Exploring School Staff Perspectives on Brief, School-Based Parenting Seminars with a Reciprocal School Staff Component: Implications for Home-School Partnerships

Home–school partnerships offer an opportunity to coordinate strategies and provide consistent support across both home and school settings, including supporting children’s learning and wellbeing. The rising prevalence of mental health problems among children highlights the need for accessible support for their wellbeing, such as through home-school partnerships. Parents play a key role in promoting children’s development, while schools hold a unique position in prevention efforts for mental health issues. However, they may not always be equipped with skills, knowledge, and resources to work with one another towards shared goals. Parenting programs have been shown to enhance parenting practices and parental engagement with schools. Nevertheless, to our knowledge, leveraging the content of parenting programs to develop a shared language and toolkit of strategies for both parents and school staff has not previously been trialled. This study explores the impact of a parenting program with reciprocal school staff resources and training focused on supporting children’s learning and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 school staff across three Australian states, and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results showed that the program supported the development of shared strategies, language, and understanding and facilitated family-school interactions. The school staff resources and training also promoted overall confidence and sense of self-efficacy for supporting and working with families, knowing that they have been equipped with evidence-based and effective strategies. These findings suggest that taking a partnership approach to supporting children’s wellbeing require increasing the capacity of both parents and school staff to work collaboratively.