The most significant part of our Family School Partnership is building a strong and effective relationship with all our families.
At St Joseph’s Crib Point we consider one of our strengths and most effective strategies to be our commitment to working in partnership with all our families. As the word partnership suggests it is a relationship where all parties work as part of a team toward achieving a common goal. The relationship is built on trust and respect and values communication as essential to its success. If a strong relationship is built then it can respect differences and seek a common path to achieve success.
The goal of our partnership is for every child in our community to achieve their full potential.
A Family School Partnership is a partnership between your child’s teachers and you, the parent. We say often at St Josephs that you as the parent are the first and most important teacher of your child and your home is the first school. Our school is your child’s second home.
The purpose of a school is to help a family educate their child. Don Edgar
No one knows their child better than you, the parent and we are here to partner with you in sharing your children’s educational journey. A Family School Partnership is exactly as it sounds. We want our families in our school to work in partnership with our staff. Research overwhelmingly supports that where parents and teachers work together in a mutual and respectful way then the children flourish.
Our Family School Partnership welcomes Parent Involvement.
At St Josephs we pride ourselves on being community focused and we have many opportunities for our parents to become involved in our school. From attending assemblies and sports days to volunteering in the canteen or at our annual Fun Fair, we encourage our parents to step up and get involved. This is a great opportunity for you to get to know other parents and see our school in action. Being connected is shown to be important to your own well being and your children love to see you get involved. Meeting other parents, seeing your children interacting with others and belonging to our community benefits everyone.
Our Family School Partnership values Parent Engagement.
Another component of our Family School Partnership is to encourage parent engagement. Parent engagement is being positively involved and active in your child’s learning. Your attitudes, values and behaviours can positively influence your child’s educational outcomes.
Parents are not expected to know the curriculum but keeping up with your child’s learning, knowing what they are learning and showing interest is a great step toward engagement. Having a conversation about your child’s learning and relating it to other areas of the child’s life not only cements the learning but shows them that you value their education. This is parental engagement and it can offer great rewards to you and your family.
We know that parents, families and carers are some of the most important influences on a child’s education. When you are positively engaged in your child’s education, they are more likely to attend and perform better at school.
Effective parent and family engagement in education is more than just participation in school meetings and helping with fundraising, it is actively engaging with your child’s learning, both at home and at school. When schools and families work together, children do better and stay in school longer. You can support your child to get the most out of their schooling. The earlier you become engaged, the better it is for your children.
Here at St Josephs, we have specific programs that support parent engagement both in and out of the classroom. These programs have been extremely successful and positively received by our families. We create opportunities for parent engagement based on need and circumstance.
Through a Family School Partnership,
we will support and encourage you to help
your child succeed at St Josephs.
While it’s important to stay informed and be involved in school activities where possible, there are lots of things you can do at home which can help your child to do better at school:
- Have high yet achievable expectations of your child.
- Talk regularly about school and the value of learning.
- Encourage positive attitudes and respect for school and teachers.
- Model the behaviours you would like to see in your child.
Other things you can do which have also been shown to have a positive impact are to:
- Read out loud with your child and listen to your child read out loud.
- Talk and ask about what they are learning.
- Ask them about what they did at school.
- Help them to develop strong work habits.
- Commit through your actions of making your child’s education a priority.
- Encourage and commit to your child having regular school attendance.
St Josephs is committed to a Family School Partnership. We are constantly looking at ways to improve our communication and relationships with you. Education and choosing a school is not about you handing your child over and letting the school do the rest. It is a partnership that is active, based on mutual respect and ever evolving. It also connects your home with our school and a consistent message has great benefits for your children socially, emotionally and academically.
We are committed to working in partnership with you and we have a staff member that leads our Family School Partnership. The purpose of the role is to lead in support of our parents, our staff and our children in creating opportunities to make our partnership flourish. We believe that alone we are strong but together we are much stronger. There could be no greater goal than sharing the goal of a child achieving their full potential.