Parent engagement is widely considered one of the last levers to be pulled in education in terms of improving school performance and increasing student, staff and parent wellbeing.

In this episode of The School Bell, we speak with Amanda Watt about the work she and her team are doing to enhance connections between families and schools as part of her role as the Executive Director of the Queensland Independent Schools Parent Network.

 Amanda discusses what the QIS Parents Network does, what parent engagement is and looks like in specific school settings, the landmark findings from their longitudinal research project and how schools can effectively and sustainably engage parents.

 We also hear from two independent school teachers from Fairholme College and Samford Valley Steiner School discussing the small but significant tweaks they’ve made to their communication with parents which has led to tangible benefits for them, their students and parents.

In this episode, we discuss:

1.08 Amanda’s education background

2.28 What is the QIS Parents Network?

4.23 What is Parent Engagement and how it differs from parent involvement

7.01 Current QIS Parent Network projects including research and collaboration with Griffith University

8.22 New ISQ Mastering Parent Engagement Project

9.23 Success stories and examples in schools

11.05 Teachers discuss the impact of parent engagement in their schools - Mary Timmer, Fairholme College

12.40 Andy Curry, Samford Valley Steiner School

15.20 Parents are hungry for ways to engage with schools

16.57 Ways that schools can get involved in parent engagement