Schools

The following are some posts that might be of interest to students and practitioners in relation to school and community partnerships and engaging parents in schools. They might also be of interest to teachers.

A few good places to start are:

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Here are some of the other blog posts that could be of interest:

Principles of effective parent engagement in early childhood education - The engaging diverse families project of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) identified principles of family engagement in early childhood education, collected case studies of good practice and developed resources to help programs more effectively engage … Continue reading →
What works in connecting families, communities and schools? - What works in strengthening connections between families, communities and schools? This is the subject of a report by the J R McKenzie Trust, “Connecting Education and Communities.” The J R McKenzie Trust, a New Zealand charitable trust, currently focuses on … Continue reading →
Jihad Dib on school transformation (TEDx talk) - This TEDx talk by Jihad Dib, the Principal at Punchbowl Boys High, captures the essence of strengths-based practice and highlights the importance of community engagement. In the school of around 450 students, 65% of the students come from the bottom … Continue reading →
Engaging families in early intervention for child conduct concerns - I was one of the authors on a paper published this month in the journal Children Australia about Getting on Track in Time (Got It!): an early intervention programs assisting families to deal with emerging child behavioural difficulties that are … Continue reading →
Learning vs school education - [Updated 24 July 2017 to fix link to second video.] Engaging children in their school is not the same as engaging children in learning. I’m a huge fan of families being engaged with schools but we also need to recognise … Continue reading →
Teachers phoning parents - Imagine the difference to school-family relationships if teachers made a phone call to all families at least once a year, not when there were problems, but just to help build connections. I first heard this idea a number of years … Continue reading →
Community engagement in turning around schools - Earlier this year, the Grattan Institute released a report “Turning around schools: it can be done” (Jensen & Sonnemann, 2014). It explored how schools can transform from being a “low-performing’ school into a “high-performing” school. I suspected that engaging parents … Continue reading →
6 keys to community engagement in schools - When I read the definition of community engagement in Community & family engagement: Principals share what works (Berg, Melaville, & Blank, 2006), I was confident it would be an interesting report. Community engagement is a two-way street where the school, … Continue reading →
Community engagement in NSW schools - There is clearly an increasing emphasis on community engagement in NSW public schools. In December 2008, State, Territory and Commonwealth Ministers of Education signed the Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians. In the Declaration they recognised that: Parents, … Continue reading →
A World Cafe in a school – a step-by-step description - World Café’s are interactive, inclusive group processes that encourage conversation-like discussion of things that matter. (It might help to read an overview of World Cafés available HERE.) I recently facilitated a couple of sessions at my daughter’s school to help … Continue reading →
Parent engagement @ school - We had 19 parents at the P&C (Parents and Citizens Association) of my daughter’s primary school last week. We regularly get strong attendance (there are a few things I used to do when I was President to try to encourage … Continue reading →
10 Ways to build school-community partnerships - Here is a video by the Collaborative for Building After-School Systems with 10 ways to build school-community partnerships. Their 10 suggestions are: Give young people a voice Plan for effective collaboration Develop a shared vision Establish clear roles and responsibilities … Continue reading →
Making parents feel welcome in schools - 12 things that would make me feel parents are welcome at a primary school (some of which have happened at my daughters’ school and some at other schools I’ve seen): Consistent messages in the newsletter that the school values the … Continue reading →