The #1 Key Ingredient to Help Children Succeed in School
There are a multitude of things a parent can do to assure their child gets the best education possible. One of those ingredients is so often left out of the equation.
The #1 key ingredient is communication.
You will quickly find that a school that does a good job at this, one that is open to your visit from time to time, and who gives you many avenues to communicate regularly is a school that wants to do a great job in educating your child and wants to make sure you are a real part of that effort. Likewise, a school that discourages visits, does little to encourage communication, and does not have a welcoming environment is one to be cautious about.
I worked in a school with over 1,000 students in my early years where there were more teachers at the PTO meetings than there were parents. There were few programs that addressed issues they might want to know about, few programs where students were involved and very little encouragement for anyone to come. There was little interest in the PTO and very few things they did. It was actually quite a depressing situation to find the staff who had to be there listening to the brief and, quite frankly, boring events that started around seven and ended a half hour later.
When I moved to the Midlands, one of the things I looked for in a school for my son was an active PTO. I found that most of the schools around this area were bursting at the seams when it came to PTO evenings and that there was often not enough space for all those in attendance to have a seat. PTO elections around here are like full blown political elections…posters, advertisements, campaigning, etc. Now THAT’S when you know parents want to be involved and want to make sure their children’s schools are communicating with them regularly on all issues related to their children’s education.
PTO and School Improvement Councils are big deals here…and they truly work toward making a real difference in the schools they serve. They EXPECT communications and they work together with the schools to assure a good education for their child.
My wish for you today is that you expect and participate in communications opportunities with your schools. Whether you’re a parent or not, the more we are involved with school the better off our children will be.
~ Joellen