Wake County Schools Work to Welcome Families into Schools
November 20, 2008 - For students to succeed, it’s important for families and schools to build a partnership that supports the child. Principal Nolan Bryant welcomes Wake County PTA Council President Sarah Martin to Jeffreys Grove Elementary. |
This is the first in a series of reports on the six standards of family involvement in Wake Board Policy 2541
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18 minute mp3 file |
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4-page Acrobat file |
To try and further foster those partnerships, the Wake County School Board is embracing standards of the National PTA. The PTA’s six standards for judging effective family-school partnerships are now included in Board Policy 2541.
Sarah Martin, the Wake County PTA Council President, is visiting schools to talk with principals about the standards. Martin visited with Nolan Bryant, principal of Jeffreys Grove Elementary, to talk about Standard 1: Welcoming all families into the school community – Families are active participants in the life of the school, and feel welcomed, valued, and connected to each other, to school staff, and to what students are learning and doing in class.
“This welcoming all families into the school community is really two pronged,” said Martin. “It’s something that the school itself sets up to show families that they do want them to be there and to be part of the child’s education. But it’s also something that the family needs to acknowledge – that the school really does want the family to be there.”
Jeffreys Grove Elementary under Bryant’s leadership has taken steps to reach out to parents.
“I think first we have to make sure we do a good job of inviting parents in,” said Bryant. “We have open houses that are offered at multiple times and at multiple locations so that we can be more accommodating to the schedules and the geographic locations of some of our families.”
Families receive advance notice of school activities through a variety of methods: notes, the Website, electronic newsletters or phone messages.
“We try to provide our communication in a very diverse way so that all of our parents will be able to access at least one of those avenues to know that this is an opportunity and that we would love for them to come and join us,” said Bryant. “Frequently, we try to put incentives in place for parents. Maybe we might have a drawing, something that would help pique some interest in getting parents to come out and be part of the process.”
Once parents arrive at school events, Bryant said it’s important for them to feel valued.
“We really need their input because they know their child in many ways that we don’t and they work with their child for much longer than we work with the child,” said Bryant. “We need that input so that we can make sure that in the school and in the classroom, we’re doing a good job of meeting the needs of the children, and to work hand in hand with the parents as a tag team to make sure that we are truly leaving no child behind academically, socially, emotionally.”
Parents and teachers can work together to help children learn and value their time at school.
“Its incumbent upon us to make sure that we are helping the parents recognize the strengths that they have by helping to give them concrete strategies they can use and work with their child at home every day and in the evenings and on the weekends,” said Bryant. “There are so many ways they can support their child and our school.”
Bryant has made a commitment to visiting families at home and is working to see a different family each week.
“When I go, I take with me my tutoring bag. It’s a collection of resources that the parent can use in the home to help support their child,” said Bryant. “I’m coming reaching out an open hand to say this is how we need to support each other and this is how important you are to your child’s success and here are some good tools that I’m going to show you how to use to support them at home.”
The Wake County PTA Council leader says the steps being taken by Jeffreys Grove Elementary’s principal and teachers are the practices that help families feel welcome at school.
“WCPSS has done an excellent job of trying to incorporate families into the learning equation for children throughout the county,” said Martin. “Regardless of the family’s background, Wake County does everything it can to invite parents into the school and to try to make them feel welcome and to feel a part of their child’s education. That’s really important. Because the more that a family can be involved whether its at home or at school, the better their child is ultimately going to do.”
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