Parents, carers and families have a vital role to play in helping their children and young people achieve their full potential – at school, college or university, in work and in life as a whole. Parents’ aspirations, what they do with their children at home, and how they support their child’s learning and development before and during school or college have a real impact on how well their children succeed.

The DCSF has developed the Parental Engagement resources to help support parents to engage in their children’s education. These resources are part of the wider DCSF strategy to increase parental engagement in their child’s learning and development published in the Children’s Plan: Progress report, December 2008.

All parents want the best for their children but as they grow older it can get more difficult as their learning changes and they want to be more independent. The booklet available to download below published by the DCSF can help parents find new ways to coach their teenager, whether they are a parent, carer or other family member. It is not about telling them what to do, or doing it for them, it is about helping them find ways to help themselves.

The document is aimed at parents of teenagers aged 14 to 19 and addresses barriers to engagement (lack of time, confidence, not knowing how to help etc), to help them to stay involved with their child’seducation in the later stages of the learning journey.

It provides confidence-raising tips and encouragement to become proactive in supporting learning, homework and revision and tools such as ‘conversation starters’ to encourage parents to have a regular dialogue with their teenager.