Parents as teachers?

Published: March 3rd, 2025

An article in the Times by Headteacher, K. Birbalsingh (Feb 2025) suggests that parental guidance by middle-class authors is ruining child rearing among the working classes. Birbalsingh, often described as Britain’s strictest headteacher, has also criticised parents for not teaching their children how to read and count. She also suggests that parents who want their child to succeed have to teach them at home, and goes on to remind us that with classes of thirty or so, a teacher may have only two minutes a day on a one-to-one reading session with any child. The article is not suggesting that parents interfere with teaching in any way; but that they need to enhance it. What parents do at home, on a day-to-day practical basis can make all the difference to a child’s achievement.

A few years ago, I wrote a series of five books, under the banner, ‘Parents: Help Your Child Succeed.’ Book 1 describes the SEND system in UK schools. Books 2 – 5 go on to explain what a child is expected to learn, from the Early Years Foundation stage – through to Key Stage 3. The series is especially designed to encourage parents to become more involved in education. 

So what can parents actually do? When my granddaughter was younger, we regularly played practical games involving maths. If I was cutting up a pizza, for example, we might identify  halves, then quarters, eighths, and so on: asking questions – what fraction does each person have? How many quarters make one half? We counted peas on her plate: eighteen to start with …ten left, what fraction has she eaten? This kind of practical work helped her get to grips with an aspect of maths that she found challenging at the time. 

What about reading? Given that reading is the most important subject on the National Curriculum: arguably an area of learning that enables access to every other area of achievement, as well as post-school life chances and employment – what role can parents play in helping their child to read? It’s a difficult one. Ms. Birbalsingh suggests that all parents read with their child. But what happens when a child stumbles over a word? Does the parent merely read the word for them and hope they remember it? Or, might we teach parents how to interpret their child’s reading challenges and perhaps go a step further – with a foot into the teaching role? 

My latest educational book (Becoming a Reader, 2024) aims to help, not only teachers and teaching assistants, but parents also, to understand more deeply, the intricate processes of learning to read, in order to pick up on children’s various difficulties. 

My last blog (Reading Maths, 11.2.25) explored the role of reading in order to solve mathematical problems. Focusing on this specific aspect of reading in maths would enable far more children to succeed in this area: exam scores would spiral.

So, what can schools do? How can they reach out to parents who are on their side, ready and willing to work with them? Could there be workshops on how to listen to their child read, and on how to address any difficulties? 

Ms. Birbalsingh is right – schools need the support of parents to help raise standards in reading, writing and maths. Think tanks at the top of educational policy would do well to look into this crucial issue. Parents are the missing link! But they need help to join those educational dots.

PS. Sylvia Edwards is author of fourteen books on education (Routledge), mainly on literacy and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), plus a further five for parents. She remains interested in, and passionate about, improving the educational outcomes for all young people, especially those with SEND.

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