On Friday 19 October three CSPV members attended the first of a series of seminars centred around family engagement.The seminar was hosted by John Stafford, Kaylene McKay, Cindy Bohan and Gillian Baxter whom have all worked in family engagement in children's learning.

The seminar was an invitation to those who are interested in meeting and engaging with others who share a passion for family engagement, to join together to create a community to ignite a commitment to growing this work and sharing with each other examples of good practice. 

The two speakers on the day presented two quite different perspectives of what it means to include families on the education journey with their children. The first presentation explored the use of technology as a means of communicating learning with families. Gill Baxter, Cluster Engagement Leader along with Mareta, the Family Engagement in Learning Leader from St Paul’s Primary School in Sunshine, discussed the use of See-saw as a means of communication of learning with parents.

The discussion was around how teachers use the app as a tool that has a purpose and an outcome. The tool is widely used but not necessarily in a strategic way with intention to improve learning outcomes for children. Whilst the tool has proven to be great for parents who can now see their children’s learning in progress, the research project explores further, strategies around understanding the purpose of sharing learning with families and working through a process to understand how to use these tools more effectively.

The second presentation by Principal of Willaura Primary School, Tammie Meehan explored an intuitive leadership style of developing learning opportunities in the community with students. Tammie discussed how building authentic relationships with people in the community has led to understanding the resources available to the school and how to work together to provide enriching learning experiences for the children.

The children were exploring the history of Willaura and they were given the opportunity to meet with elderly members of the community, to interview them and design their own interactive presentation. They developed their own ‘white night’ light show and displays in the town and invited the community for a viewing of their show. They also experienced a walk through the township to learn about the history of the township and farming community and finished with an overnight camping trip. The whole experience was so engaging for them in learning about the history of their community then sharing their learning with the people of the town.

The presentation highlighted how there is a flow on effect when we get creative and draw on those people around us for inspiration. One idea leads to another and the intuitive leadership style enables this when we are open to new opportunities and experiences and making them happen for students. 

For further information about future seminars, please contact John Stafford at jstaffo27@gmail.com