City Family of Schools: parents’ views of future educational priorities

Abstract

The aim of this research study was to qualitatively examine engagement between City of London Academies Trust schools/colleges and the parent body. The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF, 2024: n.p.) defines parental engagement as “teachers and schools involving parents in supporting their children’s academic learning”. Goodall (2022) provides a broader definition of parental engagement with learning, and describes education (learning for a particular end) and schooling as sub-sets of the wider sphere of children’s learning, and explicitly differentiates parental engagement with learning from parental involvement in schools, e.g. in the form of visits to schools for parents’ meetings and contact with schools. Despite some ambiguities in the definition of parental engagement, there is substantial evidence that the attainment of children from low-income households is lower than that of their more affluent peers, and that activities targeted at increasing the engagement of low-income parents in their children’s learning are beneficial (EEF, 2024). Key to successful parental engagement initiatives is staff development to enable teachers to support parents confidently and effectively, as well as to obviate the potential for deficit thinking towards particular groups of parents (Goodall, 2022; EEF, 2024).