Ben Hunt - Five Key Attributes for Building Strong Family Partnerships
Educators frequently talk about the need for family involvement. They realize the importance of families working together with them to support their children. Many schools even have signs welcoming families into the building. However, making parents truly feel welcome can be more difficult than it seems. There are often obstacles to creating an environment where families feel welcome and included as part of a collaborative effort to help their children learn. Barriers that stand in the way of a strong family/faculty partnership may include perceptions of judgment, prior negative experiences in school, language differences, or other issues. It is important to identify and overcome these barriers in order to put the best interests of the students first, particularly for those who face the most challenges and would reap the greatest benefit from a strong family connection to the school. As educators, it is our responsibility to do everything we can to strengthen our bond with families. If we acknowledge that it is important, we must commit to doing it.
I have served as principal of the same elementary school for fourteen years. Our school is located in a small town in Northwest Georgia. Over 90 percent of our students qualify for free or reduced lunch. More than 80 percent of our students are of Hispanic descent, and over 50 percent receive English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services. These demographics can often create obstacles that might hinder the ability of educators to develop family partnerships. But, thanks to the amazing teachers in our school, who all share the same vision, we have implemented several effective strategies, built around five key attributes, that have created an environment where families feel welcome and encouraged to build strong partnerships with our staff.
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The importance of families and their role in our school has to be understood by everyone on our staff. Each contact with a family member is an opportunity, and any negative interaction greatly outweighs a positive one. We often compare family contacts to going to a favorite fast-food restaurant. While we “serve hundreds of sandwiches” each day, each sandwich that we serve must be the same high quality. It may be the only sandwich we serve to that family member. We have to see every interaction as our only chance at making a difference. This mindset must be internalized school wide.
During student drop-off, our staff members open the doors for hundreds of students, but each student should be greeted and made to feel welcome. Our office staff distributes visitor stickers and welcomes every parent guest in the building when they are going to breakfast. As principal, I stand in the lobby each morning and greet every person who enters, while music is playing in the background. Families should be welcomed at meetings and they have an important role to play. This positive energy hopefully continues with each interaction. Even when parents need to meet to discuss a difficult situation, this concept is still important. We must listen, take time to explain the “why” behind the “what” when there is a misunderstanding, and remember to show empathy. One technique to reinforce this approach is to see each student as your own child and each parent as you. The golden rule of treating others like you would like to be treated can go really far and helps in almost any situation. Every staff member must remember that each interaction is an opportunity.
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With the belief that families are an integral part of school, our actions must reinforce it. An effective first step is for staff to make the initial contact to let families know they are part of a team dedicated to helping their child. For the past fourteen years, our teachers in kindergarten and pre-k have utilized a strategy that supports this approach. Each June, after teachers receive their rosters, the teachers write a personal note to each child in their class and let them know they are coming by to visit them on a specific date in the summer (giving them a 30 minute window). Then, on the day of the scheduled visit, the teacher, paraprofessional, assistant principal, and I hop into a car, equipped with popsicles, a book for the new student, and some information about the school. We visit each home to meet our new student and sit with the families.
When we arrive, many students are often dressed up in their Sunday best and have waited at the window for us to arrive. During our visit, we let the families know that they are welcome at school, answer their questions, and try to put them at ease about sending their young child to school for the first time. Before we leave, we give the students their book and some popsicles. Frequently, the families give us treats in return, which is a nice perk! Homemade tamales, fresh baked cookies, and bottles of water are just a few of the goodies we’ve received. For many young students, this is a highlight of the summer. They often talk about the visit for months. Our staff sees these visits as an essential first step in building a strong family connection.
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Often the best experiences for our families are some of the activities we host during the year. We strive to create opportunities where our families see our school as a warm and inviting place. Our school hosts a wide range of activities each year that are built around the idea that families need time to just have fun or relaxing moments together. We try to plan events that are important to them.
