Connecting home and school

Connecting home and school

By Rebecca Campbell Acting Head of Middle School

As educators, we are acutely aware of the vital role student wellbeing plays in the journey of each Brisbane Grammar School student. Equally important is the strong connection between home and school. At BGS, we aim to forge strong partnerships between parents and staff, ensuring we work together to help each boy reach his academic potential while maintaining high levels of social and emotional wellbeing.

Throughout the year, we host parent evenings as part of our Wellbeing Series. Guest presenters this year have focused on video game addiction, sleep health, cybersafety, respectful relationships, and drugs and alcohol. Each of these presenters is an expert in their field.

As part of our commitment to continual improvement, we constantly seek ways to improve our Student Wellbeing programs. This year we trialled a workshop for parents of boys in Years 5 to 10.

While we highly value our strong partnership with external experts, we wanted to embrace the collective expertise of our Student Wellbeing team. This team know our boys best and deal with adolescent issues daily. They developed a series of parent workshops to address the issues significantly affecting boys at this critical phase of their development.

The evening commenced with an address from Philippa Douglas, BGS Director of Student Wellbeing Programs. Ms Douglas updated parents on our new Student Wellbeing curriculum and how it has been carefully designed to meet the developmental needs of boys.

Parents were then invited to choose three from a selection of five 15-minute workshops, presented by Heads of Year, School Counsellors and the Director of Student Wellbeing Programs. Many of the topics were selected based on conversations between parents and Heads of Year throughout the school year. Other topics were included due to their pertinence to boys within this age demographic, such as digital wellbeing, conflict resolution and resilience.

Prior to the evening, parents were invited to submit questions relating to each topic to ensure our Student Wellbeing team were responding to parental concerns and addressing the needs of the audience.

Creating and sustaining a collaborative partnership with parents is integral to each boy's overall BGS experience.