Posts Tagged ‘Guardian Column’

The following opinion piece appeared in The Guardian newspaper on June 26, 2015. If I have learned anything in my 8 years of involvement with Home & School, it’s that public education is a complicated system with many moving parts: issues that appear simple – “let’s extend the school day by 30 minutes,” for example…

This month will see the retirement of many employees that Home and School members have had in their daily lives for many years: 43 teachers, 10 cleaners and custodians, 9 bus drivers, 9 educational assistants and youth service workers, 7 administrative assistants, and 2 board office staff from the English Language School Board.  All were honoured…

May is a good month for home and school associations to reflect, take stock, and to work to make sure the transition to the next school year is a smooth one for parents, guardians, teachers, administrators and staff. The focused discussions on provincial policy resolutions that took place in the months leading up to our…

This winter the P.E.I. Home and School Federation held brainstorming workshops in Montague, Charlottetown, Summerside and Bloomfield. The workshops brought together parents, guardians, teachers, and administrators with an eye to identifying issues in public education, over the medium to long term, where the federation could take action – through resolutions, advocacy, or special projects –…

March is a busy month for home and school associations, as it’s the month where resolutions that will be voted on at our annual general meeting are discussed and voted on at local meetings across the province. This year there are nine resolutions, on topics including character development programs, transportation and weather issues, communication and…

When home and school members get together to talk about the challenges in their schools, at the top of the list is often the how to engage more families in home and school activities.  Depending on the school and the year, sometimes this is expressed as a concern about the relatively small number of parents,…

Discussion between parents, guardians, teachers, administrators and staff has been the heart of home and school for more than 60 years: home and school is fundamentally about dialogue, and is based on the notion that through open and regular communication we can improve education together. In recent years the P.E.I. Home and School Federation has…

Transitions, whether they be from school to school, grade to grade, classroom to classroom, or from public education to life beyond, are something that many partners in education are focusing on this year. Indeed the Nova Scotia Federation of Home and School Associations, at its recent Annual Meeting, dedicated an entire session to the topic,…

The term “student achievement” is used a lot these days when speaking of public education, and it’s a term that means different things to different people: achievement can mean good grades and high standardized test scores, or it can mean success at fostering empathetic, informed citizens. This month presents parents, teachers, administrators and staff with…