This week we will consider the importance of establishing good relationships with the parents of your students. We will focus on why we need to involve parents in the education of their children and how we can go about it. The first two lectures are themed on the statement ‘The parent is the child’s first teacher’. These lectures focus on the important role that parents play in their child’s learning. We know that having children well prepared for the first day of school is an important first step for their learning. Teachers can play a role in reaching out to parents and giving them the information they need to give students the best chance of being successful. Weeks three and four look at the work of Joyce Epstein and her colleagues and their six different ways in which parents can be productively involved in their child’s education. These include the important roles of parenting, having good communication with the school, volunteering to do things in the school, helping their child learn at home, helping the school to make decisions about what it will do, and actively being involved in the community. At the end of this week you will be asked to write a short essay where you will consider the factors involved in establishing relationships with either other teachers and school administrators or parents.