Engaging Parents and Community Partners for Post-HBL Conversation during Mid-Year Staff Meeting

Contributed by LUIS TIRTASANJAYA LIOE, NG CHUEN-YIN, LIU SHIUEH LING

Present Situation:

During Circuit Breaker, the whole nation was conditioned to embrace a new way of living. For staff and teachers, we also needed to learn working from home, where personal, social and professional lines were intertwined and we learned how to manage our different roles as parents, teachers, family members differently in a more confined space. In terms of professional line, we also had to embrace new ways to performing our role, both in teaching and administrative. We recognised that it was important to learn from one another and also learned from the perspectives of people in other profession, including those in business and community and with parents, so that we can use those lenses and perspectives to understand education better.

Improvement:
The organising team for the Staff Meeting (Mdm Ng, Dr Liu, and Luis) planned to invite parents and community partners and engaged staff in groups to have conversation with them to understand their perspectives and their stories. The experience was refreshing as all the speakers offered fresh perspectives of their roles, as well as the growth in appreciation to what our teachers have done during HBL that offers possible ideas for further collaboration. This model of conversation also gives ideas for future PD engagement where partnering with parents and community partners become key to our holistic approach in educating our students.