preparing teachers to engage parents is about empowering educators to leverage an incredibly rich resource: the families of their pupils. It’s about moving beyond mere “compliance” (sending out the obligatory newsletter or parent survey) to authentic partnerships that make a real difference. As one teacher-researcher noted, “parental engagement has such a powerful effect on children’s outcomes. It is therefore essential that teachers have both the time and the training to build relationships with parents and to support all families to access resources outside school.” This calls for action at multiple levels – from ITE providers updating curricula, to school leaders prioritising parent engagement in CPD and schedules, to policymakers aligning standards and inspection criteria in support of family partnership.

Get Involved

We invite school leaders and educators reading this to reflect on your own context. How prepared are your staff (or student teachers) to work with parents as partners? Do they know what effective parent engagement looks like beyond the basics, and do they feel confident reaching every family? Identifying any gaps is the first step to addressing them. Consider discussing this in your next staff meeting or training day. What do teachers find challenging about parent engagement, and what would help?

At &Parents, we’re committed to improving parent-school partnerships by supporting both sides of the equation. We’re already collaborating with some teacher training providers to develop this area, and we’re open to working with more schools and universities. If you’re interested in exploring how we could help your teachers or trainees become more confident and skilled in working with parents, get in touch with us. Together, we can ensure that every new teacher enters the classroom not only as a subject expert or pedagogue, but also as a capable partner to parents – ready to build the kind of home-school relationships that lift up pupils, strengthen communities, and improve outcomes for all.

Jones, C., Banerjee, P. & Jackson, L. (2025). The positioning of parental engagement within England's current educational policy landscape. British Educational Research Journal, 00, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.4175

Jones, C., Sideropoulos, V., & Palikara, O. (2025). Do teachers have the knowledge and skills to facilitate effective parental engagement? Findings from a national survey in England. Educational Review, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2025.2506802