How to Maintain Good Relationships with Parents

Today, I met the mother of one of my new Year 8 Maths students! It's not often that I get to meet face to face with the parents of any of my students - especially being a 7-12 tutor, more often than not, my students come in by themselves, so it's aways a real pleasure when both parent and child come in together.

In an increasingly digitised age, establishing rapport can feel more difficult than ever. The warmth and reassurance that can be communicated through a black and white email sort of just pales in comparison to what can be acheived through a firm handshake and a warm smile!

Understanding this, here are a couple of the ways that I've tried to re-humanise the rapport building/communication process with parents in order to maintain healthy bridges and open communication channels!

1. Touching Base

I know it's a mandatory part of our termly protocol here, but even checking in with our parents on random occasions or leading up to exam blocks is a really great way to make clear to them that we're on top of where our students (their children!!) are at. It also give us the opportunity to move up sessions scheduled later in the term to before exam time, instead of having a bunch of sessions scheduled in surplus afterwards - not a bad thing, but once assessments are over and holidays approach, students are definitely more checked out.

2. Phone Calling

I've had a notoriously low hit rate in the past calling my parents as opposed to texting them. Whether they haven't got my number saved or they're just caught up with other things, it's a rare occassion that I get through. But, I do think it's still a great opportunity to again, add some of that warmth back into the tutor-parent relationship. If I were a parent, even seeing a missed call from my child's tutor and then a follow up text message would give me much more reassurance that they seriously do care about what's going on with them!!