Roots & Wings Montessori School
PARENT
HANDBOOK
2016-17
Sullivan Square Heritage Home Hazelmere School
(Main Office) 15250 54A Ave 20315 16Ave
#101-15295 #10 Hwy Surrey, BC V3S 6T4 Langley, BC V2Z 1W5
Surrey, BC V3S 0X9
Phone: 604-510-2588 Fax: 604-584-0390 www.rootsandwingsbc.com
Mission
To create a community to enable children to honour and respect their innate goodness, their joy in learning and their responsibility as caring global citizens
and stewards of the earth.
Purpose
Roots & Wings Montessori Place is dedicated to providing an optimum school environment based on Montessori’s philosophy of individualized education of the whole child, ethically, socially, academically, physically, spiritually and creatively, thus enabling each to become a self-reliant, satisfied, confident and productive citizen.
Communication
Your child comes to us having already grown a great deal in your loving care. The time your child spends in school is still a relatively small proportion of her experience. You, her parents or guardians, are her greatest educators. Also influencing her may be other caregivers, teachers and staff, her peers and other family members. Because of the minimal amount of time spent at school, and particularly because the Montessori approach is still somewhat unique, it is important to your child’s progress that there be as much communication as possible amongst these influences.
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Tenets of Roots & Wings Montessori School
The staff at Roots & Wings Montessori believe and impart to the students that:
1. Every student is innately good, loving, motivated, intelligent, honest, happy, energetic and satisfied. Negatives drop off in the right atmosphere of thought.
2. Every individual deserves respect. Pursuit of one’s own happiness must not violate respect for others’ happiness.
3. There is greater satisfaction in serving others than in pursuing selfish goals, but self-care is a vital pre-requisite to ability to serve others..
4. Reverence for life is a key to being at peace. Intelligent, active, self-disciplined earth stewardship is vitally necessary to the progress and survival of our society, from our immediate environment to the whole earth.
5. Each student has a gift to contribute to humanity. Potential, whether intellectual, creative, spiritual, physical, social or ethical, is developed as one is empowered to be an independent thinker and doer.
6. One must develop the self-discipline to work diligently, to step outside one’s comfort zone and to make challenging goals, working systematically towards their achievement.
7. Thought determines experience, and it must be nourished positively and protected from whatever would hinder progress or health.
8. We aim for academic excellence. Students are educated through student engagement, by meaningful experience, creative and factual literature, purposeful experiment, useful memorization, research, especially self-motivated, thought-provoking discussion, peer to teacher mentoring, creative expression and problem-solving. A new step in learning follows mastery of the prerequisites.
9. Civilization progresses as we build on the experiences of our predecessors.
10. Mistakes are welcome in that their lessons are vital to our progress. Therefore challenges in whatever form are regarded as stepping-stones not stumbling blocks, projects not problems.
11. Everyone learns at an individual rate and in his or her own unique style. Learning is cooperative, and no one is superior or inferior to another.
12. Obedience to a leader is vital, but one always has the freedom to question the leader’s actions at an appropriate time.
It is helpful to understand the roles of each staff member involved with you and your children.
Directress/Director
Your child’s Directress is his or her prime guide to progress at school, including academic, social, emotional, ethical, artistic and physical learning. Discussion of any of these areas should be directly with the Directress. If you are not satisfied in these discussions, please speak to the Principal.
Each family is invited to meet with the Directress before the first day of school. This is a good time to clarify goals of each, to become aware of any challenges, and to take first steps in making the child comfortable in her new environment.
During the school year, there are two scheduled formal parent/teacher interviews: one at the end of November, the other usually in April. (Please refer to the school calendar for exact dates.) Elementary children will receive assessment reports prior to the interviews. Information exchanged during these interviews is vital to your child’s progress, and it is expected that all parents (hopefully Mum and Dad) will attend during the scheduled times, which are carefully planned to accommodate parents’ work hours. If it is absolutely impossible to attend these two interviews during the times allotted, it is expected that parents will schedule a different time. Your child may attend this interview if teacher and parent feel it is appropriate. The second elementary interview is student-led. Students, of course, do not attend school on parent/teacher interview days.
Parents should feel free, however, to contact the teachers at any time they feel a need. Don’t worry that your concern is too petty or not worth asking. Your satisfaction is important to us, so let us know and we will always try to give you the necessary attention. The most convenient time for this communication is usually after the class is dismissed; or send a note with your child; or simply leave a message with office staff and your call will be returned as soon as possible. Please avoid discussions with teachers just before classes begin, or during class time, as focus needs to be on the children at these times.
Principal
The Principal holds the vision for the school and ensures all aspects of our organization are in accord with the mission and purpose. She is responsible for overseeing the academic and curricular side of the school. She works with the vice-principal on budget, staffing, student placement and progress, assessment and reporting to parents, parent education, performances and special events. The Principal reports to the Board of Directors.
Vice-Principal
The Vice-Principal is responsible for the business aspects of the school, including budget, staffing, student placement and progress, assessment, parent education, liaison with all centres and staff, building and grounds maintenance and safety, and overall planning and organization. The Vice-Principal reports to the Principal.
Registrar
Our Registrar is often your first contact with our school. She will direct you to appropriate staff, and take care of registration procedures, including financial arrangements, bus scheduling, earthwear guidance and record-keeping. She coordinates promotion and fund-raising, and keeps records of volunteer hours for parents.
Role of the Parents
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Our school’s wealth is in ideas, and parents are some of the greatest contributors! Each of you has a unique experience and expression, which enables you to contribute a bouquet of complimentary ideas that bloom in every area of the school. Our suggestion box by the office is always open and eager for your thoughts, as well as any concerns.
