Most educators I know would acknowledge that trying to make families feel welcome at school events is an important thing to do. When families feel welcome at events such as a Family Night, it is much more likely that they will return in even greater numbers at subsequent family engagement events. Getting a good turnout is obviously all-important because schools can’t build cooperative relationships with parents if they don’t even show up, right?
Over the past decade I have visited literally hundreds of different schools all over the country to deliver family workshops. My experience has given me many insights on what some schools do to make families feel welcome and what other schools do to make families feel unwelcome. I’m not suggesting that a school would intentionally be un-welcoming. However, I do believe that some schools forget the importance of making sure they do a few simple things at family events in order to send a clear message that their teachers believe a parent’s role is all-important to a student’s school success.
What “simple things” am I talking about? Let’s use a real example. Last week we visited Arizona to deliver a Readers of the Caribbean workshop to families at Peoria Elementary. Two thumbs up for the staff at Peoria, they got it oh-so-right! Over 225 parents, students, and teachers showed up for their event and the feedback at the end of the night from families was outstanding. It was obvious that the families felt welcome from the moment they stepped over the threshold of the school’s auditorium door until the time they exited to return home. I’ll use the acronym “H.O.M.E.” to convey what Peoria Elementary did right:
· Hello- When families first arrived for the workshop, Peoria teachers and administrators were standing at the door with a friendly greeting. In fact, they even did it using pirate jargon to go along with the fun theme for the event. I heard teachers bellowing salutations such as “Ahoy there maties, we’re glad you came!” and “Blimey, if it isn’t the super-duper-Smith family!” Greeting parents at the door may seem an obvious thing to do, but you’d be surprised how many times I’ve seen schools forget to do this simple thing; missing an easy opportunity to set a positive warm tone for the remainder of the event.
· On-going interactions- Conversations between teachers and parents didn’t stop after the initial hellos. Throughout the two-hour event I saw many positive interactions such as teachers serving families food, parents and teachers asking each other questions about their children/students, parents being encouraged to actively participate in the workshop, teachers bragging on their students, and families being acknowledged positively by the principal at the end of the night. All-in-all the entire event had a sense of a big happy school family.
· Making valuable use of the time- Peoria offered their families a highly engaging rich learning experience. Parents are hungry to learn practical things they can do at home to help their children do better in school. Feed them! Too many family events focus on fun and fall short when it comes to content. When this happens parents leave feeling their time at school was a waste of time. My company, Workshops-in-a-Box, believes that it is important to strike the right balance between fun and content so that attention is maintained and the learning curve is accelerated.
· Exiting farewells- After the Peoria event was over, teachers and parents lingered for a long time. This is always a positive sign to me. Positive relationships between schools and families are built over time through on-going conversations. So the next time your schools plans a family event, make sure you do the simple things to make your families feel “at home” at school.
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