PARTNERING WITH PARENTS

Partnership with parents is critical to the success of a student’s education. The Middle School administrative team has worked hard to be transparent and open with parents. At the start of the school year, virtually all of the parents of Middle School students had not been inside the Middle School building to see where their children learn or meet their teachers in person. It was a delight to hold in-person parent conferences inside the Middle School building in front of the very classrooms students learn in. Between conversations with teachers, parents were welcome into classrooms to look at student work and see the learning environments that had been created by the teachers. Soon as Covid restrictions allowed, the Middle School held all Parent Coffees in person. These events always include sharing with students and teachers. In January, large groups of parents were on campus for all four performances of the musical Moana Jr. while enjoying the “best seats in the house” front and center Several parents volunteered many hours helping with Moana, including the make-up team. The Parent Association (PA) facilitated volunteering for the musical and generously donated to the production The PA also inspired the creation of an 8th-grade trip which will take place in June of this school year

Some of the most important communication with parents relates to the reporting of student progress The Middle School sought the opinion of parents about the report card. Out of 109 responses, 90.3% of parents read the comments carefully However, 49% of parents said they do not find the current comment process helpful, while 92% of parents would prefer if each teacher wrote a specific comment in English about their child, even if that meant they needed to translate the comment on their own. The Middle School will move to narrative comments written by each teacher about each one of their students on future report cards. Open dialogue with parents helps the Middle School to target specific areas for improvement