Our first School Council meeting was interesting and informative. We had approximately 21 people in attendance. We hope that over the coming months more parents will be able to attend these meetings. School Councils are run by and for parents. They are an opportunity to be a part of your child's educational journey. We would like School Council to be a collaborative process and a voice for all parents.
Our first meeting focused on beginning to understand the current educational practices at our school. Mr.MacNeill spoke about how schools are changing to meet the learning needs of students today. He shared with us a very thought-provoking video clip on the education system. It is definitely worth taking a look at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=player_embedded
Among many informative ideas, I was very interested in what Mr. MacNeill referred to as the,
Foundation Statements for Royal Oak School (as taken from the meeting minutes):
- Royal Oak School is committed to treating everyone with respect and dignity that increases self worth and confidence. Mastery, independence, belonging, generosity complete the Circle of Courage.
- Working toward a practice of inquiry that develops the students' minds and makes them think.
- Embrace “Universal Design for Learning” so all students can have access to the learning available.
- High level use of technology and digital media.
- Formative assessment practices - change from pure evaluation to learning/support model with constant adjustment based on students’ learning needs and level
- Staff and students learn best in the company of others.
As we only had a short amount of time, he touched briefly on each of these concepts. Many parents have requested that School Council host more in depth workshops on several of these topics. Please let us know what topics would be of interest to you.
Towards the end of the meeting we requested that parents share what issues are of importance to them and initiatives they would like to see School Council take on. Some of the ideas shared were: Traffic Safety, Workshops for Parents(Inquiry-based learning, How can I support my child's learning at home?, Technology in the Classroom...), Cultural Days, Lobbying for a Middle School, Music & Art programs. All of the ideas shared will be presented at the next School Council meeting and we can decide which areas we would like to pursue first.
We have an exciting opportunity as parents to help shape the identity and culture of our school. We are fortunate to have a dedicated staff whose first interest is the learning of our children. As with any new adventure there are going to be questions and challenges which make the journey that much more rewarding.
