The home-school agreements guidance suggests that:

....governing bodies are encouraged to review their home-school policy. Here are a few points to consider.

• Have you asked parents what they expect from the school?
  
  
• What do you expect from parents?
  
  
• Have you asked parents what they think of the school?
  
  
• How do you involve parents?
  
  
• Why do some parents not get involved?
  
  
• What can you do to establish an effective working relationship with the 'missing' parents?
  
  
• What can you do to help parents to help their child?
  
  
• What priority do teachers give to working with parents?
  
  
• What does your school do to listen to the views of pupils?

Listed below are some more practical suggestions for things that might help to underpin the developing working relationships encouraged by the agreement.

• Is the main entrance well-signposted so that visitors and parents don't experience difficulty in finding their way to the reception office?
  
  
• Is the school foyer welcoming and informative?
  
  
• Are the school's signs written in positive language? For example, 'All visitors must report to the school office' can be changed to 'Welcome to ............ School. Please report to the office.'
  
  
• Is there a procedure for ensuring that all written and telephone enquiries from parents are dealt with promptly?
  
  
• Are a variety of forms of communication with parents, for example, telephone contact and home visits encouraged?
  
  
• Are parents contacted for positive as well as negative reasons?
  
  
• Is there a need to review the quality and appearance of written home-school communication?
  
  
• Should consideration be given to the use of 'mail merge' to personalise some letters to parents?
  
  
• Do signatures on letters to parents include forenames?
  
  
• How much information is given to parents on what pupils are taught?
  
  
• Are parents encouraged to help or support their children's learning at school and at home? How much information or training is provided to enable this support to be effective?
  
  
• Does the school encourage the use of parents as volunteer helpers?
  
  
• Does the school promote any family learning or family fun activities?
  
  
• Is parental involvement and support sought for study support programmes?
  
  
• Are adult education providers encouraged to organise daytime or out of school learning programmes for parents?
  
  
• Is value placed on all parents, irrespective of background or ability?
  
  
• Does the school have a Home-School Association?
  
  
• Is inter-agency collaboration with services that share an interest in children and their families encouraged? Examples of those with whom collaboration is possible include education welfare workers, health workers, adult education workers, librarians, the police, social services, youth workers, the Travellers' Service, English-as-another-language workers, and voluntary sector workers.
  
  
• Are collaborative working initiatives with some of these services encouraged by, for example, addressing 'parent education' with the assistance of health and/or youth workers.
  
  

The DCSF has a website for parents which may be helpful when thinking about ways to work with parents, and especially in providing information which can be given to them easily.