Page 3888 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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I am the father of 4 daughters aged 9, 7, 6 and 3. Three of them are currently going to Hughes Primary School. Two of them have high functioning autism, one of which is in the autism unit of the school. The school has allowed and encouraged our, mine and my wife’s, participation in a variety of activities. I have attended excursions and camps, often in place of a learning support aid. As well as other activities within the school such as guided reading and school assemblies.
The benefits for me personally are immense. I have been given opportunities to engage with my children on a level that the home environment doesn’t allow. I have been able to observe how they are being educated, which for me personally has been very rewarding.
The benefits for my children have been both observed by myself and reported by their teachers as very positive. My children have each reported that they have enjoyed having their parents actively involved with the school. Or to quote my oldest daughter “I like you coming on my camp dad”.
I doubt I would have been able to have so much involvement as I have had if I didn’t have children with educational challenges. But it also wouldn’t have been possible without the active involvement and encouragement of the Principal, Deputy Principal and ‘ALL’ the teachers and auxiliary staff at the school. Also I had to have a ‘Working With Vulnerable Peoples’ card, which I completely agree with.
In summary I am very much in support of parents being engaged with their children’s school in a positive and progressive way. I have said to other parents at Hughes in the past. “My children are my world and I have entrusted them to the care of the school staff. I have been able to make observations of that care and our children are in great hands”. I would not have been empowered to make this observation without this encouragement by the school to be involved.
I would like to thank Shane and his family for sharing their story. Shane, his family and the teachers and school leaders at Hughes primary are a wonderful example of just how important and rewarding being involved in your child’s school can be.
While there are parents and families like Shane’s that can be involved, I know from my own experience as a single mum and the conversations that I have had with other families that sometimes we just are not as engaged as we would like to be. It is not because we do not want to be but because of the reality of daily life—juggling work, keeping a house clean, homework, cooking, doing the shopping, gardening, kids’ sports and many other things.
As well as the things that we have to juggle each and every day, some parents have also had bad school experiences themselves as students and may not feel like they want to be active in their child’s school. Some parents are providing care as a single parent, and in west Belconnen we have the highest proportion of single parents in the ACT.
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