Supporting parents and carers of children with EAL

7 min read:

It is widely recognised that the engagement of parents and carers has a powerful impact on a child’s education, aspirations and ultimately on their outcomes. Desforges and Abouchaar, 2003 state, “Research consistently shows that what parents do with their children at home through the age range, is much more significant than any other factor open to educational influence”, illustrating how the effect of parental engagement is greater than any schooling itself.

The terms ‘engagement’ and ‘involvement’ are often used interchangeably. By ‘parental involvement’ we mean involvement in school life and activities such as parents’ evenings, school fairs etc, whereas ‘parental engagement’ requires the meaningful engagement in the child’s academia through activities which encourage and support learning, such as reading with the child, parent-child discussions on aspirations, and making explicit the value of education through their own modelling and behaviour.

So, it makes sense that when supporting our parents and carers, our time is better spent developing and increasing the parental engagement so successful outcomes can be achieved by all.

There are many challenges when working with parents at all stages of education. For parents and carers with English as an Additional Language (EAL) there are added barriers to active parental participation. By understanding these key barriers, we can avoid making incorrect assumptions about parents’ interest and interpreting a lack of a child’s achievement as lack of interest. Many children with EAL are looked after by their grandparents and they will play a significant role in the early start to education and home learning support.

Key barriers for parents and carers

English language barriers or minimal English literacy skills may be a key challenge. The inability to access or understand key communication, verbal or written, provided by the school can cause much misunderstanding, apprehension, and isolation.

Families may be new to the country and may not understand the British education system or the vital role they play in their children’s learning. Parents may consider themselves less educated or think that they can only support their child through the medium of English. They may be anxious about their level of English and believe that they have little to contribute to supporting their children’s learning. They regard themselves as the first and foremost educators of their children and consider settings/schools as the sole place for education. So, engaging with the setting or school at any deeper level may be intimidating.

Parents’ own education experiences may differ vastly from their children. They may be accustomed to formal styles, may not recognise play-based or creative styles of learning and prioritise rote learning rather than using and applying. Expectations of the children may be high but adequate support resources, aids, or supportive routines for home learning may not be provided. Their knowledge of the curriculum, the key stages, subject matters and age-related expectations may be insecure. Furthermore, the importance and the role of the home languages may not be recognised and thereby a higher status may be placed on acquiring English at the expense of the home language.

The most vulnerable points are entry into settings/schools and transition from one key stage to another. Families may lack knowledge of the admission processes, and struggle with the change in environment, routine, learning, expectations, different ways of working with settings/schools and establishing new relationships. In early years, parents and children may not be school ready, causing delayed settling in. Information sharing by settings/schools may also be inconsistent during transition and key knowledge about the children may be missed.

Life factors such as settling in for the newly arrived families, establishing work, juggling work patterns, childcare responsibilities, transportation, financial constraints, and the pandemic all compound the challenges.

Barriers to parental engagement are not all ‘parent made’. Educators may not see parents and families as individuals but part of a collective and some can fall through the gaps.

Cultural barriers also need to be considered for effective support. For example, adult males may be the only ones communicating with the setting/school, or the aspirations for the boys may be higher than the girls. Educators also need to be aware of any safeguarding issues which may arise with families and within communities through practices such as FGM and private fostering of children within extended families and know what to do if these arise.

All the above factors greatly influence parents’ confidence and ability to meaningfully engage in their children’s education.

What works well for successful support?

We need to critically review our current practice to identify areas which are successfully supporting parents and those which need adapting.

A key area of any parental support is ensuring that home-school links are strong, robust, and effective. Goodall and Montgomery, 2014 state “interactions between the home and school should be with the aim of building a trusting and equal relationship that makes parents feel like active stakeholders and contributors to their child’s education”. As educators, we must initiate and build those successful interactions. A learning environment which enables safe and supportive relationships will validate the parents’ voices and develop advocacy for their children. Harris and Goodall, 2007 also state that “Parental engagement in ‘supporting learning in the home’ is the single most important changeable factor in student achievement.”  So, we must put all our efforts in actively supporting our parents/carers to become parents in partnership.

• Knowing your families well through early dialogue and robust information gathering will identify where the parents need support.
• For newly arrived families, implement a careful induction programme with an initial meeting to collect key information, explain the British school system and establish what will help or hinder. It is also the best welcome for the new families, initiating those trustful relationships and ensuring a strong start to school life.
• Have a strategic plan for communication with parents of children with EAL and create consistencies across the school. Having a staff member with responsibility for EAL provision is a good start. In the current climate, we must safeguard this crucial role as it provides a vital support to the parents of children with EAL.
• Provide planned whole school CPD to understand the possible barriers to parental involvement, supporting learners of EAL, particularly those new to English, and exploring the cultural diversity of your setting/school. This will improve staff confidence and drive the whole setting/school approach to enhancing parental engagement.
• Introduce parent champions who may share the same language or experiences and can support the new parents to settle in.
• Provide different methods of communication. Written communication is often too wordy, inaccessible, and laced with jargon. Not everything needs to be translated. Find out what works best for the parents/carers. Offer interpreters as necessary – beware of asking a child to interpret and avoid using other parents for interpretation. This may cause confidentiality issues and may prevent the families from sharing all the necessary information. Ask staff members or professional interpreting services to interpret for that educational knowledge and impartiality. Interpretation is particularly important when sharing assessment and reporting information. Online tools such as Tapestry which enable staff to keep in constant contact with the parents and offer accessible communication are good tools to be adopted by early years and primary settings.
• Provide practical strategies to support the learning at home. Key information on setting/school life and curriculum through parent pocket guides makes the information accessible. Follow up with parent workshops which allow the parents to experience the way their children learn and highlight the importance of areas such as reading stories and using home language as a tool for learning. These workshops can yield magic moments for the parents/carers as they realise their ability to contribute to their child’s learning and develop support networks.
• Offer EOSL classes – this will not only help parents with the English language but can also bring them into the education space in a safe way.
• Invite the parents in to do specific tasks – read books in their home language, share their cultural or religious experiences, support topic-based learning.
• Support transition – a joint responsibility for both settings/schools with leavers and those welcoming new children. Establish a robust transition system for a smooth and positive induction which enables the next stage of learning. It will nurture good working relationships and consider transition from all perspectives – educators’, parents’, and children’s. Ensure that pertinent information about the individual children and families is shared effectively. Provide parents help with admission processes; schedule in meetings/open evenings, with interpreters where necessary to explain the new phase; offer extra visits to new settings/schools and connect to parents who have shared experiences and preferably have a common language.

According to Sylva et al, 2004 “What parents do is more important than who parents are”

Parents of children with EAL often have high aspirations for their children and given the right support, they will be empowered. Our investment in parents/carers will reap rewards for all, especially for the children.

Further reading and links:

Parent Pocket Guides

Working with parents to support the learning of pupils who use EAL: Guidance for schools

Parental Engagement Toolkit

Desforges, C. and A. Abouchaar (2003). The impact of parental involvement, parental support and family education on pupil achievement and adjustment: A literature review. London, Department of Education and Skills.

Goodall, J., & Montgomery, C. (2014). Parental involvement to parental engagement: A continuum. Educational review, 66(4), 399-410.

Harris, A., and J. Goodall. 2007. “Engaging parents in raising achievement.” Do parents know they matter? Department for Children, Schools and Families.