Parental Involvement
Research shows that parental involvement can improve students’ behavior, attendance, and achievement. Successful parent involvement can be defined as the active, ongoing participation of a parent or primary caregiver in the education of his or her child.
Parents can demonstrate involvement at home by reading with their children, helping with homework, and discussing school events or at school, by attending functions or volunteering in classrooms.
AGU School encourages parents to share in school planning through participating in the Parent Teacher Association. We will do our best to accommodate parents work schedules and time constraints as far as possible, when meeting parents, we will provide opportunities for parents to be informed about their child’s progress through written reports and formal parent meetings, we will hold parent workshops to keep parents informed of how to support their children’s schooling, and we will communicate, an essential ingredient in parental support, in different ways e.g. telephone calls, letters, newsletters, student diary, website or email etc.
Tips for Parents
Have high expectations for your children. Let your children know that you think it is important that they do well in school. High parental expectations have the greatest impact on student achievement. When parents consistently express belief in their children’s potential and tell their kids that they expect them to succeed academically, students do better.
Talk about school. Talk with your children about what’s happening at school – activities, programs and what they are learning. Surprisingly, this has a greater impact on academic achievement than monitoring homework, being at home after school for your kids, or limiting the time they are allowed to watch TV or go out during the week.
Help your children develop a positive attitude toward learning and good work habits. The research shows that the greatest influence you can have on your kids’ chances for success in school lie in how you influence their attitudes, their sense of personal competence, and their work habits, including persistence, seeking help, and planning. So rather than trying to directly “teach” your children, focus on helping them handle distractions and crises of confidence, praise them for effort and persistence and demonstrate a positive attitude about school as a whole. Bit by bit, these are the attributes that will build solid foundations for ongoing success.
Read together (in any language) Reading is one of the foundations of all education, and you can make a big difference by reading and talking about books and stories with your children. Reading with children is the best way to turn them on to reading. But this doesn’t mean that you should be forcing them to sound out words. Instead of focussing on teaching your children the mechanics of reading, teach them to love reading. Make reading fun and enjoyable!