A guide for Class Parents at Summer Hill Public School
Your role
- Help with communication between the families of children in the class, with the teacher, school and P&C Committees.
- Help to make families feel part of the school .
Note: One or maybe even two people can share this role for every class.
What does the Class Parent do?
- Make a list of names and contact details of class families.
- Support your class teacher as required.
- E--mail important information to class families from the school or P&C Committees.
- Organises social activities for class families.
NOTE: Class Parents from different classes often work together to help organise joint social activities.
- Attend P&C Meetings.
- Liaise between teacher and parents of the class
Things to consider when acting as Class Parent
- The cultural diversity of families in the class.
- Family and work commitments of parents on the class.
- The diversity of carers .
- The ability of some parents to speak English confidently.
Suggestions for Class Parents:
- Actively attend and participate in P&C Meetings. It's the best way to find out what is happening at school.
- Network with other class parents -- find out what has been done in the past – don't reinvent the wheel.
- Identify a person of non--English background who can share the role with you.
- Use established friendships to promote your activities.
- Arrange for the translation of important messages.
- Vary the activities you organise – different times, different places to allow for maximum family participation.
- Make sure you encourage parents with little or no English to attend functions – it can be very scary to turn up without someone you know.
- Ask bilingual parents to encourage other families of the same language background to come to activities.
- Try to contact people you don't know before an event and encourage them to attend.
- Organise events which help show case your class diversity.
Did you know ….
Aside from English, the main languages spoken by our school families are Mandarin and Cantonese. Some families have been in Australia less than a year.