Dear Primary Families,
“How can I support my child at home?”
This is a question that we are often asked by parents, and we appreciate it because it reflects a supportive family that values education and wishes to collaborate with us to help their child(ren) progress.
While the answer we provide may vary depending on the specific child, there are some practices we always advise. The following habits, for example, will always be valuable:
- Talk with your child about their learning.
- Ask questions about what is going well at school and areas where they may feel challenged.
- Read with your child.
- Create a dedicated space at home where homework can be completed.
- Ensure a routine is in place to allow for sufficient sleep.
- Send your child to school with a healthy snack.
Another way for parents to show support is by actively participating in our learning community. This week, a group of parents joined us for our parent workshop, “An Introduction to the Primary Years Programme (PYP).” It was a pleasure to work with nearly 20 parents on Wednesday morning as we delved into the IB PYP here at ABIS.
I hope that parents left the session with a deeper understanding of some of the different elements of our program and how they fit together. We discussed transdisciplinary themes, key concepts, approaches to learning, the learner profile, and the importance of taking action. We also explored our program of inquiry (POI) and discussed how some subject-specific learning takes place outside of it, such as stand-alone lessons for math and English, for example.
I would like to host regular workshops for parents to help us build a strong learning community, and I am always open to welcoming ideas and suggestions for future sessions. This week’s workshop showed me that a potential area of focus could be how we assess in the PYP.
If you have any ideas or questions about this week’s workshop or have requests for future sessions, please do let me know.
Once again, thank you to the parents who were able to join me this week. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Best regards,
Matthew Primary Team Lead
Note: A pdf copy of the presentation from this week’s workshop will be shared by homeroom teachers in Sunday morning’s weekly email.