The importance of the home school relationship.

Days 25 of #28daysofwriting and I thought I would take up a challenge I set myself right back at the start - write a blog post entirely on my phone.

Tonight was student goal setting night at our school.  Parent - Teacher meetings really.  But it was a really good night. 

We changed the format and had all teachers in the learning centre running meetings at the same time.  It worked really well.  It broke down the barriers between classes and we felt like a real team.  Our principal did a great job greeting parents as they came in. Taking time to drum up support and feedback from parents.

But the biggest success is having teachers and parents work towards the common goal of student achievement.

I had one parent thank me for 'getting' her child.  I had just noticed that the student was having a few stumbles around phonics knowledge in class and the parent said she noticed a similar thing in reading.  This wasn't something I had noticed but it made sense and there might be a bigger need there.  This parent told me she had tried to explain this before and she was so relieved I had picked up on it.

We are both on the same page now and we have a plan to work on at home and school.

Another parent told me her son had a new iPad and had been playing maths games.  This student has struggled in Maths in the past but over the past few weeks had shown a lot more confidence.   I knew what I was doing was making a difference but it definitely didn't explain it all.  When I realised the student had gone home and downloaded some of the maths games we use at school I was so proud of him for taking the initiative.  This home-school link has obviously helped improve how he feels about maths and he is getting himself on a roll in his learning.

I'm pretty tired after a long day.  But even just those two meetings alone made the night worth it.  Teaching is about making connections for students and we should never underestimate the power of the connection with their family.