TEACHER

SURVEY 2017
Teachers’ perception and practice
of parental engagement in school
We asked teachers and senior leaders their
views on the benefits of parental
engagement and their school's strategies
for encouraging it. They believe parent
engagement has a positive impact on their school
and want to find ways to engage parents. But
teachers are not always aware of who in their
school is leading this important area of work and
what they can do to help.

Benefits

68%
say building trust and improving
relationships between parents and
teachers is the biggest benefit of
parental engagement

Other top benefits

of parental engagement

...and only

2%
Believe
parental
engagement
has no
62% 59% 53% 44%1 impact on
their school
Improves Improves pupil Develops a Reduces
academic behaviour shared school absenteeism
achievement ethos and
culture

Primary and secondary school teachers rate these benefits

of parental engagement differently:

Top 5 Primary Secondary

builds trust and improves
1 74% improves relationships 66% behaviour

develops a shared improves academic

2 64% school ethos and
culture
62% achievement

builds trust and

3 63% improves academic
achievement 61% improves relationships

4 53% improves behaviour 54% reduces absenteeism

38% raises pupil aspirations 43% raises pupil aspirations

5 parents’ voice and
38% views inform the
school’s decision-making

School strategy

48%
do not know who within the school is responsible
for parental engagement. This is particularly true
for classroom teachers (61%) compared to senior
leaders (17%) and more so in secondary schools
(57%) than primary schools (41%)

only
24%
say their school has
only some measures in
place to track parental

19%
engagement

have a written
parental
engagement
only report undertaking
any continuing

8%
professional
plan at their development (CPD)
school training on parental
engagement

PTA UK supports both parents and schools to develop

parental engagement and parent voice in schools for the
benefit of children’s education. For more information on our
training courses and to book your place, plus further
resources for school leaders, please visit
pta.org.uk/ParentCouncilsUK.

For information and resources for parents on all things

education please visit pta.org.uk.

• Survey conducted as part of NFER’s Teachers’ Omnibus survey between 5-10 May 2017
• 1,339 practising teachers from 1,170 schools in the maintained sector in England completed the survey.
52.2% of respondents were teaching in primary schools; 47.8% were teaching in secondary schools.
29.4% of respondents were senior leaders; 70.5% were classroom teachers
• The original sample was representative of the national population of maintained schools by
achievement, school type (primary/secondary), region and local authority type. The sample was also
weighted by free school meals eligibility.