Building relationships with professionals
Strong partnerships between parents and teachers are crucial to promoting a child's development.
Teachers and parents should make every effort to relate well with each other.
The key components for building healthy relationships are:
- A need for all other stages in the partnership to work together.
- Getting to know each other.
- Determining parents / teachers aspirations.
- Agreeing how to work together.
- Establishing genuine trust to enable openness and challenge.
- Teachers building parents' self-esteem and confidence; parents showing confidence in their child's class teacher / school.
Teachers should explain the intended outcomes for their child and have SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-limited) intended outcomes.
Teachers should also:
- Predict and prepare for any possible barriers.
- Set a date for reviewing the child's progress.
- Set out the agreement in an 'Action Plan' for the child.
- Support the parents in their role (for example, encouragement, praise and give feedback). Parents and teachers should agree a 'reviewing progress':
- Individual parents and teachers should meet to evaluate the progress with regard to the agreed actions and intended outcomes.
- Teachers should recognise the parent's contribution.
- An agreement should be reached about what needs still have to be met.
- Revise the agreed actions and intended outcomes as appropriate.
- Set a new date for reviewing progress.