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Education: A Shared Responsibility among Parents, the Community, Students, Staff and the Board
by Andrea Rimbault, Children's Program Co-ordinator, Family Service Toronto
Did you know that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has a policy for Parent and Community Involvement? The policy was first developed in November 1998, and was last revised in July 2005. When parents, the community, students and staff work together, we are able to contribute to the improvement of our schools and the success of our students. Parents are invited to participate in the decisions that affect their children’s education and their schools. The TDSB is committed to ensuring that parents and members of our diverse communities have opportunities to participate in the school system. In order to achieve this goal, the TDSB strives to provide necessary support to parents to maximize their involvement in the school. For example, to enable parents to attend School Council Meetings, many schools provide caregivers to supervise the children in the school while the meetings occur.
The TDSB is also committed to maintaining two-way communication with parents and community members. Many parents are able to access TDSB documents and policies translated into their first language (e.g. The Homework Policy is translated into 13 different languages). Parents are also able to request translators for school meetings. Often the translators are staff members (teachers and educational assistants) with the TDSB.
Sometimes the translators are community members and parents who are willing to assist other parents with navigating the education system.
Recently, the Connecting Families program staff from Family Service Toronto (FST) had the opportunity to offer workshops for both parents and students at Firgrove Public School in the Jane and Finch community. FST found that the parents are an integral part of this community and are actively invited to participate in the school improvement plan. In fact, it was at the request of the parents that the Connecting Families program was brought into the school. A group of parents heard about the program being run at other school locations, visited a session, and then approached FST staff and the administration at Firgrove to make it happen. Jennifer Hall, vice-principal at Firgrove P.S., believes that parents are an important part of the student success and community building within a school. When asked, “What do parents do for a school?” Jennifer replied, “They bring life to a school. Another dimension. We value their ideas and presence. It is nice for students to see parents in the building. It shows the students that what they are learning about is important and that school is important.”
There are many ways that parents and community members can become involved in their neighbourhood school. The spring is a time when many teachers are looking for support both in their classrooms and with extra-curricular activities. Many teachers take advantage of the warmer weather to plan field trips to popular GTA sites so the students can enhance their learning in a variety of environments (e.g. appreciating the diversity of living things at the Metro Toronto Zoo). Teachers need extra adults to help supervise the students while they are in less familiar environments, and to lead smaller groups of children as they participate in alternative learning activities.
The spring is also a busy time in schools for many sports-related events. Your neighbourhood school gym teacher may need help with supervising and measuring student results at the school track and field day, or distributing refreshments during the school-wide outdoor activity day. Also, as the end of the school year draws closer, you can stop in and visit the teacher-librarian to see if they need some help taking inventory of the books in the school library, and writing or distributing the notices to remind the students to search for the books that they may have misplaced in their homes throughout the school year.
Erika Irrgang, Adult ESL teacher at Firgrove P.S., encourages her adult students to become involved in supporting the younger students by participating in events and programming in the school. This participation not only increases language learning for both adults and children, but it also encourages all students to embrace diversity and celebrate the many cultures represented in the school. “I firmly believe that the students should not only learn language, but also cultures. I encourage students to be involved in the community, be part of something, by volunteering their time to find their place within the community. They need to learn from people from other cultures. Through their participation they learn the language better, and they feel good about giving back to the community.”
Through this encouragement, members of Erika’s ESL program have become involved with sports teams or leading special interest clubs. Orlando Echavarria Cadavid, one of Erika’s students, has initiated a chess club at Firgrove. He has trained six of his adult ESL classmates (who also happen to be parents of children who attend Firgrove) on how to play chess and teach the rules to children. Orlando saw his interest in chess as a way to teach children important memory and reasoning skills. “I am involved with the community because I saw the need to empower children, youth and adults, while participating in a mental sport that has deep history. “ While participating in the chess club, both adult and child students are certainly having fun, however, what the children may not realize is that they are making connections to the social studies curriculum that they are learning in their classrooms (i.e. in grade five ancient civilizations classes and grade four medieval studies, chess is discussed as an ancient pastime, a game played by knights and lords for entertainment).
For more information about Parent and Community Involvement, parents and community members are encouraged to contact their local school, or Michelle Munroe, Central Co-ordinator, Parent and Community Involvement at michelle.munroe@tdsb.on.ca, 416-397-3528.
To arrange for counselling, please call our Service Access Unit, Tel: 416.595.9618
