Teacher to parent communication doesn’t have to be hard or time-consuming. It is important to build strong relationships because they will benefit your students.

Emails

Keep it simple! Fire off a weekly email on Monday talking about the week ahead. Or recap what you did that week, on a Friday.

You can also send individualized emails when you have a great story to share.

Make a plan of when and how often you’ll email and stick to it. You don’t want to email randomly but you also don’t want to overwhelm parents by emailing them every day.

Want your emails to stand out? Use these email header & signature images that you can drag and drop in your emails. They are eye-catching so students’ parents will be sure to read your emails.

Positive Notes

Don’t underestimate the power of a positive note home. You can keep it simple and write a note on a note page and send it home with the student.

This positive note home freebie is easy to use. You can print a bunch off to have them on hand.

You can also type a quick personalized email. Bonus if you use a positive note home header image.

Phone Calls

Pick up the phone and call parents once in a while. This is especially a good idea if you know that they are not frequent fliers in their email inbox.

There’s just somethin’ about a real phone conversation.

Newsletters

Monthly or weekly newsletters are great for keeping parents informed about the goings-on in the classroom.

To make writing newsletters nice and easy, grab editable newsletter templates.

You can even have students write the newsletters. Pro tip: make sure you proofread them and add a little note from you before you email them out.

Agenda Notes

If your students have agendas, writing agenda messages is another great way to up teacher to parent communication.

You can have students write their own reminders and you can write notes home in students’ agendas, too.

Meet Them In The Parking Lot

Sometimes, going out at the end of the day and greeting parents is a great way to say hello and/or to touch base.

Human connection is fantastic to build teacher to parent communication.

Frequent Updates

Parents want to be in the know about how their child is doing at school. They appreciate updates whether it be about their child’s academics, leadership, or behaviour.

If we’ve discussed areas for improvement for their child, especially if their child recently had an incident at school, I like to follow up a few days later to provide an update. This helps to build teamwork.

Communication Apps

Using apps is another great way to communicate with parents. With apps like Seesaw, Remind, and Class Dojo, parents receive separate notifications which is helpful to ensure they are receiving important messages.

Using some of these tips will help build teacher to parent communication.

Having positive relationships with parents plays a big part in students’ success at school which is what we all want, right?