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(Re-Air) 7 Principles for Making School-Family Relationships Work

Familiaris Podcast for Catholic School Leaders

This episode is re-aired for summer as an invitation to refocus and recommit before the new school year, with a companion live workshop, Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership, on Thursday, July 30th. Turn your school’s mission into a practical plan for extraordinary relationships with families next year by registering here. What You’ll Learn: * How the Gottman Institute’s Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work applies to your school-family partnerships. * Practical ways to nurture appreciation and counter criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling with their antidotes * How the four pillars of “shared meaning” (rituals of connection, mutual support of roles, shared goals, and shared values and symbols) translate a school’s mission into everyday partnership with families * Why knowing each family’s hopes, background, and aims, build the trust that carries a relationship through hard moments * How to “turn toward” families through small, asynchronous mini-moments—and how to keep reaching out when parents don’t respond * The difference between solvable and perpetual problems, and how to welcome problem-solving as an ongoing relationship rather than a one-and-done fix Chapters * 00:00: Re-Air Introduction & Upcoming Workshop * 01:44: Why Gottman’s Marriage Research Applies to Schools * 06:19: Principle 1 — Create Shared Meaning * 11:01: Principle 2 — Get to Know Your Families * 15:34: Principle 3 — Nurture Your Appreciation * 20:21: Principle 4 — Turn Toward Each Other * 29:54: Principle 5 — Let Your Families Influence You * 34:44: Principle 6 — Solve Your Solvable Problems * 41:17: Principle 7 — Welcome Problem Solving * 47:39: Listener Q&A Q&A * When a parent comes to us already upset or critical, how do we respond without falling into defensiveness right away? * If a parent rarely responds to emails or school communication, how should we interpret that—do we keep reaching out, or give them space? * What about new teachers, fresh out of college, who are nervous about dealing with parents? * What are some small ways teachers can show appreciation to parents without it becoming another big task on their plate? Learn more and register: Jumpstart Your Plan for Parent Partnership Join the conversation * Leave a comment and subscribe at familiaris.substack.com * Become a paid subscriber at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe Paid subscribers gain access to monthly collaborative office hours. Office hours are hosted on Zoom and are not recorded. Pop in to ask a question, get feedback on what you’re working on with families, hear what other leaders are doing in their schools. Visit familiaris-consulting.com to learn more about consulting, workshops, and speaking engagements God bless! Produced by Saint Kolbe Studios To receive new Familiaris posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to Familiaris at familiaris.substack.com/subscribe