Newsletters and bulletins are a prime avenue for parent/school communication. It is vital that you check your email at the end of each week, read the messages in detail, and immediately record on your calendar any necessary appointment or events. If you are not able to read these emails due to language or technology barriers, it is your responsibility to find someone who does receive them to communicate them to you. On our part, we try to make these messages and our newsletters as readable and interesting as possible. One copy is always placed in a binder in the foyer for your reference; as well, copies are available from our website, www.rootsandwingsbc.com, in PDF format.
In order for a child to fully benefit from our program, his or her parents must be informed about Montessori education. This encourages consistency of parent and teacher approach, as well as enabling mutual support. We continually assess the best way to meet this need, without making unreasonable demands on our busy parents. We hold parent information evenings each year, concerning all areas of the curriculum and Montessori philosophy as it relates to topics of interest to most parents, such as discipline, eating habits, sex education, etc. We work at constantly improving our presentations so that they are fun, as well as informative.
If you have not previously attended a session on the topic to be given, you are expected to attend. We are also exploring the possibility of creating video material on each topic, so that parents may borrow DVD’s for home viewing, although these can never equal the value of attending the meeting. Please consider this information seriously. Failure to keep informed may result in your child losing priority status in being accepted the following year.
Parent Library
We have a parent library, containing books by and about Montessori, regular NAMTA (North American Montessori Teachers’ Association) Journals and other books and periodicals that you may find interesting and helpful in understanding the philosophy of the school. We also welcome ideas on books you have found helpful that could be included in our library. The library is in the foyer and includes a sign-out book in which you can record books you borrow.
Volunteer Opportunities
A child’s experience at school is always enriched by his or her parent’s involvement, and it is expected that you will help out in some way each year. During your child’s first month here, you will pay a volunteer fee ($100). If you contribute 20 hours of volunteer time to the school during the year, you will not need to contribute this again next year, and in fact you will receive a refund of the volunteer fee when your child leaves the school. It is parents’ responsibility to record volunteer hours in the volunteer book in the office. This system seems to work very well to evenly distribute the work load.
Although it is not usually in the best interest of the children for you to participate in their classrooms during class times, a good opportunity for you to observe interaction of your child with his or her peers and teachers is if you drive a group on a field trip. We use our bus or van whenever possible, but sometimes it is important, especially at the primary level, to have more adults present, so we ask for volunteers. Parents seem to enjoy this participation and their children are usually proud to have them along! $1,000,000 liability is sufficient insurance coverage, but the school will pay for any necessary increase. You will be asked to fill out a form before driving, and to ensure all safety measures are provided.
Leisure Activities
We believe it’s important to provide children with leisure alternatives to electronic entertainment and to expand their leisure “bank” so that you will never again hear, “I’m bored!”. To this purpose, we invite parents to volunteer an hour to an hour and a half to share particular skills with a student or small group of students. The areas of interest are as broad as the interests of our parents, staff and friends. We believe every parent has at least one leisure skill which could be shared with from one to ten students (your choice of how many); so think about what you enjoy doing and consider this invitation. This could be a great way for you to contribute your volunteer hours per year. It is often a wonderful opportunity for senior citizens to become involved with children. It is helpful for us to know as soon as possible what and when you could contribute, but any time during the year that a new idea comes to you, please feel free!
Several times each year we try to plan opportunities for parents, relatives and friends of our students to get together with the staff and children. We require parent help for preparation of these events. We may also hold a work party one weekend during the year, and of course welcome as many helpers as can come. We can accomplish great things when we work together.
Some parents with fine-tuned artistic and accuracy skills help us to make materials – a never-ending task to fill the students’ infinite appetite for learning! If you have a particular skill or business that you believe could be useful for the school, (e.g. locksmith, plumbing, carpet-cleaning, etc.) please let us know and you may be able to use that as your volunteer contribution.
Another way to help out may be to phone other parents. Therefore, please let us know immediately if your phone number changes. Of course an even quicker method of communicating is through email, and 98% of our parents seem to subscribe to this method. However the phone is still sometimes necessary, as everyone doesn’t seem to check email daily.
Our website includes a Parent Page, which includes the Parent Handbook and the year’s calendar. It also gives you the opportunity to add comments, communicate concerns, ask questions and obtain the latest information on the bulletin board.
In summary, in order to best serve your children, we expect parents to be informed about Montessori education, to read the newsletters, attend parent meetings and to watch for opportunities to contribute in other possible ways, such as driving for field trips, sharing of interests, etc.
Parent Concerns
There may be occasions when you have concerns. It’s important to us that we address them. Classroom issues can be addressed directly with your child’s teachers. If you are not satisfied or if the issue concerns other aspects of the school, please arrange a meeting with the Head of Primary or with the Principal, and if you are still not satisfied, you can write to the Board of Directors. Your questions will always be acknowledged and responded to the best of our ability for your peace of mind.
Other Communication
Like all professionals, in order for our teaching staff to keep current with new ideas in education, to learn from other teachers, and most important, to maintain the wonderful unity and harmony that we so enjoy at our school, we need to have times to grow without the students. Apart from our weekly Staff Meetings and parent interview days, we have five professional development days each year. These days are used to visit other schools, attend conferences or to work together on a particular topic. Staff also use a great deal of their evening and week-end time attending conferences, embracing new ideas and preparing materials, but these five days are a time for us all to work together. Of course, students do not attend school on these days, but the daycare is available for primary children, and Out-of-School Care is available if there are enough interested. Please consult your school calendar for this year’s professional development dates.