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With the aim of tackling inequalities, families and schools are strongly encouraged to develop a relationship based on partnership. Yet its practical implementation raises many questions. Based on a case analysis from an ethnographic study conducted in one Swiss school receiving pupils from families with low income and migration background, this article investigates the role of trust in the building of the parent-teacher relationship. Its originality lies in the fact that it jointly mobilises four dimensions of trust at stake, namely the self-confidence and the confidence in the other of each of the protagonists. The results show how a teacher’s overconfidence, both in him- or herself and in his or her relationship with the parent, can gradually damage the mutual trust and bring the teacher to imagine being in a collaborative relationship without the parent sharing that conviction.