6 Useful Email Tips for Effective Teacher-Parent Communication

Posted by Edward Grey on October 29th, 2021

Whether your child is attending physical classes, or is enrolled in an online virtual school, it’s important that parents remain in contact with teachers. A parent needs to be aware of their child’s learning experience, progress, and pain points.

Parents\' involvement has many benefits such that it improves absenteeism, student motivation, classroom attitude, self-esteem, and even the teacher’s performance. Therefore, it is essential to have good teacher-parent communication

Research suggests that at least 70% of all communication is non-verbal. This means that while emailing, a huge chunk of communication is already lost. Here are some useful email tips to help you communicate better, whether you are a parent or a teacher!

Tip #1: Create a mutual understanding from the get-go

There needs to be sufficient familiarity between parents and teachers.

Parents need to be aware of how they can contact the teacher and how quickly they can expect a response. Similarly, teachers need to be informed of the child’s performance at home and who is responsible for overlooking homework completion, etc.

If email is the mode of communication for the school year, then it\'s important to establish a positive tone. In this regard, teachers need to send out an email to the parents greeting them and welcoming them to the new school year.

Parents should make sure they are briefed about upcoming deadlines, classroom etiquette, expectations from the child, workload, the works!

Tip #2: Make good use of the subject line

It\'s likely that the teachers and parents are dealing with full inboxes and daily mails. To ensure that your email doesn\'t get lost in the sea of emails, and also to give them a heads up of the nature and urgency of your email, make use of the subject line!

Tip #3: One topic per email!

Try not to overwhelm the teacher by addressing too many things in one lengthy email. It\'s better to send out multiple emails with specific subject lines regarding the email body, than one jumbled and wordy email.

You are likely to get a more satisfactory response when you pace your emails and keep them simple, sweet, and to the point. If you feel that your email is longer than necessary, compartmentalize! Make use of bullet points or lists, short but many paragraphs, bold or underlined text for emphasis, etc.

Tip #4: Remain positive!

Parents want the best for their child. As such, it\'s not uncommon for them to come across as aggressive. Furthermore, a neutral tone can be misunderstood as hostile or negative over email.

Regardless of the tone of the received email, or your own current space of mind, it is essential that you remain positive in your communications with the teacher.

Remember, this is not a personal friendship—it is work-related. If you find yourself getting too emotional, take your time until you can compose a rational, thought-out, and well-informed response.

Always lead your emails with empathy, as a kind tone is always going to get the message across better than an aggressive one.

Tip #5: Respond to feedback

Aside from classroom updates, upcoming deadlines, it\'s important for parents to respond to regular individual feedback on their child’s performance. When teachers highlight places where they need attention, appreciate their efforts.

Tip #6: Shift to face-to-face or virtual calls when necessary

Some issues and some feedback are best delivered face-to-face or over a phone call. If you feel like the issue is sensitive, or requires immediate attention, or needs to be communicated in a detailed and clear manner, schedule a meeting with the teacher.

This can be a face-to-face meeting or a phone call, but through this, you can have a detailed conversation.

At The Ideal School, an online learning elementary school, we ensure that parents are in the loop of their child’s learning needs and progress through consistent and clear communication.

We have a daily-updated message board where your child’s daily progress is updated, or any immediate concerns are highlighted. Additionally, we also have monthly newsletters, bi-monthly parent-teacher conferences, monthly virtual town hall meetings, and parent and student portals with a built-in messaging center.

We ensure that you always know everything you want about your child’s learning experience which gives you confidence and surety that we provide your child with excellence every day.

About the Author

The author is an experienced instructor at The Ideal School. They specialize in online education and ensuring an engaging, interactive, and innovative learning environment for students.