‘FAMILIES AS PARTNERS IN LEARNING’
TRANSCRIPT
26.08.2010

OPENING GRAPHIC ON SCREEN:
Dept of Education and Early Childhood Development
FAPIL
Families as Partners in Learning
24.8.10

GRAPHIC ON SCREEN:
Working in partnership with families
Creating meaningful conversations
www.education.vic.gov.au/about/directions/familiesaspartners/

AUDIO 00:19	Female VO	
Schools and families share the same goal – to provide the greatest opportunity for children to thrive and succeed.
From their first day at kindergarten to their final day at secondary school, families have a significant influence on their child’s learning. 
Research shows that when schools and families work together, they improve learning and development outcomes for all children, to help them achieve their full potential.

AUDIO	 00:42 	John O’Meara, Principal, Yea High School	
Working with families is really important because it actually creates a number of protective things around kids and actually boosts their performance.

AUDIO	 00:51	Teresa Stone, Principal, Derrimut Primary School
Working with families is really important in terms of having that connection between what we do at school and what we do at home. It’s really important for children to know that adults care about their learning.

AUDIO 01:03	John O’Meara
We do a number of things to encourage families to participate in their child’s learning. We have a teacher who is a teacher advisor who works with about 14-17 kids in a group, and their role is really to get to know the kids really well and to get to know their families really well.
They make contact with the families within the first three weeks of school starting, and the conversation goes along the lines of tell us about your child, tell us what they’re good at, tell us how they learn best, support the learning plan that’s built with the parents and to also work through to  student led conferences on exhibition where again the parents are being involved.

AUDIO 01:42	Dad
Yeah it’s refreshing to have a real ongoing conversation with the teacher and not just when there is a problem

AUDIO	 01:48	Mum
It’s great that the teachers call or email me to find out about my son and maybe ask me some questions about what his strengths and his weaknesses are, things he might like doing, things he might not be so good at

AUDIO	 01:59	Teresa Stone
We build relationships with families by opening the school up through activities like welcome bbq’s, science and maths nights, student led conferences and daily interaction with teachers being available

AUDIO 02:13	Mum
My parents help me out a lot and it’s great that the staff at school acknowledge how important they are in my son’s life and how grandparents can support learning outside of the school.

AUDIO	 02:24	Teresa Stone
We are a multicultural community and we break down the barriers to the communication that that presents by working with interpreters and translating important documents

AUDIO 02:37	Carolyn Bamberg, Teacher, Yea High school
We keep families informed of their child’s learning through a variety of mediums, all about giving feedback so whether it’d be through phone calls, through emails, through the website, through wiki’s or through the school newsletter

AUDIO 02:50	Mum
My son’s teacher highlighted some of the good things we were doing at home and connected this to the classroom activities. Some other things she suggested we could do as a family together were things like measuring, basic cooking, rhyming, reading, checking the dictionary even doing things like walking home from school and looking at letterbox numbers – very simple things.

AUDIO 03:15	Teresa Stone
We’ve created a family friendly environment by taking into account what would be important for you to feel happy for you to leave your child here in our care.

AUDIO	 03:26	Carolyn Bamberg
We understand that not everybody has had a positive memory of schooling and so it’s really about accommodating for that and making the parent feel as comfortable as possible.

AUDIO 03:37	John O’Meara
By providing families with opportunities to participate and be engaged with their child’s learning, we’ve found that they’ve got more capacity to support their children at home and also understand more about what’s happening in school

AUDIO 03:49	Carolyn Bamberg
Through the changes that we have implemented it’s really rewarding to see families more engaged in their child’s learning and students responding positively to that.

AUDIO 03:59	Child 1 – Girl Primary School
Well it makes me feel really happy that my mum wants to know what I’m doing and that she can help me if I don’t know it and I can help her if she doesn’t know what  it is

AUDIO 04:07	Child 2 – Girl High School
Yeah it just feels really good that they’re there to talk to you and that they understand what we are talking about

AUDIO 04:12	Child 3 – Boy Primary School
I feel really special because I have my dad there to help me along the way

AUDIO 04:17	John O’Meara
I think we have gained a much greater appreciation of the diversity of the families out there and the sorts of skills and capacities that they have to contribute to supporting their children.
Building strong links between families and schools is really really important in terms of building positive outcomes for students, and really it’s not rocket science

AUDIO 04:39	Teresa Stone
It’s about building respectful relationships where parents can feel that they have a connection and an interest and a part in their child’s learning

AUDIO 04:48	John O’Meara
So for all of us it’s really about getting together and giving each child the best possible they can have in life

AUDIO 04:55	Female VO
Ask yourself about the opportunities that exist to build relationships with families and what barriers you might encounter. 
And the tools and case studies listed on this “Families as Partners in Learning” website can help you answer these questions.

CLOSING GRAPHIC
www.education.vic.gov.au/about/directions/familiesaspartners/

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