2020-04-282020-04-282020-04-282008https://ri.ucsal.br/handle/prefix/1538In contemporaneity, educational paradigms point out the importance of the involvement and the contribution of the family to children’s school life. Besides the family, the school and the pupil contribute to a better or worse school performance. It is in this context that the present study is inserted and had as its general objective to investigate how families contribute to school performance of 1st to 4th grades pupils of primary education at an urban municipal school in the interior of Bahia, according to the children’s responsible guardians and their teachers. 18 responsible guardians whose children presented higher performance (group 1) and 18 with lower performance (group 2), totalizing 36 responsible guardians in both groups, besides 18 teachers ministering the groups, which the pupils belonged to, and the pedagogical coordinator of the school have participated in the study. Three half-structuralized scripts of interviews have been elaborated (one for guardians, one for teachers, and another for the coordination). The study was approved by the ethics committee. The participants have signed a term of Free and Informed Consent and have been submitted to recorded interviews using the scripts. By using quantitative-interpretative analysis, systems of categories have been constructed. The following results are observed: in group 1, the majority of responsible guardians work, are married, have high school degree, have an income between one and three minimum salaries, and presented a nuclear family type. In group 2, the majority does not work, is single, has low educational level (up to 4th grade of primary school), has an income of up to one minimum salary, and extensive/amplified family type. Such data suggest that, although both groups are inserted in a context of poverty, the children with lower school performance are found in much more precarious life conditions. The children from group 1 were considered intelligent, well-behaved, sociable, and studious, but the ones from group two, although also well-behaved and sociable, are identified as little intelligent and studious. The majority of responsible guardians from group 1 attend school meetings, whereas only half of group 2 did it regularly. In group 1, children take their homework done to school, what does not happen in group 2. The data suggest that school was viewed as an instrument capable of making possible for popular social layer children to have a better life condition than the one they currently have. According to the teachers, the family constitutes the fundamental element of children’s higher and lower school performance, besides being the base of the individual’s integral formation. Finally, to both responsible guardians and teachers, a good family-school relationship is a fundamental condition for the children’s school success. It was concluded that the families, with its characteristics, can contribute effectively as inhibiting or propeller of their children’s school performance, but also the school and the child are protagonist in this performance.Acesso AbertoFamíliaRendimento escolarRelação família-escolaFamiliesSchool performanceFamily-school relationshipDissertaçãoSociais e HumanidadesMultidisciplinar