Strengthening Learning Relationships between

School, Family & Community

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Community Engagement Team

Connecting parents and caregivers to their children's learning

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“Everyone has a stake in creating and implementing educational experiences that

meet the interests and needs first for children and young people and then for all

citizens”.(Anthony Satrick)

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“If you have come to help me you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is

bound up with mine, then let us work together”

(Lily Watson, Aboriginal Activist Sister).

 

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Empower our parents and caregivers

Theme Questions1.) How do you engage with your parents and community?

2.) How do you engage with your school?

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Link

If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to

gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea. (Antoine de Saint Exupery, (The Wisdom of the

Sands)

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1. Who are we?

2. What’s worth learning?

3. How do we best learn together?

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Community Conversations Questionnaire

TRUSTIs the key word in changing schools

Four Vital Signs for identifying and assessing trust in schools

Respect: Do you acknowledge one another’s dignity and ideas? Do we interact in a courteous way?

Competence: Do we believe in each other’s ability and willingness to fullfil our responsibilities effectively?

Personal Regard: Do we care about each other both professionally and personally? Are we willing to go beyond our formal roles and responsibilities to go the extra mile?

Integrity: Can we trust each other to put the interests of students first, especially when tough decisions have to be made? Do we keep our word?

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• HOW WE ENTER

• HOW WE CONDUCT

• HOW WE CONCLUDE

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Building conversational capacity

What Makes the Difference?• How we were not what we did• Involve the community right from the

beginning• Initiate action based on real need rather than

perceived need • Use word of moth as communication• Develop the leadership of local community

champions• Take time to build ownership and

relationships

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Signposts – Is anyone better off? What are we doing? – number How well are we doing it? – satisfaction And is anyone better off? –

Impact/Success

What are you trying to achieve and why? What will success look like and for whom? What are you doing to achieve this?

What’s working and what isn’t? What success have you had so far and

how do you know?13