Parent-Community Engagement 1.1 Overview  1.2 The  Six  point  Model  

 1.1 Overview Students spend an average of 5-6 hours of their day in school. The rest of their time is spent at home, in their neighborhoods and communities, playing with friends, running errands for their families, witnessing local events and festivities and perhaps eventually, participating as active stake-holders in their communities to bring about change. Children learn all kinds of skills and values from even peripheral participation in the various practices that exist in their homes and communities. For example, when buying vegetables for their families, children learn about currency conversion, addition and subtraction and even bargaining. A student whose father owns the local flour mill will be able to clearly explain to his peers how grain is converted to flour. In high poverty neighborhoods, students are quick to realize the value of water when entire families’ routines rely on the water schedule. Even children as young as four years of age have a highly developed spatial sense as they steer the maze of their slum community every single day. It is usually in the community, after-school, where we see children learning how to navigate social norms, how to stand up for themselves in the absence of adults, how to manage bullies, how to leverage aspects of their own personalities to negotiate deals with peers, how to deal with peer pressure, etc. Given that the local community plays quite a significant role in the learning process of a child, it seems illogical to leave out such an important resource from our school culture. Schools have the opportunity to enrich the lives of their students and staff by engaging the local community in meeting the needs of their curriculum. The Akanksha schools recognize the value of community engagement in educating a child. As the famous proverb states, “It takes a village to raise a child.” We propose the following model for community engagement based on our own experiences of working in schools serving high poverty neighborhoods, as well as on our successful operation of fifty seven centers across various low income urban communities in Mumbai and Pune for over twenty years. We would like to add a caveat here that our model for community engagement is limited by our experience in low income communities. A summary of Akanksha’s parent-community engagement objectives is outlined below. For examples and best practices. It is recommended to integrate parent-engagement initiatives with the classroom. To the degree this happens, the benefits are greater to parents, students and the school. This can be accomplished when students study certain themes – community helpers to invite parents who work in the community. Or teachers may work with parents to develop learning tools/kids, in remedial work, and use lists of volunteers, etc.

1.2 The Six Point Model

1. COMMUNICATION Objective: Design more effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school communications and relations.

a) Survey/Know your families: Conduct a baseline survey, schedule home visits; conduct a mid-year questionnaire.

b) Parent Meetings: Schedule meetings for convenient times for parents. Tailor meetings to classes or with teachers lessons. Ensure two way discussions at parent meetings have space for the parents to discuss their issues.

c) Informal Communication: Develop an effective two-way communication system between teachers/school and parents so that on an informal and frequent.

2. CHILD HOME LEARNING Objective: Provide information and ideas to families on how to help students at home with homework and other activities.

a) Knowledge about content: Ensure parents are aware of what their child is being taught in class.

b) Summaries: Provide parents with summaries of what is learned in class. c) Homework: Assign homework that increases communication and quality time and

interaction between parent and child, and is fun. d) Diary book/Notes on hand: Use a book that goes from school-to-home and back that

describes homework, or note on hand. 3. PARENT AWARENESS TRAINING Objective: Empower parents to facilitate a parent-school collaboration to better support students.

a) Familiar curriculum: Introduce class curriculum to parents as a launching point for further sessions.

b) Akanksha values: Teach the Akanksha values so that at the end of 2009-2010 all parents know the Akanksha culture, and that with Akanksha their child will get an excellent education. Make success stories visible.

c) Parent Meetings: Offer meetings at differernt times, and link to classroom teaching. d) Parent training: Teach parents to encourage ‘active learning’ at home. Organize

Akanksha volunteers to help empower parents in the literacy class, accompany parents to clinics, follow-up of initial visits, etc.

e) Parents as leaders: Teach parents to become leaders in the school. Hold workshops on community facilities and services (on Addiction centers, Consumer Protection Act., Right to Information, etc.).

4. VOLUNTEERING Objective: Solicit parent help and support to promote their sense of ownership of the school.

a) Establish parent volunteer committees: Organize and recruit parents for various committees. Develop guidelines to outline the tasks of each committee.

b) Encourage volunteering for: Offer numerous volunteer options, and times for participation

5. DECISION MAKING Objective: Include parents in school decisions, developing parent leaders and representatives.

a) Establish a forum for communication: Explore/consider boundaries of partnership. Most important is that there exists a forum for communication and negotiation of general rules, school policies, admissions process etc.

b) Participation: identify parent leaders from volunteers or active participation in parent meetings.

c) Establish a Parent-Teacher Association (PTA): According to Educational law effective September 2010 ensure functioning PTA, including define roles and purpose of the PTA, communicate concept, norms and process to parents, hold meetings every two months, record minutes.

6. COMMUNITY BUILDING Objective: Identify and integrate resources and services from the community to strengthen school programs, family practices, and student learning.

a) Make connections: Develop and distribute a survey to understand parent needs, interests and skills. Match skills/interests with parents and school.

b) Community Service: Seek outside resources to meet needs or utilize student/parents in community service. Prioritize community needs, publicize and recognize service completed, measure impact to motivate parents and connect community.

c) Services available: Research programs/services in and outside community (arts, sports, domestic violence, childcare, etc.) Communicate the information and contacts to parents on notice board.