A child's development is a systemic project, with a focus on food, clothing, housing, academic development, dealing with people and life wisdom ...... Countless challenges and problems will follow. In order to maintain this ‘growth project’ parents and the school must cooperate with each other as close and tacit “partners” on this journey.
A home partnership model that brings together strengths, communication, common ground while reserving differences, in order to make continuous progress will give children the strength to look to the future and the motivation to reach for the stars.
Inaugural Meeting
of the First PSG
In the eyes of educators, the answer to 1 plus 1 does not only equal 2, but sometimes it can equal more than 2, such as the strength assembled by a strong home-school connection.
With a keen sense of education and a strong focus on close communication and cooperation between home and school, the school has put on the agenda the task of establishing the first PSG of Ardingly College Zhongshan (Kindergarten), which means that we will work with parent representatives who share the same ambitions and aspirations to develop the guidelines for the PSG and to lead the future development of all our children.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
The first Ardingly College Zhongshan(Kindergarten) Parent Support Group (PSG) consists of eight members of the school management team and teachers as well as nine parent representatives. The PSG aims to achieve the common educational goal of deeply accompanying children's growth and supporting their development by continuously promoting and optimising the communication and cooperation between home and school.
The PSG is designed to provide a comprehensive and supportive network to serve students and their parents in a holistic manner by integrating quality resources and developing social channels, in addition to providing a high degree of transparency and addressing the concerns of different families.
In order to help the PSG members grow and work together better, Hannah, the Head of Early Years and Dr. Colby, Head of Lower School shared the latest developments happening at school. From being the first kindergarten in China to sign a strategic partnership with the Tianjin Juilliard School, Our IB PYP Category 1 training for all teachers, Our CPR & AED first aid training, to the children's current stage of growth assessments, we believe that when the school, home and families have the same progress and knowledge, and can think about issues from different perspectives and provide innovative or creative ideas, it is the best way to help promote organic education and achieve co-parenting of home and school.
On the first day, Our PSG were presented with their first task. As the first field trip of Ardingly College Zhongshan (Kindergarten) was about to arrive, teachers who had a lot of teaching experience but were new to Zhongshan had to keep searching for ideas and thoughts such as venue selection. With the addition of parent representatives, we were able to brainstorm a bunch of great ideas.
What was even more pleasing than these ideas was the generosity of each of the new PSG members, their strong sense of responsibility and the small details that can only be identified from a parent's perspective.
The First IB
Parent Workshop
You may not understand the origins of your child's curiosity and desire to learn, or don’t have a clear answer to the "world" they see, but we believe that by learning together and educating together, we can help you, as parents, to better understand the whims and fancies of your child's development and support them on their future learning journey. The workshop will be conducted by our IB PYP Coordinator Caroline.
The workshop was led by Caroline, our Lower School IB PYP Coordinator. She first helped parents to redefine the direction of their children's education through the three key phrases "Strong Academic Focus, Virtues Focused, Overall Expectation Orientated", followed by a fun and interactive game to help parents to quickly familiarise themselves with the origin of IB, its mission statement, The IB curriculum and IB learner development goals in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. The objectives of IB learner development.
In my opinion, the IB parents workshop has greatly facilitated the connection between home and family, and the topics that connected the IB philosophy with the developmental trajectory of the children have given parents a clearer understanding and blueprint of IB education and their children's education. Some of the parents who were troubled by the issues at hand were also able to gain some inspiration from the sessions, which is something that we as educators are happy to see.
In the future, we hope to organize regular parent workshops and other talks and events to share our educational philosophy and ideas and form a closer learning and education community with parents to empower their children for tomorrow!
——Caroline
At Ardingly College Zhongshan(Kindergarten), we have always been highly supportive of meaningful parental involvement. In our view, each parent plays a vital role in the growth of a child, and the development of a parent learning community provides a platform for reciprocal communication between us, as well as stimulating higher order thinking and models of education.
If we are able to communicate closely and support each other, our children will be able to confidently live out their wildest dreams.
