We had two big research topics on Parent Ping this week: the relationship between home life and school life (it’s complicated) and the ingredients of a good life (also complicated!). Plus, we report back on our first ever Parent Ping webinar.
Relationship status: it’s complicated
This week we asked a series of questions aimed at unpicking the relationship between home and school.
First off, most of you (8/10) feel welcome to contact your child’s school. However, this feeling declines as your children reach the older years of education.
BUT, 1 in 6 of you said that you worry your child will be penalised if you make a complaint about an aspect of school life and 1 in 7 said talking to your children’s teachers makes you nervous (this is not counting the responses from parents who work as teachers themselves).
That said, most (around 9/10) would be happy to seek advice from your child’s teachers on issues such as reading or a personal issue between your child and another. If your child had a problem with their teacher 8/10 of you would be happy to speak to the school leader.
Relationships are famously two-way affairs, so we also checked what aspects of homelife you would tell your child’s school about. Whilst 9/10 would inform the school of issues such as family bereavement or separation, far fewer of you would tell your child’s teacher about money or work worries.
So, what does this all add up to? Well, 70% of you say that at least one teacher in your child’s school knows your child well. But this drops as children progress through school, with only 60% of parents reporting a teacher in secondary school knows their child well (and only around 50% with children in the lowest years of secondary school).
This matters because you consistently – regardless of your child’s place in the education system – tell us that having someone at school who knows your child really matters.
The good life
Last weekend we asked about what you think will be important for your children to have a good life, and what you worry they won’t have.
Good mental and physical health was top of your wish list for your kids’ future, closely followed by good family relationships. And whilst around half of you were worried your kids might not be as healthy as possible, most of you had little worry about good family relationships 
Two areas that are more out of your control were your main worries for your children’s future: the environment being in good shape, and a fair and equal society. We’ll ask some questions about these next week to explore what you think could be done.
Overall, you were also happy with the choice of things for your children to do in your local area, although where your local area is (obviously) made some difference. Over 75% of parents living in London, the South East and the South West said they are happy with the choice, compared to 71% or fewer in other parts of the country.
Similar questions are currently being put to young people via the Children’s Commissioner’s Big Ask survey… it’ll be interesting to see how the results compare when they are published later in the year.
Building Positive Self-Esteem in Children
This week, Parent Ping worked in collaboration with Tooled Up Education not only to ask questions… but to answer them! On Tuesday evening 150 parents joined us for a webinar about building positive self-esteem in children.
During the webinar, Parent Ping data about self-esteem was used by Dr Kathy Weston to focus the conversation on what parents most wanted to know. Kathy is one of the UK’s leading experts on the importance of parental engagement in children’s lives for parents and families. You can read the highlights – including Kathy’s top parenting tip – here.
Coming up next week
Next week we have questions about parents evening, about what motivates your kids, and about Star Wars! Download the app and set your notifications to PING every day!