Teachers are going back to the classroom today to learn how to build stronger relationships with the families of their students.

Karen Mapp, a professor of practice at Harvard University, will be presenting a seminar on family engagement to school principals, counsellors and PTA representatives.

The seminar will push family engagement as “a cornerstone” of student wellbeing and academic achievement.

Dr Mapp, who was invited to Bermuda by education charity the Bermuda Education Network, said: “There always seems to be this dynamic of schools wanting parents to be more engaged and families wanting schools to be more friendly and welcoming.

“I do this work all over the world and what I have found is that this dynamic between home and school seems to be pretty common no matter where I go.

“We know from research that when families and schools partner with each other, kids do better.”

“A lot of schools just engage families with pot lucks and dinners and things like that but we know that that would be underutilised ways of reaching out.”

Dr Mapp has spent the past 25 years researching ways in which partnerships between schools, families and community groups improve student performance and how those partnerships can be best cultivated.

Ahead of today’ seminar a survey was sent out to island schools. According to Dr Mapp, the results showed that educators endorsed the family engagement concept and were “curious” to learn more about how to implement it.

She said: “School is only a small proportion of time that children are learning and they’re also learning while they’re with their families so let’s figure out how we can work together and make that time even more important to their learning.

“Families can actually be much more involved in their children’s education in ways that will not only support the teachers but accelerate whatever it is the school is trying to do.

“For example, a lot of times when families come to school events the school doesn’t tell them anything about what their children should know or be able to do — their goals around academics and development.

“Teachers should explain goals and also suggest activities that can be done at home because there may be things that families can do to support those goals.

“We in the education system have not really conveyed to families how important they are. We need to sit down with families and say ‘we can’t actually do this job without you’.

“Families love that, they love teachers to share with them — ‘what can I be doing to help my child’s learning?’

“When you have that mutual partnership — families sharing information about their children with the school and schools sharing information about the curriculum — we see things like higher rates in test scores and you don’t have problems in terms of absenteeism.”

Becky Ausenda, the founder and executive director of the Bermuda Education Network, said: “Dr Mapp’s work has shown how important and impactful it is when schools and families develop strong partnerships.

“It isn’t only important for academic success, it’s fundamental in supporting a child’s social and emotional strengths.

“This seminar is just a taster for our public school educators. We’ve encouraged school principals not only with their staff but with a PTA representative so that they can take the opportunity to have conversations that lead to other initiatives.

“I think this event is going to spark conversations between teachers, principals and PTA representatives that will lead to a richer and more productive partnership between home and school.”