The Why, What and How of “A brew with Principal (同校長傾吓偈)”

 

We have introduced the idea of “A Brew with Principal” (Brew) with an aim to align the interest of both parents and teachers and serve as a communication platform to enhance full collaboration between home and school. As a start, we conducted a try-out meeting with parents on 15 July 2021.

 

On that evening, there were around 150 families attending and with reference to the feedbacks received, more than 99 % of the attendees felt satisfied and interested about the setting up of such a platform. Nearly all participants found the platform useful and can help build a through channel for communication between families and school.

 

For the question of “Why parents are invited to attend such kind of “A Brew with Principal”? Our expectation is that:

• Parents are one of the stakeholders of this school;
• Parent Education is also part of education;
• We believe that everyone can contribute;
• This is a platform for two ways communication;
• We want to create a breakthrough in home-school collaboration;
• We want to create a new culture of schooling through home-school cooperation;
• This is a kind of innovative community service provided by the school;
• This is a new trend of education service; and
• This is also a unique feature of WFJLPS.

 

And we believe that:

… parents' and other family members' involvement in children's education …. not the only factor in improving student learning, 30 years of research has consistently linked family involvement to higher student achievement, better attitudes toward school, lower dropout rates, and increased community support for education, as well as many other positive outcomes for students, families, and schools.

                       (Henderson & Mapp, 2002)

 

In brief, “A Brew with Principal” can serve the following purposes:

1. Promotion of education ideas
2. Policy updates
3. Genuine sharing of views
4. Collection of views from parents
5. Communication platform

 

What are the key elements we should include in the meeting?

1. An agenda well known to parents before coming
2. Not necessary the same routine or agenda for each meeting
3. Anything which is of interest to parents
4. Anything which can help parents understand more about the school
5. The topics that the school wants to promote to parents
6. The inclusion of ‘Q & A’ session is a must

 

For the “How” question, we planned to launch the ”Brew” in four durations, one in September, one in December, one in March and one in June in each academic year. In order to cater for diverse needs from different parents and families, some will be held at day time while some will be organized in the evenings. We also agree that there might be different interests between lower and upper primary levels, perhaps we can organize focus group meetings with different interest groups in the coming “Brews”.

 

As Brewster & Railsback (2003) has also advocated that “Making a commitment to building partnerships with diverse families …. is a good place to start.” The key successful criteria for building such kind of “Brew” platform is the “TRUST” we must build within the two parties. Besides, the building of such platform can be a multiple-win result for all students, teachers, and families.

 

References:

Brewster, C. and Railsback, J. (2003). Building Trust with Schools and Diverse Families:

A Foundation for Lasting Partnerships. Portland, OR: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory

 

Henderson, A. T/ & Mapp, K. L. (2002). A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of

School, Family and Community Connections on Student Achievement. Southwest Educational Development Laboratory 2002