Communication with parents new to a school

Hi readers!  Back from my time with my grandies.  Children are a wonder and so candid.  I asked my 10 year old grand daughter whether she thought I was old fashioned.  She said grandad I have to say that those sandals you wear are awful.

To my topic for today's post.  One of my grand children is starting a new school for 2018.  I was naturally curious about the curriculum the school would use so I went to the school website but could not find the answer.  The website consisted mainly of many encouraging statements about how the school would care for and educate its students. They were a bit flowery but okay.  So off I went to the federal government Myschool website on which details of each Australian school are registered.  Again my curriculum query was not answered.  I then went to the official Western Australian Education Department website and found the answer.

One element of my concern was that the school is an Independent Government Primary School and I wondered how much freedom the school had about the curriculum to use.  I discovered that Independent or not it was required to utilise the curriculum devised by the State Curriculum and Standards Authority. To my delight this curriculum is essentially the recently developed Australian National Curriculum (ANC) with some variations applied by the state of Western Australia.  In this blog I have commented often on how much I like the ANC.  I am not a fan of busy classroom teachers having to devise a curriculum.  This is a job for curriculum experts with the classroom professionals spending time together in each school making sure they are on the same page with their interpretations of the prescribed curriculum.

The school that my grand daughter will attend in 2018 would be well advised to include in its website general information for new parents about the curriculum to be used and how they might pursue further detail if they so desired.  I need to add that in speaking with a parent with children at that school with this parent going to be President of the Parents and Citizens group for that school during 2018, I discovered that there were plans to update the website.  I just happen to have this parent as a neighbour.

I don't intend to let the school know my views about new parents being informed as to the curriculum to be used, but will lobby through my neighbour to suggest the inclusion on the upgraded website.


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To all Christians out there I take this opportunity to wish you a blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year.  To all who respect the Christian celebration of Christmas, but for whom it does not have personal religious significance I wish you a prosperous New Year.

For whatever vacation period you have at this time of the year in the Northern and Southern hemispheres I wish you a relaxing time.  Spend it with your loved ones remembering that they are the  priority above all else.

May the Force be with you!

GD