Policies

Families and Schools Together (FAST)

Context and Issue

Parental engagement has been widely recognized as crucial in determining students' academic success. Research consistently demonstrates that when parents actively participate in their children's education, students exhibit better academic performance, improved attendance, and higher motivation levels. This involvement can take various forms, including assisting with homework, attending school events, communicating regularly with teachers, and fostering a supportive learning environment at home. While numerous initiatives and programs aim to enhance parental involvement in education, empirical studies examining the effectiveness of these strategies are relatively limited. This gap in research poses a challenge for educators, policymakers, and parents seeking guidance on how best to facilitate meaningful engagement between families and schools. Therefore, there is a critical need for further research to identify and evaluate effective approaches for promoting parental engagement in education. By better understanding which strategies yield the most significant benefits for students, educators, and policymakers can develop targeted interventions that effectively support parental involvement and ultimately contribute to improved learning outcomes for all students.

Solution 

Families and Schools Together (FAST) is a parental engagement program that aims to improve attainment and social and emotional outcomes by enhancing links between families, schools, and the community. Parents and their children attend weekly group sessions, run by trained local partners, that encourage good home routines around homework, mealtimes, and bedtimes.

Impact

The project successfully engaged parents, with 83% of parents who began the program attending six or more of the eight sessions. This attendance rate is notable given that previous research on parental engagement, including recent EEF trials, has highlighted the difficulty of getting parents to attend sessions.

Analysis

The self-reported capacity for schools and parents to engage was enhanced in the immediate and longer-term for the FAST parents. However, the success of maintaining the parent group (through FASTworks) or benefiting parents and children in the wider year group was more limited.