Parental Involvement in Schools

Having parents and families involved in a child's school is vital for a student's success. A healthy community can often mean that there is a healthy school environment and vice versa. Parents are an important link in the process of creating a healthy school and there is a need to establish cooperative links between schools, parents and the neighbourhood.

Parental involvement is necessary for a child's academic success. Research shows that a child will benefit from having their parent show an active interest in their schooling. This ranges from K to gr12.

How to get parents involved then?

• Increase positive communication between school and home, parents and community.
• Maintain communication to homes.
• Place a bulletin board near the school entrance so parents can see what has been going on in the school community. This can be extended to have a board with information of activities for families within the community.
• Provide babysitting to enable parents to attend a school based activity.
• Provide educational workshops for parents. There maybe opportunities to provide gardening workshops if there is a garden or green space in the school yard.
• Have a parent volunteer room based in the school. This room may be equipped with coffee and tea and community information.

The Ontario Ministry of Education provides grants to encourage parental volunteer in schools. The details for these grants can be found at http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/parents/schools.html