Family–school partnerships in the age of Covid-19: reasons for optimism amidst a global pandemic

ABSTRACT

This article reports on research undertaken in May and June 2020, during the initial phase of the Covid-19 pandemic when schools in England were still closed to the majority of children. The research sought to explore the impact of the so-called ‘lockdown’ on family–school partnerships. Research shows such partnerships make an important contribution to the effective education of children and young people, potentially leading to improved behaviour, engagement and learning outcomes. The study was conducted as a short online survey, circulated through social media and email, which invited teachers, school leaders and others working in primary and secondary schools to share their experiences of family–school partnership during this time. Analysis of the data showed that schools had made considerable efforts to maintain communication and support for all families, particularly those deemed ‘hard-to-reach’, and many participants reported that family–school partnerships had actually been strengthened through this testing period of time.

KEYWORDS:

• Covid-19
• families
• lockdown
• young people
• partnership
• schools

Notes

1. We acknowledge that other terms are widely used when discussing the relationship between parents and schools including ‘parental engagement’ and ‘parental involvement’. These terms are often understood differently by different groups, though Goodall and Montgomery (2014) set out a useful continuum foregrounding the value of ‘parental engagement’ with a child’s learning. We therefore chose to use an alternative term in this research.

2. A National College for Teaching and Leadership study (2011) defined ‘hard-to-reach’ parents as exhibiting the following behaviours: very low levels of engagement with school, do not attend school meetings nor respond to communications, and exhibit high levels of inertia in overcoming perceived barriers to participation. We acknowledge that the term ‘Hard-to-Reach’ can become a barrier to constructive partnerships, however, include it in this work due to its wide usage.

3. Such minorities groups include those from minority ethnic and language backgrounds (Evangelou 2013).