Navigating Middle School: A Parent Evening on School Policies, Expectations, and Social Development.
On Thursday we had the great pleasure to have 80% attendance in our Grade 6 Parent Evening. We hosted the evening to give parents, our Grade 6 homeroom teachers - Ms. Jacky, Ms. Urte and Ms. Seodhna, Ms. Sharon, our School Nurse and Counsellor and Ms. Ruth, the Middle School Coordinator, an opportunity to get to know each other and to talk about Middle School “things”.
Grade 6 is the start of Middle School and the start of many changes and sometimes challenges that come with puberty, social and emotional changes as well as physical changes. These changes and challenges can result in situations among kids that are difficult to navigate and that need support from home as well as school.
We appreciate the openness and candid questions from parents to help WIS become better at what we do. Particularly at this stage in young people’s lives, it is of critical importance that conversations happen at home - in the family as well as between the home and school to ensure we know each others’ approaches and to flag anything that is of concern or worry. In our meeting on Wednesday, we were happy to have these open conversations, answer questions from parents and give some guidance on some of the developmental topics that will become important during these years of growth. Ms. Janine Deselaers from the WIS Parent Network created a slide presentation Resources for Middle School Students and Their Parents with a lot of wonderful information - videos, podcasts, books, websites for teenagers and parents and much more. Feel free to browse this resource and add comments to add to this. We would love for an interactive process with this resource to make it more collaborative for everyone and create a bank of resources that can give guidance and advice to young people and adults (parents) through this slightly tumultuous time of their lives.
Most importantly, we all recognise that collaboration and conversations are critical to ensure that our children can be safe and happy - at home as well as in school. Have conversations around the dinner table to address “issues” personally, developmentally and academically with your child. Janine kindly also started a conversation starter document: Questions and Conversation Starters for Parents of Tweens and Teens that has great suggestions for conversations at home that can be meaningful and strengthen trust, confidence and independence in your children. Have conversations with your child’s teachers to ensure you have the connections with school that will facilitate a positive and constructive partnership between the school and home.
Thank you to all who attended the evening. The large attendance was testimony to the desire of parents and the school to work together to make our children’s lives beautiful and make them strong, caring, fair and compassionate young people who will be able to stand up for themselves and for those around them to make this world a better place.
We look forward to continued conversations and the next opportunity to meet and get to know each other and our children. HERE is the presentation from the parent evening for your perusal.
Maggie Reiff
Secondary Principal and Career Guidance Counsellor
A heads up for Grade 7 and 8 parents We will be hosting similar parent events for Grades 7 & 8 in January. Tentative dates:
We would appreciate a similar attendance of parents at these parent evenings to ensure that we prioritise the conversations for our children. |
 Feedback to students and parents Having had the opportunity to attend this conference, I came away with some strong messages from universities across the world that I would like to share with parents and students. The competitiveness and rigour of university admissions is something we don’t always realise fully due to our remote location here in Namibia. This can result in our students not being proactive enough and prepared well enough when applying to university and not getting the best footing with their applications. I would like to invite all parents - Grade 9 - 12 (Grade 8 parents are also welcome to attend) to a conversation about preparing for universities and the processes of applying on Thursday, 30 November 2023 From 17:30 - 18:30 In the WIS Staff Room |