Blue Hills Elementary School, Parent and Family Engagement Policy
At Blue Hills Elementary, we gather input and agreement of parents to the School, Parent and Family Engagement policy through a written parent and family engagement plan that outlines how collectively the school will support the important roles families play in the education of their children.
Parent engagement at Blue Hills is defined as parents and staff working together to support and improve learning, development and health of children. We understand, practice and support shared responsibility. Blue Hills seeks and obtains the agreement of the plan through a Parent/Student/Teacher Compact.
A PTO meeting is held every year in September to review the compact and give feedback. The Title 1 teacher and Administration explain the compact and receive feedback from all involved parties. Parents at the PTO meeting provide input about family engagement activities.
Once approved the compact is sent home for all Blue Hills parents to review. Parents provide input about family school engagement activities through Seesaw, surveys and face to face communication. Parent surveys are sent out in the first quarter and the information from parents is used by the building leadership team and Blue Hills Staff to guide decision making and formulate building goals. The plan is reviewed again in spring to validate goals.
Blue Hills communicates through Seesaw and the Bulldog Bulletin which is emailed to families every Sunday afternoon. Every Monday, Blue Hills participates in "Seesaw Monday.” Every grade level and specialty area send home an informative bulletin that contains curriculum, instruction and assessment that is covered in class. Throughout the week examples of activities, student work samples, and formative assessments are shared in the weekly bulletin. Seesaw has transformed parents' knowledge of learning taking place and learning activities occurring in the building.
Throughout the year, parents are kept up to date on building goals. During PTO meetings, parents are given the opportunity to provide feedback on those goals. At building events and for our annual review process, a Title 1 specific survey is sent home and parents are given the opportunity to give feedback on the program. Building goals and progress toward those goals are shared frequently at PTO meetings, Seesaw, Blackboard/Parent Link and the BH website. Information about the Tile 1 program can be found in the district newsletter (monthly) and student handbooks that parents sign off on upon enrolling their child. In addition, our building and district websites contain information on the Title 1 program as well as specific information about the school’s building goals.
Blue Hills hosts curriculum nights at the beginning of the school year. At these curriculum nights, staff provide an explanation of grade level curriculum, instruction and assessment. Blue Hills staff communicate educational expectations at the beginning of the school year. Additionally, our teachers kick off the year at the first PTO meeting reviewing our educational compact and instructional goals of the school year. Throughout the year and at parent functions the staff tie curriculum objectives to all parent programs that are hosted. MAP scores are sent home to parents with a guide on how to interpret scores. Every Monday parents receive a copy of the week's I can statements. This helps parents know exactly what students are working on during their time at Blue Hills.
It is important to us to jointly develop, with parents, the School-Parent Compact. Parents will be responsible for:
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providing a quiet place to do homework.
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spending at least 20 minutes reading with your child each day.
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communicating often with the teacher.
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reading the information your child brings home from school.
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checking your child's backpack each night.
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making sure your child has his/her backpack to start each day.
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making reading a happy parent/child bonding experience.
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making sure the chromebook is kept safe and charged at night.
The team provides high quality curriculum and instruction in a supportive and effective learning environment. We will fulfill that responsibility through:
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teaching necessary skills/concepts
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be aware and responsive to the needs of each child
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regularly communicate with parents and/or guardians
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provide work/strategies that can be practiced at home
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hold parent-teacher conferences
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be available to parents through phone, email, notes, etc.
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provide a Chromebook and a charger
We will ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school, parents and the community to improve student academic achievement, the school will provide assistance to parents as appropriate in understanding the Missouri Learning Standards, The Missouri Assessment Program, local assessments, how to monitor a child’s progress and how to work with the school team to improve the achievement of their children. The team will provide assistance by:
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Keeping parents informed during curriculum nights on the ways to stay involved in their child’s learning progress.
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Reviewing MAP scores with parents during Fall conferences.
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Sharing assessment information frequently.
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Communicating with parents through the Bulldog Bulletin and Seesaw.
Parents can find resources in a variety of ways, including digital resources for reading and math instruction, which are reviewed with parents at conferences. Access to those programs are available from home. Through homework, parents can get additional information on specific skills and teachers communicate through weekly newsletters. We offer fun family engagement nights for reading, math and science which parents can find additional tools to practice at home.
Our Title 1 teacher meets with our most struggling readers and communicates frequently to give instructional materials and how to use those resources along with goals and progress updates. Mid-Continent also works with our Blue Hills students to ensure that every student has a library card. We invite Mid-Continent Public Library to our parent nights so they can talk about the programs they offer.
Blue Hills has a very supportive WEB of Support/RTI process. Our WEB of support team meets twice a month to look at student data and plan interventions and strategies to support students. We consistently monitor our Tier 1 instruction and spend time planning to support students in small groups or one-on-one.
The team will receive professional development regarding best practices when working with parents. Staff are trained in a variety of ways to communicate with families and understand the importance of two-way communication. Administration expects frequent parent communication and follows up on staff communication with parents. Staff are given support and training on how to conduct traditional and student- led conferences.
The school team partners with other organizations within the school and community to improve student academic achievement. Efforts to coordinate and integrate include partnering for student support through the LINC program and the school social worker. The LINC program connects the community to our families through outreach programs both at evening and weekend times, as well as serving food with weekly Harvester's food packs. Swope Medical group provides a yearly dental van to provide services. All programs at Blue Hills are designed to support students and encourage parent involvement.
To ensure effective involvement of parents and to support a partnership among the school, parents and the community to improve student academic achievement the team will receive necessary literacy training from Title I funds if the local educational agency has exhausted all other reasonably available sources of funding for literacy training. We will work to train parents to enhance the involvement of other parents, arrange school meetings at a variety of items or conduct in-home conferences between teachers or other educators who work directly with participating children, with parents who are unable to attend conferences at school in order to maximize parental involvement and participation.
The parent advisory council, Fort Forward, will serve as the district parental involvement committee regarding Title I programs. This council will not only provide opportunity for two way conversation but will also provide opportunity to develop appropriate roles for community based organizations and businesses in parent involvement activities.
In carrying out the parent and family engagement requirements of the Title I Program, we will, to the extent possible, provide opportunities for the informed participation of parents and family members including parent and family members who have limited English proficiency, with disabilities and of migratory children. We will also provide information and school reports in a format and in a language parents understand.
