Education exchange: Schools reopening - parental engagement

Watch a recording of this webinar looking at parental engagement as schools reopen.

About the webinar

High levels of parental engagement are consistently linked with positive academic outcomes. 

As schools around the world reopen after lockdown, during which time, families have been through extraordinary experiences together, how are teachers engaging with parents and carers? 

  • How can teachers engage parents in contexts where they will see them less often in person?
  • How much say should parents have in the changing arrangements being made by schools? 

Watch a recording of this webinar

About the panel

This is a panel event, with speakers from around the world, followed by questions from the audience.

From England: Leora Cruddas is the CEO of the Confederation of School Trusts (CST) – the national organisation and sector body for school trusts in England.  She has advised successive governments and sits on several Department for Education Advisory Bodies. She is the vice chair of the Head Teacher Standards Review Group. 

Prior to establishing CST, she was Director of Policy and Public Relations for the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL). Just before leaving ASCL, Leora established the Commission for Ethical Leadership, on which she served as a commissioner. She now sits on the Ethics Committee. She believes education is for the common good. Leora has six years of experience as a Director of Education in two London Local Authorities. She has extensive experience at senior executive level of working with schools and trusts to improve the effectiveness and quality of education. You can follow Leora on Twitter here .

From Pakistan: Tasneem Shabbar Zaidi is the Director/Principal of Al-Murtaza School (AMS) and Director Al Murtaza Professional Development Centre (AM-PDC). She started her career as a language teacher 30 years ago and has since attended various professional development programmes to enhance her teaching skills. 

In 1998, AMS sponsored Tasneem to complete a Masters in Teacher Education from Aga Khan University. From 1998–2001, she worked as a Professional Development Teacher at AKU-IED and AMS. Tasneem has designed and delivered various short language teaching courses and conducted many professional development workshops for teachers. In 2001, she was promoted as the Principal of AMS with her portfolio of Professional Development Facilitator. Tasneem coordinated English Language Certificate Programmes at AM-PDC from 1998-2010. In 2010, Tasneem was promoted to Director of AMS Network and AM-PDC. At AM-PDC, professional development programmes are conducted for teachers from AMS and other local schools. She strongly believes in continued professional development and in order to enhance her pedagogical and leadership skills, she regularly presents at conferences and seminars.

From Egypt: Ms Ama’l Amer is a High School Principal at the British School in Cairo. She has been in this career since 1992 where she took on different roles as a teacher, subject teacher, team leader, head of department, IGCSE coordinator, member in the school Board of Direction, and High School Principal.

Since 2005, she has been in professional dealings with a diverse array of parents, not only her school parents, as her school acts as an open exam venue where all students of El Maadi, a district of Cairo, sit all their exams. She is a strong believer in having a solid and satisfying two-way connection between school and parents where the educational process is the first benefactor. Her primary interest is meeting the parents’ expectations within the frame of the school policy and merging the parents’ demands with the school plans and rules. Her success in leadership is the fruition of 28-years educational experience.

From the Philippines: Kisset Mangabat is a Guidance Associate of Chair of St. Peter School. As a School Counsellor, she works with students, teachers, parents, school staff and the administration for the well-being of the students. She is also a mental health advocate and a stress management counsellor.

Kisset believes strongly in the role of the parents in every child’s growth and that a good partnership between parents and the school will greatly benefit in the development of every child’s potential.

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