Our fall activities may include a trick or treat event in October to give our children a safe place to get candy, a fall festival where everyone can participate in fun activities together, and a Hispanic Heritage Night, where we can celebrate the culture and background of many of our students. In November, we host a Thanksgiving luncheon, which has the highest attendance of all our annual events. Over two days, we serve each student, plus over 500 extra guests a full Thanksgiving meal. To accommodate a crowd of this size, we adjust our schedule, and create extra dining space. We also get much needed assistance from our central office and recruit our administrative staff to help serve. While this event takes a lot of extra effort, the opportunity for our families to enjoy a meal together is absolutely priceless.
For the Christmas holiday, we offer a low-cost photo opportunity with Santa. Many families take advantage of this opportunity and always express their appreciation to the school. In the spring, when the weather gets warmer, we partner with our high schools and a local college to host a Saturday soccer event. Lastly, our teachers have even entered a wrestling ring to “compete” against professional wrestlers and defend the school’s honor as family members cheer on their favorite teacher. All of these events help build an inclusive and welcoming school culture that supports strong family partnerships.
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While the activities described above are fun and engaging, it is also important to be strategic and intentional in our outreach to parents. This is where our “Read and Feed” program comes in. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our school hosted academic nights, where teachers led activities for students while the adults stood next to the wall and watched. Hundreds of students would come, but families would leave not knowing how to support learning.
Conversely, teachers were constantly asked by parents and guardians for ideas to support learning at home. The pandemic hit, and all in-person events had to be reexamined. We quickly realized families needed support more than ever before. Many of our parents needed resources (both physical and educational) to support their children at home during the pandemic. Out of the chaos of COVID-19 came the opportunity to improve our offerings.
We knew we needed something more personal and purposeful so we created a new program called “Read and Feed.” The premise for the program is to equip families with the tools they need to support reading at home. For the past three years, the school has invited cohorts of ten families to attend a four-week set of classes, one night a week. At the start of each class, our teachers serve the families a meal from a local restaurant. We take this time to build relationships with families and also provide them a chance to enjoy a nice meal together. We then conduct a read-aloud with them and model a simple strategy that can be replicated at home that includes vocabulary development, character traits, and making predictions. This exercise helps families learn how to support reading at home.
After we read the book, we participate in a fun, hands-on activity that is connected to what the families just heard. These activities include word scavenger hunts through the building, obstacle courses in the gym based on the struggles faced by characters in the book, and making a family crest. We wrap up the night by giving each family a copy of the book. Our goal is for every family to leave with a book, some helpful ideas on how to encourage reading at home, and a full stomach.
We repeat this program multiple times throughout the year, and even host a cohort group in Spanish to emphasize that reading strategies are universal. The best thing about the program is that it is supported by donations from local businesses and, therefore, entirely free for our families. The school has raised enough funds to run the program, free of charge, for seven years.
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The last thing we always consider is the balance between safety and creating a welcoming environment. Safety is always our top priority. While we always want families to feel that they are welcome, we also want them to be assured that their children are safe. Our safety measures include stressing the importance of always keeping doors closed, having each family sign in at the office, conducting background checks on field trip volunteers, and scheduling drills to practice emergencies. In addition, as principal, I am present at the front door each morning. We want to build a strong partnership with our families while always remembering that each child’s safety is our first priority.
Family engagement is a key component in a student’s success. When schools see families as partners in their child’s education, everyone wins. Our school has found great success with the approaches we’ve developed, but we recognize that our way is by no means the only way. Each school needs to develop its own personalized plan and set of activities that work best for the families and students they serve. However, I do believe that all successful approaches to building strong family partnerships should include the five attributes highlighted above. These universal attributes can serve as a foundation for building strong and successful family partnerships in any school.
Ben Hunt is Principal at Eastside Elementary School in Dalton, Georgia. In recognition of his school’s success in building strong family partnerships, he was named a National Life Group 2023-24 LifeChanger of the Year.