LESSON 9 PRACTICE

PARENTS ASSOCIATION

In practice 9 we had to analyze the functioning of a parents ’association, I found it very curious and interesting. More or less I knew the functions due to my aunt was the president of the association of fathers and mothers of my school.

The parents association is very important in school because they are all interested in the and education of their children. Furthermore, families can work together with the school administration and assume their share of responsibility in the educational community.

We have selected the parents association at the European School in Alicante,  in this parents association you can find many families of different origins but united in diversity and a common concern for excellence.
This video is an example of a parent association from a school called St George, encompasses all parents and guardians of boys attending the School.

1.-What regulations govern the functioning of these associations?

According to BOE,  the regulations that govern the functioning of the associations are written in Royal Decree 1533/1986, of July 11, which regulates the associations of parents of students.

Article 5 of Organic Law 8/1985, of July 3, regulating the Right to Education, guarantees the freedom of association of parents of students by submitting to a subsequent regulation the regulation of the specific characteristics of said associations. Therefore, this Royal Decree comes to comply with said legal provision, dictating in accordance with the authorization granted to the Government by the first final provision of the aforementioned Organic Law.

The main points of the LODE referred to the associations are:

·         Freedom of association of all parents of students

·         Possibility of creating federations and confederations

·         Participation in the School Board

By virtue of it, at the proposal of the Minister of Education and Science, prior report of the National Council of Education it agrees with the State Council after deliberating of the Council of Ministers at its meeting on July 11, 1986.

2.-In which school bodies do they participate?

As they say in their own web page, there are many families of different origins but united in diversity and a common concern for excellence. As a result, they take part in the school council, where they expose, their own opinion about the issues related to the school canteen, buses and extracurricular activities.

They can take part in all these matters, thanks to LODE, which is the first organic law that treats associations as organizations recognized by the educational field, there is even talk that the director of the center should facilitate the integration of said association.

3.-What type of activities do they usually propose?

The parents association of the European School of Alicante is responsible for the management of three basic services in the life of the students:

§  Canteen: their priority is the health of their children. They collaborate with their external providers to ensure high quality standards with fresh products cooked in the kitchen. They remain very vigilant and listen to parents and children’s opinions.

§  School Buses: their priority is to ensure both safety and punctuality in comfortable buses, to make the ride to school an enjoyable moment.

§  Extracurricular Activities: on Wednesday and Friday afternoons, after lunch, primary school children can register to a selection of activities, have fun and learn new things: dance (so that students can express their creativity), music, sports, chess, cooking classes.

In addition,  the parents association also has specific working groups to meet certain needs.

§  Eureka: Management of lost items at school.

§  Interparents: Improving school condition and sharing knowledge and know how with other European School’s Parents’ Associations. The interparents group also follows the BAC in real time.

§  Swaps: Coordinate student exchanges between the different European schools.

In addition, a series of working groups exist to meet the specific needs of families and students in order to promote a better environment. Among these groups you will find: the Coexistence Group, the Communication Group, Springfest, … etc. EVERYONE can actively take part in these groups, based on their interests and availability.

The European schools offer the opportunity to exchange school students. For the Alicante school, the student exchange programme is available to 4th and 5th year secondary students. The team works closely with the school administration and educational advisory team to ensure that the exchange programme students are well taken care of during their exchange in Alicante. Their role is to search and select a host family for students coming on an exchange to Alicante.

The AMPA Exchange Team will be happy to assist students who have been accepted on an exchange to the European School of Alicante, to find a host family during their exchange period.

This activity can develop the socialisation in the students of different cultures, the learning of many languages, how to respect  people of a different race, debate about the current issues of each society and discover their customs and traditions. To sum up, it is a one and only experience for them.

Another activity that some schools are doing with AMPA is trying to increase the relationship between their students by organizing a collective snack in the schools’ playground giving their students some baked goods and some milk-shakes and juices.

This activity makes students feel better with their own and enjoying an afternoon with all their mates favoring the friendship between students.

4.-What are the advantages and disadvantages of being part of these associations?

There are many advantages of being part of these associations,

The main positive aspects are the activities and services that they offer. These were explained in the previous questions.

One advantage would have to be ‘relating to your child’. Taking an interest in your child's education can be a great way of showing interest in and relating to your child. The generation gap, along with differences is personality and preferences could potentially serve to make your child feel isolated but being an active part of their educational process could help to close that isolation gap and bring a stronger bond between you and your child. Your child will take notice of this and, even if they don't vocalize it, he will more than likely be thankful that you care so much.

Another advantage would have to be the ‘self esteem, motivation and behaviour? That is given. Parents who play an active role in the education of their child will have greater opportunities to motivate their children to behave more and strive for greatness. Self esteem may rise as a result of positive reinforcement that they may not be getting at school. An involved parent will also know when his child is misbehaving and be able to correct the problem before it gets out of hand and becomes a regular habit. With proper parental involvement, a child is less likely to feel the need to lash out and misbehave for much needed attention; they'll already be getting attention in a much healthier way.

On the other hand, we found to disadvantages. The first one is that you are not a teacher. Although you may have the best intentions in mind when attempting to take an active part in your child's education, you must also realize that you are not a teacher. Unless you've got a teaching degree and are familiar enough with the subject matter to honestly teach it, you may be harming your child's learning process. Sometimes parents, though misunderstanding, give their children false information that could make it more difficult for children to learn certain subjects. While helping them on their homework isn't going to lead them astray, there's a reason the school hired teachers; it's their job to do the teaching.

The other disadvantage is the social growth. Apart from the actual learning aspect, the social aspect and routine of school greatly help to shape a child into the adult they will become. Though you obviously love your child, it is important for her to spend time away from you to learn how to develop on her own so she can become her own person instead of an indoctrinated copy of her parents. Spending too much time with your child in this aspect could lead to an unhealthy attachment to the parent. It's important for children to learn independence; it will help them later in life when the time comes to leave the nest and become their own people. A child too attached to his parents may have more difficulty completing this crucial step of becoming an adult

5.- According to your experience, how could this association be improved?

In our opinion, this association could be improved in certain aspects.  If the school adopts a collaborative culture, based on the organisation’s collective learning, with objectives shared by the whole community, parents could participate in more school decisions. For example, parents would also be in charge of choosing how to structure the week of activities that the school organises and they will participate in the creation of these activities.

To execute this, we think it would be a great idea to hold events such as sports day (where they try many sports and participate in an obstacle course), international day (where they can bring food from their own country) and book day (where we can hold a small theatre where many students participate and talk about interesting books).

We also proposed to adopt a distributed leadership; this would be reflected as a small change in the way that the commitment leads involving all members of the community asking questions like: “What can the school council do to improve their action? What can the director do to improve?”. 

This idea is to provide resources that encourage participation; some teachers should be able to devote some time to participation-related issues within their working hours.

Parents, as far as we are concerned, should be able to have a say in the election of school uniforms, the christmas activities and the end of concerts.

To sum up, we think that the direct relation between the parents and teachers should be implemented, to ensure a better relationship which leads to a better education for students.