Liaising with the family

• Parents/ carers always want to know what is happening with their child’s education.
• Also, families love getting to know you, even if they find it challenging in terms of language – so do chat!
• At the start, look at the book bag or diary with the parent and young person.
• Ask your mentee is there something they’ve done well at school that they would like to share with their parent.
• Ask the mentee to call their parent/ carer at the end of every session and show them what you have done.
• Always give positive feedback at the end in front of the young person.

Other things you could do when appropriate:

• Ask if there are any letters from school.
• Have there been any phone calls from school?
• Ask the parent if they have observed any problems with learning.
• Ask if there are any other problems with school.
• Ask them if they would like the young person to study anything else next week.
• Find out when the parents’ evening is – just call the school reception or look at the school website!
• Check if they would like someone from L2L to go with them – or maybe you could go? Ask us for tips!
• Do a mini review with parent and mentee.
• Ask the parent to sit in for the first or last 5 minutes to observe what you are doing.