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School staff are on average diverting 2.5 hours a day away from teaching and towards supporting children who are not school-ready.
Whilst Mr Spock was infamously misquoted in the 1987 song, it’s just as easy to get your communication wrong when engaging with the new generation of parents known as ‘Millennials’. They are a very different demographic, and this blog aims to give schools more insight into their lifestyles so that engagement with them can be efficient and less time-consuming for teachers.
Millennials are the largest generation in the UK today. Born between 1981 and 1996, Millennials are aged 27-42 and make up 22% of the UK population. They are more diverse and embracing of diversity than older generations.
Family, health and friendships are the most influential on Millennial’s personal identity whilst their nationality and political views have a much smaller influence. Family is most important to Millennials by far, as is financial security. This is against a context of continuing crisis management, global warming and the largest land war in Europe since the 1940’s.
Millennials use social media to inform, learn and seek advice. They are the first to have grown up surrounded by social, are tech-savvy and see online communities as an extension of their physical world and peer groups. They do not see online as different and ‘friends’ and celebrities are more trusted now than schools and teachers when it comes to seeking practical advice.
Millennials are avid users of social media, podcasts and video. Their consumption of traditional broadcast and print media is on the decline and is being replaced by a thirst for soundbite-based video reels and stories. Online groups are now showing exponential growth as parents seek to be involved in trusted communities online where they can collaborate with other parents to solve problems.
Equally, they see much of what was historically referred to as ‘parenting hygiene factors’ as no longer being their priority. In a recent survey by the charity Kindred, it was reported that one in four children are not toilet-trained and nearly half (46%) of pupils are unable to sit still. 38% struggle to play or share with others, more than a third (37%) cannot dress themselves, 29% cannot eat or drink independently and more than a quarter (28%) are using books incorrectly, swiping or tapping as though they were using a tablet.
Conversely, Millennials think they are doing a good job. 91% said that their children were school ready with only 50% thinking that they are solely responsible for toilet-training. 28% also do not see daily attendance at school as being mandatory
It’s self-evident that the system as it stands isn’t working and that the education system isn’t recognising the shift in attitudes and media consumption to keep schools more relevant.
Given the reliance and status of social media with parents of children in school it is remarkable that so little parent engagement materials are available via Facebook and other social media platforms. To stay relevant, engaged and to start better managing pain-points schools need to accept that things have changed.
Millennials use podcasts, videos and social media to learn and seek advice. Yet there is precious little if any access via these platforms/media to help support and educate parents to do better. Is it any surprise therefore that the trend is downward? Schools need to be able to be an influential voice around good parenting and yet are absent from the virtual table (groups) where these conversations take place.
It's time that leaders rethought their communication approach to parents and regained their trust. It’s time for schools to embrace social media.
