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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to understanding of different ways that parents and schools develop and maintain working partnerships to improve outcomes for children by focusing on quantitative evidence about parental involvement (PI). The key questions for this synthesis are: what is the evidence about the extent of impact of PI on cognitive or academic outcomes for children, and how consistent and reliable is this evidence?

This is an “umbrella” review comparing and contrasting findings from 13 meta-analyses across three areas of PI and home/school partnerships: first, general approaches; second, home and family literacy programmes; and finally, targeted interventions focused on individual or specific family need.

There is consistent evidence about the extent of impact from general approaches (three to six months average additional gain for children’s educational outcomes) and for targeted intervention (four to six months), but with a wider range of estimates for family literacy (two to eight months average gain). Variation in approaches and evaluation quality make specific recommendations for practice challenging, though some consistent patterns of findings indicate strategies that are likely to be “good bets” to explore and evaluate.

The quality of the underlying studies makes drawing secure implications for practice difficult. The nature of the review means that it does not capture the most recent studies.

The paper provides a synthesis of quantitative evidence from 13 meta-analyses to identify where there is consistency in estimates of impact and what is associated with systematic variation in this impact.

Parents ‘matter’ to schools for their child’s education and parents ‘matter’ in relation to their child’s wellbeing. Indeed, in his synthesis of over 800 studies, Hattie (2008) equated the benefits of parental engagement with schools as being equivalent to adding two or three further years to their education. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to look at parents in relation to wellbeing through positive education and, as part of this, the concept of positive psychology parenting too. Drawing on scientific research, the benefits of positive psychology to parents and families, alongside some of the ‘why’ and ‘how’ parents can better engage with schools, will be presented. A Positive Psychology in Practice case study of Bounce Back, a freely available, online introduction to positive psychology designed to give parents and carers an introduction to several different concepts, approaches, and hands-on techniques, based on the principles of positive psychology, will also be provided. This case study will also present Bounce Back as an intervention, giving parents and carers practical advice on how best to use this online resource, as well as information on how to implement some of the wider ideas from positive education at home to help them better understand, and intervene in, their own and their family’s wellbeing.