George & Alec Couros - Why Schools should be like a Family Restaurant

Why Schools Should Be Like a Family Restaurant

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View Danielle Cronin's Parent and Community Engagement presentation at the LookOut 2011 International Conference

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Parents University

[Source Article: http://www.rgj.com/article/20110830/NEWS02/108280360/1002 by Reno Gazette-Journal reporter Ben Miller]

The Washoe County School District's strategic plan seeks to address three key objectives: graduating more students, fostering parent engagement and jump-starting early childhood education. The parent engagement strategy involves a Parents University initiative.

There will be more than 220 Parents University classes at various locations around the community provided by a consortium of community organizations.

All classes will be free to parents or a child's guardian, and child care and interpretation in Spanish will be provided for every class.





 D'Lisa Crain, administrator of family school partnerships, said the district hopes to have an average of 40 parents in each class.



"We understand that parents are busy these days and have conflicting schedules and have a lot of responsibilities, so we might have 25 parents in one class and 200 in another; there's really no way to predict that," Crain said.

The classes will cover a wide variety of topics, including health, Internet safety, parenting, financial literacy, drug and alcohol prevention, bullying and how to earn a GED.

Crain said the district has always had classes for parents, but that they haven't been organized in this way previously.


"Many community-based organizations and the school districts have taught classes before, but they haven't been organized in a comprehensive catalogue," Crain said. "The Parent University pools all those resources together so parents can know the full offering of resources that are available."



Among the community organizations involved are the Children's Cabinet, Nevada State Parent Information and Resource Center at the Education Alliance, Northern Nevada Literacy Council, Nevada Parents Encouraging Parents, Nevada Parent Teacher Association, Food Bank of Northern Nevada, Join Together Northern Nevada, Tune in to Kids, Truckee Meadows Community College, United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra, Boys and Girls Club and GT Parent Connection, among others.Maria Fernandez, a coordinator for family school partnerships said catalogs in English and Spanish will be mailed to every home in mid-­September, and a website is being developed for launch about the same time.

This edition of ParentNet looks at a successful strategy for Connecting Home & School Learning in Secondary School - ‘Patrician Partners in Literacy’ program. This program was founded on the belief that parents are the first teachers of their children and that "the home is both the beginning and foundation of all learning" and also the observation that many parents feel disengaged from the learning process after their children move to secondary education. It sought to bring parents into the school and engage them in the teaching and learning of literacy - with many exciting (and unintended) outcomes!

Download ParentNet here

Thinking about how to involve parents in Literacy and Numeracy Week?

National Literacy and Numeracy Week represents a collaborative approach by the Australian Government and school communities to highlight the importance of literacy and numeracy skills for all children and young people, with a specific focus on school-aged children. The Week gives schools the opportunity to get involved in a range of literacy and numeracy activities. The Week aims to recognise locally the achievements of students and the work of teachers, parents and members of the community who support young people to develop stronger literacy and numeracy skills. Resources for building parent capacity and confidence (engagement): http://www.nlnw.nsw.edu.au/parentb.htm http://www.det.wa.edu.au/schoolsandyou/detcms/navigation/helping-your-child-learn/reading/ Involving parents in celebrations: http://www.literacyandnumeracy.gov.au/national-celebration-literacy/read-australia http://www.literacyandnumeracy.gov.au/search/node/parents Literacy and Numeracy Week Website: http://www.literacyandnumeracy.gov.au

New Australian Lit Review on Parent Engagement

In 2010 the NSW Government announced that it was providing funds to the NSW Joint Parent Forum (comprising Government, Catholic and Independent school parent bodies) for an ‘Engaging with Parents, Carers and Families’ strategy. The strategy involves the development of ‘pre-service’ teacher training and ‘in-service’ teacher professional development modules to support enhanced parent and community involvement in schooling.

The modules are being written by the Australian Catholic University under the leadership of Dr Sue Saltmarsh and an academic advisory panel comprised of academics from the major NSW universities. A summary of the literature review undertaken for this project can be found in the latest edition of ParentNet (T3.11) due out 22 July. Click on the following link: http://www.ccsp.catholic.edu.au/dbpage.php?pg=Newsletters&toplink=4

New Australian Book - Must Read on Parent Engagement!

With the assistance of the Council of Catholic School Parents NSW/ACT, a new book has been published entitled: Bridging the Gaps Between Families and Schools.

Bridging the gaps provides a practical manual for use by school communities who wish to transform their school using an ‘evolutionary model of change’.

This book is timely given the current emphasis on the school needing to being a socially inclusive community, one that involves all the members that comprise the school.

A range of successful examples are provided in the book as well as reflection questions for “creative Principals, a venturesome
staff and an enthusiastic parent body” to develop solutions relevant to their own community.

Nance’s book also gives special attention to the needs of parents who may be on the periphery, such as “Indigenous parents, those from other cultural backgrounds without spoken English, single parents and all who are just trying to survive”.

In the words of Dr Nance Millar:

“The purpose of the book is to instil in parents, principals and
teachers an appreciation of the role of parents as ‘primary educators’
of their children and an understanding that this role is exercised
through collaboration, or partnership, with teachers and all members
of the school community”.


The book can be purchased from St. Pauls Books:
http://www.stpauls.com.au/product/4744