"The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence..."

The email this week comes from School Support Manager, Caroline Chibale.  Caroline helped to plan a Parent Engagement Day at every Impact Network school during the last week of October.  More than 1,600 parents participated in the program. 

It is through parent engagement events that most parents gain a clear picture of the academic experience of their children.  Due to the COVID pandemic and restrictions on social gathering, Impact Network last had a parent engagement day in 2019 which was a challenge for parent-teacher relationships. Thus, it was very exciting to have a parent engagement day this term which included entertainment from the students, lessons in which teachers use the e360 teaching model, hands on activities, and a school meeting about the Student Code of Conduct. 

Prior to the Parent Engagement Day, students and teachers prepared and rehearsed dances, poetry and songs so the students were excited to finally present their different performances to the parents and all school staff. They were energetic and animated which made parents happy and curious to see more of the performances and how the day will be. Students dressed in beautiful, locally-made traditional attire and parents happily sang along to the songs during the drama. The parents were able to see different talents and even participate in some activities!

Next, parents attended class alongside their student to better understand how classes are conducted and how pupils are expected to work at school. During the Mwabu lesson, parents sat with their children to do a quiz game activity. The parents with their children had confidence and it was exciting and competitive when a parent managed to get the quiz question correct. They experienced how learning was made much fun with the e360 model! In the Read Smart literacy class, parents were paired with their child to play a game similar to hangman and a picture and word matching game.  Parents and students worked together to guess correct letters and were curious to find out what word they will make by the end of the game. It was fun seeing parents that were able to read and match the word cards with the correct picture cards. Other parents worked well together with their children and found the correct picture card.

The final component was a school meeting to have discussion with parents, teachers and students on developing a Student Code of Conduct for Impact Network schools – a guide to appropriate school behavior to ensure student success.  It highlights how students should conduct themselves whilst at school and the consequences that follows when they go against the school’s guiding principles.  We began the conversation by discussing the rights which are there for the children to enjoy and also the responsibilities which students must meet.  We also discussed the parent’s responsibility to ensure that children enjoy their rights and also carry out their responsibilities diligently.  Our aim in these parent meetings was to collect input from parents and students about Impact Network’s code of conduct, as we develop our final version.

The meetings went well in the schools and there were positive responses from both parents and teachers working together towards the goal of understanding that with students’ rights, comes also responsibilities. Denis Waitley stated, “The greatest gifts you can give your children are the roots of responsibility and the wings of independence.” At Impact Network, we believe working together with parents and teachers will foster responsibility in the students and help develop their independence!