Parent Involvement
The school's influence on a child's development will always be
secondary to that of the home. The hours spent at school are short
compared to those with the family. Since school and home must
provide consistency for the child's development, we believe school
and parents need to maintain close communication. An annual
required parent meeting is held for each classroom at the beginning
of the school year. At least one parent from each family is
expected to attend.
Parent understanding of and participation in the formal
schooling of their children is critical to its success. We work
hard to create a number of different opportunities to communicate
with parents and engage them in their child's schooling.
We encourage parents to observe their child's classroom and
other classrooms in the school. Throughout the school year,
classroom observation is both welcomed and encouraged. These visits
help parents learn more about their child, our classroom
environments, and the Montessori experience.
In addition to parent observations, special parent-child
evenings called Open Houses are held in the fall of each school
year. This provides an opportunity for the students to share their
school and the activities they do during the normal school day with
their families. As it is an important time for both parents and
children, we urge parent participation.
All Montessori families are encouraged to participate in at
least one committee or volunteer activity during the school
year.
The goal of MPATT is to support the parents, teachers, staff,
and administration of the Montessori School, to provide a framework
through which volunteer efforts can be organized and coordinated,
and to build and strengthen the community and school family.
Various parent education sessions are held throughout the year
and may include presentations, workshops or topic sessions. Faculty
and selected parents work hard to make these sessions engaging and
interesting. It is expected that all parents will be interested and
do all they can to attend these programs throughout the school
year. At the beginning of the school year parent education sessions
are designed to welcome each new and returning parent. All parents
are asked to attend all orientation and information sessions and
thus become better acquainted with philosophy and practice of
Montessori education, as well as the practices in their child's
classroom.