This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how early childhood services with 3-5 year-olds can engage with families to enhance children’s early learning and development.
1 It sets out ‘promising’ and ‘not promising’ approaches drawn from multiple studies which have measured the effects of different strategies. While there is room for improvements in the quality of available research evidence,
2 these approaches provide ‘best bets’ for guiding practice. This guide also sets out next steps for early childhood services and practitioners to consider how the findings are relevant to them.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s early learning and development. This resource details strategies for engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds, families with English as an additional language, and families from refugee backgrounds by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for early learning practice guides (which target early childhood services with 3 to 5 year-olds).

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging families from culturally diverse backgrounds, families with English as an additional language, and families from refugee backgrounds, elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging with families of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) to support children’s learning outcomes. These strategies elaborate on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

The promising approaches include:

- recognising and supporting family engagement in learning at home
- supporting two-way, positive communication and providing light touch updates about learning
- promoting a literacy-rich environment at home (primary school guide)
- collaboratively planning and problem solving with families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. This resource details strategies for engaging with families of children in out-of-home care (OOHC) to support children’s learning outcomes. These strategies elaborate on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in AERO’s family engagement for learning practice guides.

The promising approaches include:

- recognising and supporting family engagement in learning at home
- supporting two-way, positive communication and providing light touch updates about learning
- promoting a literacy-rich environment at home (primary school guide)
- collaboratively planning and problem solving with families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning and development. This resource details engagement strategies for families of children with disability by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation’s (AERO) family engagement for early learning practice guides (which target early childhood services for 3- to 5-year-olds). In this resource, the term ‘disability’ also encompasses any children with developmental delay who may require additional support within an education and care setting. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 protects Australians from discrimination based on disability. A child with a disability is entitled by law to be provided with an education program that is appropriate for their development and academic needs. Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (‘the standards’), education providers are obligated to make reasonable adjustments, consult with children and their families, and eliminate harassment and victimisation. The standards place responsibility for family
engagement on services, educators and teachers. This supports the requirements to build partnerships with families set out in the Early Years Learning Framework and National Quality Standard.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning and development. This resource details engagement strategies for families of children with disability by elaborating on the ‘promising approaches’ outlined in the Australian Education Research Organisation’s (AERO) family engagement for learning practice guides. The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 protects Australians from discrimination based on disability. A child with a disability is entitled by law to be provided with an education program that is appropriate for their development and academic needs. Under the Disability Standards for Education 2005 (‘the standards’), education providers are obligated to make reasonable adjustments, consult with children and their families, and eliminate harassment and victimisation. The standards place responsibility for family engagement on schools, teachers and leaders. Families are important partners in supporting the learning of their children, so it is vital to understand how to work with them effectively as part of this engagement responsibility.

This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how primary
school teachers and leaders can engage with families to bring about improvements in students’
learning outcomes. It sets out ‘promising’ and ‘not promising’ approaches drawn from multiple studies
which have measured the effects of different strategies. While there is room for improvements in the
quality of available research evidence,2 these approaches provide ‘best bets’ for guiding practice. This
guide also sets out next steps for considering how the findings relate to your individual practice or
whole school strategy.
Note that some of the examples offered may not apply in all contexts. Reasonable adjustments should
be made where necessary to ensure full access and participation for all families.

There is a great deal of evidence that families play a critical role in their child’s learning. So how can secondary school teachers best work with families to support student learning?

This guide makes recommendations based on the best available research evidence about how secondary school teachers and leaders can engage with families to bring about improvements in students’ learning outcomes.

This checklist can be used to plan the implementation of your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is based on work by Evidence for Learning, showing implementation in school as a series of stages relating to thinking about, preparing for, delivering, and sustaining change.
This checklist can be paired with AERO’s Promising approaches audit tool - primary classroom teachers, which will help schools determine the promising approaches areas requiring most attention.

This checklist can be used to plan the implementation of your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is based on work by Evidence for Learning, showing implementation in school as a series of stages relating to thinking about, preparing for, delivering, and sustaining change.
This checklist can be paired with AERO’s Promising approaches audit tool - primary school leaders, which will help schools determine the promising approaches areas requiring most attention.

This checklist can be used to plan the implementation of your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is based on work by Evidence for Learning, showing implementation in school as a series of stages relating to thinking about, preparing for, delivering, and sustaining change.
This checklist can be paired with AERO’s Promising approaches audit tool – secondary classroom teachers, which will help schools determine the promising approaches areas requiring most attention.

This checklist can be used to plan the implementation of your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is based on work by Evidence for Learning, showing implementation in school as a series of stages relating to thinking about, preparing for, delivering, and sustaining change.
This checklist can be paired with AERO’s Promising approaches audit tool – secondary school leaders, which will help schools determine the promising approaches areas requiring most attention.

This handbook is intended to provide educators, community leaders and parents with articles that outline best research and practice around schools and family and community engagement. It offers a roadmap to esnure that every student's academic, personal, social and emotional development is supported.

This tool can be used to examine your own approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is designed around the ‘promising approaches’; the approaches for engaging with families that research evidence shows can have a measurable positive effect on student learning outcomes.

This tool can be used to examine your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is designed around the ‘promising approaches’; the approaches for engaging with families that research evidence shows can have a measurable positive effect on student learning outcomes.

This tool can be used to examine your own approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is designed around the ‘promising approaches’; the approaches for engaging with families that research evidence shows can have a measurable positive effect on student learning outcomes.

This tool can be used to examine your school’s approaches for engaging with families to support student learning. It is designed around the ‘promising approaches’; the approaches for engaging with families that research evidence shows can have a measurable positive effect on student learning outcomes.

This course examines how children, families, schools, and communities collaborate with and influence one another. The course explores ecological theory to contextualize diversity and relationships among children, families, schools, and communities, linkages between family-school-community engagement and student achievement, and cultivation of culturally sustaining family and community collaboration. As you move through this course, I will challenge you to think about your own implicit, explicit, and confirmation biases about children and families. You will examine, closely, how funds of knowledge and cultural capital impact collaboration with schools and communities.  Please watch the following video to further your understanding of the framework for this course: