Commitment to Families

I am consistent, respectful and professional when communicating with parents and whānau. At the start of each year, I supply all learners in my class with an information sheet about me. I feel that it is important to share these parts of myself with families as a way to encourage them to feel comfortable enough to share their own stories and information. The more I am able to connect with families and whānau, the more I am able to understand  and provide for their children in my class. Most parents filled out the 'caregiver homework' sheet that was sent home and I used this information to inform how I could include parents in our learning based on their strengths/interests and note down any particular concerns they had about their child. 

I have reported home to parents twice a year using our school's standardised report format. It is incredibly difficult to condense these little individuals into a 100-word comment and a few tickboxes, so I put a lot of effort into making sure that the general comments reflect the uniqueness of each child. After completing 4 report seasons and developing my abilities, my goal as an educator is to continue to curate reports that allow whānau and family to feel that their child has truly been 'seen' and is not just a 'copy-and-paste' job.

I have used emails and SeeSaw as communication means to connect with whānau. These have been successful, for the most part, but I have had to rely on phone conversations or text messages to connect with certain outliers. Sharing photos and learner successes as regularly as the emails about negative behaviour has enabled me to form stronger relationships with whānau, as they don't just hear from the teacher when something 'bad' has happened. It can be hard to maintain this when things get busy, but I truly believe it's worthwhile and I aim to continue this practice moving forwards.

An example SeeSaw post shared with whānau about their child's first day at school

I have been present at all student-led conferences, meet the teacher events and expos over the last 2 years where learners and whānau are invited to school to celebrate and share.  On meet the teacher night, I was available to answer questions about the year ahead and discuss my learners in more detail with their parents. Finding out what their goals were for their learners and getting to meet whānau face to face was a valuable experience. I aim to utilise this event to inform my teaching every year moving forwards.

3-way conferences have been a highlight for me. Both years have been so affirming and uplifting, seeing the way my learners light up when they share their work with their loved ones and receiving praise myself as their teacher. After these conferences, I have always sent follow up emails to whānau to outline what we discussed, both strengths and goals moving forwards. I can use this information to reflect on during report writing and again to make the reports more personalised to what I have already discussed with whānau.

I have always ensured to celebrate the diverse cultures and talents present in my classroom. As a way to engage learners, I have contacted families and whānau seeking expert parent helpers. I have been lucky to have multiple parents come into the classroom to help share their skills with others. This year, one of my learners parents offered to build us a class jenga set (as he noticed that we did not have one). I suggested that we could take it one step further and 'earn' our jenga set by contributing to it's creation. This father came in to talk about his carpentry trade, how to cut wood effectively and about his Tahitian heritage and what carpentry looks like in different countries. My learners were then able to sand down and paint their own jenga block. Still to this day, this jenga set is a proud reminder of that special day.

To build whanaungatanga, there needs to be a level of communication, respect and open-ness. I have established a positive and welcoming classroom environment with an open-door policy. Of course, we naturally find connections with some whānau much easier than others but I have always tried to make contact with every parent/caregiver at least once per term. I have thoroughly enjoyed engaging with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. during family days. It is incredibly affirming for the children to see their loved ones present in their learning space and I truly do look forward to these days to come in the future.