Parents and Teachers

One aspect of my job that I have always enjoyed is the opportunity to meet with parents. Although there have certainly been times when these meetings may have been less than easy, I still firmly believe that getting the chance to speak personally with families about school is an extremely valuable experience for everyone involved in a child’s education.

A few weeks ago we had our first PTA meeting of the year, which started with me sharing this thought with the assembled audience. I mentioned that one clear sign of a positive school climate was the frequency and extent of parental involvement. Common sense backed by significant educational research tells us that children will develop a positive outlook towards school if their parents are seen to be involved. If school is important enough for parents to take time out of their schedules to meet with teachers then a powerful and significant message is being sent. With close to 40 parents attending, I was actually very pleased with the turnout. However, with approximately 450 families in our school community, a turnout of less than 10% is certainly something I think we can build on.

As you will know from the agenda I sent out before the meeting, we had a number of issues to discuss including our upcoming WASC accreditation visit, school uniform, our annual Cultural Fair and perhaps most significantly the election of this year’s PTA Executive. The election of this year’s executive was very straightforward. Contact names and numbers of this year’s elected office-bearers will be e-mailed to our whole community later this week. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my sincere thanks to all who served on the executive last year, especially Frank Sze, who took on the President’s role. It was a genuine pleasure working with Frank and I look forward to continuing to do so this year, especially with our plans to make the annual PTA Golf Tournament bigger and better.