Why We Value Parent Involvement

We believe it is vitally important that parents have an opportunity to be connected to the school in a variety of ways. It is essential for the success of any school that parents are committed, involved and supportive of the decisions the school makes.

Recent educational research suggests that highly effective schools (that is, schools that achieve high standards) have a number of features in common:

• High expectations are set for student learning;

• There is strong and effective leadership;

• Teachers have a thorough and up-to-date knowledge of their subjects and a deep understanding of how  students learn;

• There is a positive school culture where students have a sense of belonging and pride;

• There are high levels of parent and community involvement.

In essence, schools where a large number of parents take an active role in discussing, monitoring and supporting their children’s learning are schools where children do best.

It is my belief that schools must take responsibility for ensuring parents remain connected. Schools should wherever possible communicate directly with parents, invite parents to regularly attend functions and information sessions, and encourage parents to be involved in the total life of the school. The school needs to provide different opportunities for parent involvement, because different parents like to do different things, and different parents have different skills.

At Sekolah Ciputra, we expect you to be involved in the Three Way Conference, the Student Led Conference, and Student Exhibition and Personal Project Programmes that occur as part of the reporting of student progress. We also encourage you to be involved as much as possible whether through the Parent Support Group, as a guest speaker in our Primary Resources Programme or the Careers Day programme, or by simply visiting the school throughout the year.

We encourage parents to always read our newsletters and to regularly check the website, to discuss daily school happenings with their child and, should an issue arise, to communicate this with the most appropriate person at school. We will always welcome your questions and ideas but this does not mean that decisions made will automatically change.

We are always reviewing the way we communicate, so we welcome suggestions from parents about the regularity and the manner in which communication occurs.

Other research has shown that while parent involvement tends to be consistent throughout the Pre-Elementary/ Early Childhood levels of schooling, there tends to be a dramatic decline in parent involvement in schools as their children enter years 4-6 and adolescence. We encourage all parents to actively review ways to remain connected with our school as your child moves from Pre-Elementary through to Year 6 and on to Year 12.

At Sekolah Ciputra, we look forward to having you integrally involved in your child’s education. Our goal is for you to feel welcomed, valued and listened to.