Home–School Partnership

What is it?
What happens in the programme?
Roles and responsibilities
Philosophy
Successful features
Key messages in different languages
Secondary Home-School Partnerships Programme

What happens in the programme?

A lead team of teachers and bilingual parents is selected from within the school community. One teacher and at least one parent lead each of the school community's ethnic groups. The lead teams are trained by an expert facilitator to run a series of sessions at the school for the school's parents and families.

In the sessions, the lead team affirms the valuable contribution the families make to their children's learning and development. In addition, the parents and families learn how they can share their language, knowledge, and skills with their children to further support their children's learning at school.

During the programme:

• the facilitator runs four full-day workshops to train the lead teams
• the lead teams deliver a series of six sessions for the parents and families
• the school supports the parents and families as they help their children develop literacy and language skills.

Training and implementation overview

During the initial preparation, the school:

• informs and consults with staff about the programme
• establishes the commitment and involvement of school staff and families
• gathers relevant data about key student groups
• identifies key teachers and parents to train as lead team members.

Workshops

Workshop 1

Lead team members are trained to implement sessions 1 and 2.
Session 1: Setting the scene with parents and families
Session 2: Enriching children's language by talking with them

Workshop 2

Lead team members are trained to implement sessions 3 and 4.
Session 3: Extending your children's language experiences
Session 4: Developing and maintaining effective home routines and practices

Workshop 3

Lead team members are trained to implement sessions 5 and 6.
Session 5: The reading partnership: Reading to and with your children
Session 6: The reading partnership: Reading to and with your children

Workshop 4

Outcomes – What specific outcomes are achieved?

Evaluation – How effective was the programme in general?

Next steps – How should the school build further from what was achieved?

One member of the lead team is selected to be the programme coordinator. The sessions are conducted, when appropriate, in the home languages of each of the groups included. Each session takes about one hour.