Pippa Dowle, Judy Saunders, Theresa Westwood, Robin de la Forrest, Aude Ramon, Liza Bortz, Takako Maddux, Marie-Cecile Antonelli, Sarah Bentley, Christina Bayly, Gillie Brown, Louise McCorkell, Kerry Giroud (Absent: Julie Khoueiry, Leigh Montillot)
Contact Parents have been put in place in primary school (CP to CM2) and now throughout Collège starting in the Fall 2011. We are here mainly to help the integration of new families and provide a point of contact for all parents. We realise that many new families are coming to live in a new country and that the children are joining a new system and language of education. All Contact Parents have been well established in France for a number of years and can help new families with all those niggling questions about life at the school.
Why do we have Contact Parents?
Contact parents are there to improve communication between the section, the association and parents and to provide a point of contact for parents on non-pedagogical questions, contact parents have been put in place at each level in the primary school (CP to CM2), and -starting in school year 2011-12- all throughout Collège.
We also help with the integration of new families. New families can find the process of integrating a new country and a new education system very daunting. The contact parents are there to help newcomers understand life at the school and integrate well into the local environment.
Who are we?
Each year has two contact parents. They are volunteers and unlike the members of the committee of the Parent Association, are not elected. Each contact parent operates for a given level for the whole academic year. They have experience of the school and knowledge of the local environment. They are there to give informal support and advice on pastoral issues for the most part.
Specific Functions :
- Welcoming new parents by establishing contact, introducing themselves and making themselves available to help. They are introduced to the new families by the Director of the Section before the summer by e-mail and introduced to the new parents at the Induction meeting for new families at the beginning of the school year.
- Establishing of an address list (email and phone) and distributing this address list to all parents of their level
- Being a point of contact : contact parents have a meeting with the head of the section and the team of Contact Parents once a term.
- Organising get togethers for parents and pupils of each class. Welcome coffee mornings, afternoon teas, pot luck lunches, picnics to close the school year: each year organises its own events as it sees fit.
- Putting parents in touch with those responsible for different groups (eg Social Activities) ; relaying information from the organisers of Section Activities (yearbook, Sports Day, International Fair, Skating Party, etc).