Building relationships with parents and family members is a hugely important part of our job as educators. Today I’m sharing 10 ways for teachers to build relationships with families.
10 Ways for Teachers to Build Relationships with Families
1. Hold Parent-Teacher Conferences Regularly.
This will allow you to have face-to-face contact with your students’ family members. It’s really hard to build relationships via email or written messages.. Especially when you can’t always hear a tone of voice through those. Having those face-to-face meetings really does help to establish a good relationship.
2. Be Responsive to Parent Communication
This includes emails, phone calls and any written messages. I know it can be overwhelming if you have a parent who calls a lot, but you can also set boundaries with this. Let them know that if it’s not an emergency to use your email instead or provide home-school communication books. You can also send home a contact list of the best ways to contact you. For phone calls, list the best numbers and days/times you are available for phone calls.
I like to put together these little contact sheets, laminate them and attach a magnet on the back. That way my students families can pop the details on their fridge at home!
3. Provide Opportunities for Families to Volunteer in the Classroom
I know this can be scary.. And it’s not always appropriate. But, if you have opportunities where you can have family members volunteer to come into the classroom, it definitely helps build those relationships! I’ve had parents come in and help tidy up our class garden areas. Some have helped to arrange bake sales to earn money. There’s lots of ways that you can have family members involved in the classroom and actively work on those relationships, without feeling overwhelmed or intruded upon.
4. Share Positive News and Updates About Their Child’s Progress
It’s really easy to forget to write home about the positive stuff.. And it’s really easy to remember to write home about the negative stuff. I have noticed how much it helps to build those strong, professional relationships with families when you take time to send home a positive note. If you do home/school communication books, a little positive note of the day is a great way to work on this. It doesn’t need to be anything huge.. Just something positive. That way, your student’s families are always receiving positive notes.. And when it comes to receiving a negative note, it won’t feel so bad.. Because they know that there’s lots of positives being sent home as well.
5. Consider Sending Home a Weekly or Monthly Newsletter
I like to send home a monthly newsletter. I usually try to highlight a student of the month – sometimes I do 2 a month. Families love getting to see their child having praise and reading about the progress they are making. It also provides your students families the chance to find out more about what’s going on in the classroom and anything that’s coming up.
6. Attend School Events and Encourage Families to Attend Too
School events can actually be really scary and nerve-wracking for a lot of our families. I remember once a parent commenting that she was terrified to come in and meet a teacher because she had never done it before! I think sometimes we forget that our families may find experiences that they are unsure of overwhelming and quite scary.
To try and ease their worries with this, I always like to do a quick phone call home. Especially if it’s the first event, or if you notice a family regularly doesn’t attend. Give them a quick phone call, ask if they have any worries.. Or if there’s anything you can do to accommodate them. It might just be that they struggle to get the time off work to attend. But a quick phone call can really make a huge difference.
7. Provide Resources and Support for Families to Help their Child at Home
I know our jobs are busy and overwhelming as it is.. And the thought of even more work right now probably makes you just want to break down and cry. But, here me out super fast. We all know how important and beneficial it is for our students to have consistent approaches. Especially for things like communication and behavior. By being able to send home some of the supports that you use in your classroom.. That families may not even know about or have access to.. That’s going to be a huge help.
- Because the families will be so grateful that you have prioritized them and reached out to offer htem support.
- It helps your student have a more consistent approach at both home and school.
- It’s probably going to help your student become better between transitions of home/school too.
8. Create a Welcoming Classroom Environment for Families
This one is so important! It’s definitely ok to have boundaries of accessing your classroom. And also what that looks like. Because you want to keep your classroom a safe space for your work environment too. But by making the area appealing and welcoming, your students’ families will feel more accepted into your classroom family. They’ll also be able to get the chance to see why their child(ren) are so excited to come to school and where they get to learn.
9. Collaborate with Families on Strategies
It’s no secret that our students are going to face multiple challenges throughout their school lives – and the rest of their lives too! By collaborating with your students families you’ll be able to help provide more consistent approaches for your student.. But also be able to help support their individual needs.
10. Show Appreciation for Families’ Involvement and Support
I always ensure that I spent time letting families know how much I appreciate them – for everything! It doesn’t matter if they bought me an end of year gift or not. Whether they volunteered this year or not. Of course those things are going to earn you specific thank you’s from me. But, I’m also going to appreciate the parent who doesn’t have time to volunteer.. Or send in gifts.. But makes a handmade card to send in showing their appreciation. Or the family who write nice words to me every now and again for how much they appreciate me. All of those things, I really appreciate. And I try to ensure that my students families know how much I appreciate them by acknowledging that.
If you found this blog post helpful, please consider sharing it with your friends and colleagues on social media. You may also like this blog post where I share 5 ways to improve your relationship with families.
Thanks,
Nikki
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