The monthly parent update that takes ten minutes

Most tutors contact parents twice: when something is wrong, and at the end. From the parent's side that means every message from you is bad news, which is why the ordinary ones get read as accusations and the serious ones get resisted.

Why routine contact is worth the time

Three things follow from a monthly update that nothing else produces. Bad news stops being a surprise, so the difficult conversation becomes a continuation rather than an ambush. Parents who feel informed renew, which is the single largest factor in whether a group survives to the next term. And problems get raised while they are still small, because the parent has an obvious moment to raise them.

Four lines, and no more

The update that survives is the one short enough to write for thirty students. Four lines per student:

• Attendance: sessions attended out of sessions held. A number, not a characterisation.
• Last assessment result, with the group average next to it, because a number alone is unreadable to a parent and they will invent a comparison anyway.
• One specific strength. Not "he is good", but "his working is now laid out clearly, which was the thing losing him marks in November."
• One specific next step: the same one you would give the student, in the same words.

Say something true and positive first

This is accuracy, not flattery. Almost every student is doing something better than they were, and naming it specifically does two things: it proves you are actually watching this individual child rather than sending a template, and it earns the attention for the fourth line, which is the one you want acted on.

Send it on a schedule, not on impulse

The same date every month. A predictable update is read; an unpredictable one is opened with anxiety. And a fixed date is what makes it survive a busy month, because anything that depends on you feeling you have time will stop by December.

Keep the group average in it

Parents compare regardless. Giving them the average means they compare against a real number rather than against a rumour from another parent, and it removes most of the "but his friend got…" conversations before they start.

Sources

• UNICEF — Parenting
• OECD — Education and Skills