The growth of students is not only the responsibility of schools and teachers, but also cannot be achieved without the support of home education. Effective home-school communication can bring parents and teachers closer together and help to improve the effectiveness of home-school co-education. In order to better communicate with parents and facilitate the formation of a close-knit school community, LEH Foshan is committed to building effective channels of communication between home and school.
We have invited our Headteacher, Mrs Jane Arden, to share with us the importance of home-school communication and listen to our parent voices.
Our Headteacher Mrs Jane Arden has over 20 years’ experience in education, and prior to this role at LEH, she has spent over 5 years working at top international schools in China as founding Deputy Principal, Director of Teaching and Learning, Head of Academics and Head of English. Under her leadership, her schools achieved outstanding IGCSE and A level results. Jane has also worked as Assistant Principal examiner for AQA English language.
Building a strong relationship
A school is a community, and therefore functions best when there is a strong relationship between the family and the school. Parents might not understand everything that happens on a daily basis in a school but if they feel they can ask questions and are listened to, positive relationships are established which support the students’ education. When the school and parents demonstrate our core values, it highlights to the students that their parents and teachers are trusted role models.
Fostering Effective communication
Listen to parents’ feedback and address any concerns they might have is key to a school healthy development.
At LEHF, we use a variety of methods to communicate with parents such as direct emails, WeChat posts, regular seminars, workshops and Coffee Afternoons; these are weekly session where parents from a specific year group can meet with the Headteacher and other members of the academic team to discuss their child’s progress and discuss prevalent topics such as IGCSE choices, get to know parents from their year group, or simply learn more about the school programmes and how a child is settling into life at LEHF.
Every week we publish a newsletter which celebrates the week, gives important dates or upcoming events, it also acts as a “go to” document, so parents always know where to find key information. Our Parent Committee act as a bridge between the school and parents and does a great job of supporting our ever growing community. We use email as our central form of communication. By having just one method of communication, there is no confusion and parents know they can always contact a teacher and receive a prompt response. We also invite our parents to Parent Teacher Conferences throughout the year to discuss their child's academic progress.
Every child in the school is allocated to a House, each Housemaster will keep a keen eye on the pastoral wellbeing of a student along with their academic progress. Within each House are Form tutors. The form tutor should always be the first point of contact with the school. They are always available to meet or to answer an email. The relationship between a student and a form tutor is a very supportive and central role to the pastoral care system offered at the LEHF.
At the beginning of the term, we invited parents to share their experiences and their child's progress at LEH Foshan. Let’s listen to what parents said.
My first impression of the school was very good. From the introduction of the school group to the staff, the headteacher and the philosophy of the school. The spirit of the students was very good and I felt that my children would be very happy studying here.
LEH London has a history of 300 years and is ranked in the top 10 secondary schools in the UK, and I saw that the students have high IGCSE scores and perform very well at A Level.
The academic standards are very high and the learning atmosphere is very good. Students are offered a broad curriculum , teachers encourage them and they become more confident so that they can develop their strengths.
What has changed since your child joined LEH Foshan?
Academically, there has been a noticeable improvement in maths and English, she is much more interested in science than before, she has improved in these subjects and she is very happy with herself and feels very encouraged. She wants to make progress herself, rather than being pushed by others, which is the most important element for students to develop in their education. Her personality is much more mature than before and she has learnt to be self-reflective and find ways to improve herself academically and personally, which is the most rewarding aspect.
Academic refinement and personal improvement. She told me that she is the only junior student representative in the student council and can represent the junior students to reflect their suggestions, so I think she has improved a lot in her personality.
Simon is more confident, energetic, has made new friends and will follow the example of his good friends. He has been more diligent in practising his piano and has gone from preparing for Grade 5 to preparing for Grade 8 in his playing. It is the school environment that has given him the internal drive and motivation to do so. Treating people and expressing himself more confidently in public and participating more actively in school activities, his brother has been able to express himself more easily since coming here.
Please tell us how the teachers at LEH Foshan help children to develop better
The teachers use ECA time to help students understand problems in depth, evening study time, and private time at weekends or before and after exams to help students with their tuition.
Sometimes the teachers offer one-to-one help to him. They go above and beyond because they care about the individual student.
The teachers were very good at guiding the children, both in terms of teaching methods and the school's IT software, and the school's teaching academic support system is very good so that the children know how to achieve their goals.
Please tell us what you think of your child's boarding experience at school
She has learned how to live on her own, take care of herself, become independent and learn to communicate with people. I believe she has gained a lot from this year and it has been a worthwhile experience.
She has adapted well to the purely British boarding experience and her sense of responsibility and independence has been greatly enhanced within a short amount of time.
Now he's more and more independent at home. He's doing his things, he's arranging his room, he's packing his things before. Now, he organises himself, I do not have to do it for him.
This Friday, LEH Foshan held a welcome party for parents of new students to help them integrate into the LEH Foshan community and share with each other interesting stories about the school and their children's development.
In the meantime, there are many activities for parents to get involved in such as a Winter Fair which is coming soon and our first ever school musical, The Wizard of Oz. Parents are very welcome to sign up as volunteers to support the school through the Parent Committee.
