9 Ways to Increase Parental Engagement in schools.
Increasing Parental Engagement within schools using tech and creativity is an essential key to children’s safety online.
Recently I spoke to a Secondary school IT Lead who had hosted an Internet Safety Information Evening for the parents of their 1500+ pupils. Only 15 parents came.
This situation is being echoed all around the UK and I find it deeply concerning. Do parents feel equipped well enough and children or think they are in no real danger? Are schools providing a range of opportunities for parents to access the information from? Do parents understand the importance of this topic as the NSPCC state that online safety is their number one priority?
At Play Healing, I believe that, equipping parents with the tools they need to keep their children safe online is essential.
At school, the IT departments have up-to-date software and hardware that enables them to restrict pupil access to anything inappropriate effectively and phones are generally banned during lessons.
However, it’s when pupils return home from school that they have far more opportunities to escape on the web as they are often left to their own devices.
Research has shown that encouraging regular conversation, without arguing, between parent and child about their internet usage is far more important than most parents realise.
The stronger the connection between parent and child the more likely the child will have the tools later in life to thrive in this fast-paced, ever-changing world.
Parents need to be that safe port of call for their children to be able to express themselves without criticism or an anxious or angry response. We need our children to feel safe enough to chat about their life online.
Research has shown a clear link in feeling suicidal and screentime - especially time spent on social media. It is also clear to say that the longer a child is online, the more likely that the child will end up seeing inappropriate content, be exposed to cyberbullying or worse.
Schools need to find new ways of engaging parents in these matters and that is where Play Healing can help:
9 Ways schools could increase Parental Engagement:
Performance: Many parents wouldn’t miss their children’s performance for the world and would be very willing to give up an hour to hear their child sing or perform. However, for busy or anxious parents this may not be a possibility so how about creating a video of the performance that can be e-mailed directly to parents?
Special Assemblies - Extending a special assembly and adding some simple information about internet safety, or getting a class to take assembly and present their findings.
Inviting parents to come to school and take part in classroom activities relating to keeping safe online.
Having a workshop with a visiting speaker just before school pick up for parents without the distraction of the children to really look closely at how they can keep their children safe and keep up to date on the most recent threats to their children’s safety. Don’t forget the biscuits!
Parent & child creative workshop that they can attend and take part in fun activities that sparks off a conversation on how they want tech to be used in the family home.
Outdoor trail for parents and children - noticing the effect of how the outdoor environment is so good for children and their emotional and physical development. (The importance of play.)
Provide a play workshop giving parents suggestions of simple activities and games they could play with their children during some screen free time to empower parents again. You could also offer to e-mail the games to them and parents who leave could recieve a goodie-bag.
Launch a Play Healing ‘tech box’ event where all children decorate a box with parent helpers to store their tech in, and discuss how it could be used in their home.
Sending out the information in video format for parents to watch in their own time.
“Online safety education should never be a viewed as a ‘one-off’ or ‘tick box’ event. Online safety is a vast topic and a ‘one-off’ session will not cover the full range of content required if educational settings are to prepare today’s children for living within the modern world. It is therefore essential education settings view external visitors as educational resources, not as substitute teachers or as a ‘tick box’ for delivering online safety in its entirety.” (UKCCIS Report, July 2018)
I’d love to hear your views on how you feel we can engage parents in this fast-paced digital world. Comment below: