Later this week, each of our campuses is hosting its annual curriculum night, an opportunity for parents and caregivers to learn from teachers the skills and knowledge their students will gain in their classes this year. It’s one of the first and most visible ways we hope to build a strong connection between a student’s home and her classroom. There are, of course, many opportunities to foster a healthy family-school partnership, and, in fact, we’ve got a whole section of our website devoted to it!
Several years ago our PTCA collaborated with members of our faculty to develop a set of guidelines for new parents and for new teachers to understand how we at ANCS use our “guiding principles” in thinking about collaboration between parents and teachers on behalf of students, and you’ll find those ideas on the “family-school partnership” section of our website. For example, under “We come to school prepared to learn and do our best” it states that the school will strive to “provide opportunities for parents to learn more about the practices and concepts used with students at school so that they may support learning at home” while parents are asked to “read the communications sent home from the school and posted on blogs”. If you are the parent or caregiver of an ANCS student, I’d encourage you to read through the complete set of examples on our site.
Having been at ANCS since 2007, I’ve seen lots of parents get involved in the life of our school right from the start of their students’ entry into the school, while others sometimes aren’t quite sure how to help—or don’t feel they have the time to give. So let me suggest three ways each and every parent or caregiver at ANCS can be involved in making our school the best place it can be for our students and community:
- Give an hour a month to ANCS—whether during the school day or outside of it: Beyond what you may do supporting your own student, see if you can find one hour each month to give of your time to ANCS. You can reach out to your student’s teacher to see if you could be of assistance one morning or afternoon. You could volunteer to assist with a PTCA committee or event. Think about your own skills and passions and where there might be a way to put them to use for ANCS for a little bit of time each month. You could do any number of things that would really benefit the school, and not all of them require being at the school during the school day—see the bottom of the “Family-School Partnership” page for more ideas or ask your student’s teachers or the principal at either campus. With 643 students at ANCS, if each family found a way to donate an average of an hour each month to our school, that would make a huge difference!
- If you wonder, ask: Something unclear to you about what it is your student is doing in class? Concerned about a decision that’s been made by the ANCS board? Wondering why we use a certain practice at the school? Then please ask! It’s our hope that you are a fully-informed parent at the school and that we are doing our part to help you be—but that also requires of you that you ask questions if you are confused, troubled, and/or curious about something at school. And if and when you are feeling one of those ways, direct your questions to the person best able to answer it—your student’s teacher, the principal, me—to avoid misunderstandings and to help us help you!
- Stay informed: There are lots of outlets where information and highlights from ANCS are disseminated, so find whichever one works best for you and use it. We’ve got a great new website that is updated regularly as well as our weekly Courier newsletter, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. But there’s also the in-person experience of morning meetings and even attending a PTCA or board meeting. Stay connected and involved in any or all of these formats.