Positive communication between parents and teachers is vital. Therefore, rather than sitting back and allowing the teacher to handle everything, parents should get involved as well. It will improve the academic performance and also help your child to see the importance you put on their education. In addition to teachers, you should also know the learning style of your child and keep an eye on the issues going on in school and if they are affecting your child. Thus, it is essential to maintain ongoing communication with the teacher of your child.

Benefits for Parent

Good communication between parent teachers has various benefits. The way in which the school communicates with parents will in some way or the other affect on the way parents get involved with their children’s learning. Getting involved and learning about the academic program of the school will also help parents to understand how they can support and help their child. It will increase the confidence level of the parents and help them appreciate the key role school is playing in their children's education.

Student Benefits

There are various other benefits that students can gain from parent teacher communication. It will help raise them their academic achievement, increase motivation for learning, maintain regular attendance, improve behavior and have a positive attitude about school as well as homework.

Teacher Benefits

Involvement of parent shows that it will free the teachers and allow them to focus more of teaching children. Besides, staying in touch with the parents will help the teachers to understand about the home environment and needs of the students. All this will help the parents to have positive view of teachers and improve their self-esteem.

Good communication between teacher and parents is also necessary for the students' success. Various researches show that the more teachers and parents communicate and share information about a student, the more capable they will be to help the student accomplish academically.

Some of the various ways that parents and teacher can communicate are-

• Parent teacher conferences
   
• Organizations or community councils of the school
   
• Weekly or monthly reports sent home for parent review and comment
   
• Phone calls
   
• Home visits
   
• E-mail

With the increasing methods of communication and the great diversity, among families, teachers should no longer rely on one single method to send messages. It is essential for schools to adapt a variety of strategies and create an overall plan. Some of the common strategies that can be considered by teachers include annual open houses, parent newsletters, annual school calendars, annual field days, workshops for parents and so on.

There are various other effective communication strategies that parents and teacher can initiate. Teachers can initiate communication by calling or writing an introduction letter to the parents and establishing expectations. Besides, parents should be frequently updated about the performance and achievements of their children. Teachers and parents should have all the necessary information in order to help the students.

Parent teacher meetings offer great opportunity to communication and find out how your child is performing academically. Such meetings will help parents to discuss any troubles or questions they may have regarding their child. Thus, parent should prepare themselves in advance and think about the topics which they would like to discuss with the teacher. By doing so, they can make the most of their allocated time.