Parent Engagement Project (PEP)

The Parent Engagement Project (PEP) is a school-based intervention designed to improve pupil outcomes by engaging parents in their children's learning through text messages. The intervention targets secondary school students in Years 7, 9, and 11 (ages 11-16) across English, mathematics, and science subjects. Text messages are sent to parents via existing school communication systems (such as Schoolcomms) to inform them about upcoming tests (4 days and 1 day in advance), missing homework (automated alerts), and what their child learned in lessons (conversational prompts sent on a three-weekly rotation between subjects). Parents receive approximately 30 texts over the academic year (intended to be 65). The program is delivered universally to all students within the selected Key Stage group. Teachers attend 1.5 days of training (one full day in September and half-day in January). During the trial, research assistants from the project delivery team coordinated text sending by liaising with school project liaison officers, obtaining test dates and conversation prompts from heads of department, and encouraging use of missing homework texting tools.