February 23, 2015
A local school has created a new staff role this year to get families more engaged in their school community.
Mrs Sarah McAdam has joined the staff at St John’s Lutheran School this year as their first School Community Co-ordinator.
Last year, Principal Helen Folker attended a conference which highlighted the importance of families being engaged with the school community to improve educational outcomes for students.
“For many years we have asked parents to help out at the tuckshop, at fundraising events or for class help like reading groups,” Mrs Folker said.
“It became apparent to me that parents wanted to become more engaged but because of time constraints or having younger children they felt they couldn’t join in or help out as much as they wanted.
“Sarah’s role has a few different parts; one is to engage school families in the life of our school and the other is to link our school to community groups and services including our own church, St John’s Lutheran.”
Sarah has already initiated a few new ideas at the school.
Each Monday and Tuesday morning, students gather for their junior and senior devotion time and she has set up a café-like area for parents where they can purchase a coffee and be part of this special time in the school’s weekly calendar.
She also makes the café and coffees available on Friday afternoons for the primary school assembly.
It is a meeting place for parents to catch up at each end of the week for a chat and a cuppa.
The school hall is now also used for a weekly playgroup for children from birth to five years.
Sarah has a group of keen ladies that are able to assist her with preparing activities and she has been excited about the numbers who have attended so far.
The playgroup is open to anyone in the community who has younger children and want to meet other mums with pre-preppies.
Sarah has set up a casual environment so the children can play and interact, and where mums can share parenting tips and support each other.
The St John’s Lutheran Ladies Guild invited Sarah and Helen along to their weekly meeting recently to share some ideas about ways to work together.
Sarah also has a weekly snippet in the school’s newsletter with information or tips on topics such as healthy lunchboxes, and she will be running some information sessions for parents at regular intervals.
She has also initiated a “Lend a Hand” session for parents to come along and help teachers with preparation of classroom resources.
“Sarah’s role has been well received within the school and church community and we are looking forward to seeing how the role develops,” Mrs Folker said.
“We recognise that parents are the first and most important educators of their child.
“Sarah’s role enable us to become better partners in their child’s educational journey,” she said.
“We see that Sarah’s role will evolve and become responsive to our school communities’ needs, and we look forward to the positive outcomes for our school community and wider area.”
 |
southburnett.com.au welcomes reports from schools about their activities. We invite any interested school to submit their reports to us by emailing them to news@southburnett.com.au
Reports should be written in Microsoft Word and any photographs submitted should be high-resolution and in .JPG format. Please also include a contact phone number in case we need to clarify anything with you. We reserve the right to edit reports. |
