Assistant Principal's Message

Parents & Carers

The Role of Parents in Learning

In recent years a great deal of research has emerged about our brains and learning. Traditionally, people believed that you were born with a certain level of intelligence and giftedness. This view has been well and truly debunked over the last decade.

Wendy Berliner and Deborah Eyre have written a wonderful book titled, Great Minds and How to Grow Them. They argue that:

Based on the overall body of research, we believe the balance of evidence is that genetics have minimal significance on how well you can perform at school … we believe that a combination of potential and motivation underpinned by learning opportunities and support delivers high performance … and that parents are crucial in helping to mix that learning cocktail.

Research from both the US and UK shows that:

Children of parents who were involved with the school had fewer behavioural problems, better academic outcomes and were more likely to finish high school.

The more parents are seen by their children to be working in tandem with the school the more this reinforced the importance of learning to students.

The book argues that first and foremost, parents need to be seen to support the school. If teenagers receive conflicting messages from their parents about the school, then this will undermine the student’s approach and attitude to learning. This is not to say that you have to agree with everything we do as a school. If there is an issue then this should be made known in the appropriate context and forum. The bottom line is – how you speak about the school significantly impacts on your child’s perception of the school which influences their approach to learning.

The authors also outline how to support the school as a place of learning. Parents need to help students develop and sustain good habits and routines at home. Parents need to regularly discuss what students are learning – what they are learning about and how they are learning. As a parent, you don’t need to be the expert or have any or all of the answers; ideally students can teach you things that they have learned. This is empowering for the young person. The more a parent is involved, the more a student receives the message that learning is important.

Another finding of their research is that parental expectations have a significant impact on a child’s educational outcomes. They conclude:

If you expect your child to be a high performance learner, they can be. You don’t need to be highly paid and highly educated to have expectations, you just have to have them. And the research proves this rubs off on your children.

This confirms what many educators have known for a long time; that if a child is to be an effective learner it takes the efforts of both school and home, in unison, to achieve learning that will last a lifetime.

On the whole, in all my time at O’Connor I have found the vast majority of parents most supportive of the school and our values.

Staff Development Days 2019

We wish to advise parents/carers of the dates for staff development days for the remainder of the year.

Term 2 - Tuesday 11th June and Wednesday 12th June. The College will be closed as all staff will be attending the Systems Conference run by the Catholic Schools Office.

Term 3 - Monday 22nd July. The Library will be open for senior students wishing to study.

Term 4 - School concludes on Wednesday 18 December.

Thank you ..

For your ongoing support & Cooperation

Simon Fleming

A.P