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Waverly Junior High School’s Parent / Family Involvement Policy This school’s parental involvement policy was developed and agreed upon by a committee made up of Waverly Junior High parents, teachers, and educational support professionals, as well as the principal, and community members. This policy will be reviewed annually and updated as appropriate to meet the changing needs of parents and the school. All comments, both positive and negative, expressed by the parents or staff will be forwarded to the Humphreys County Board of Education. This policy will be placed in the student handbook and distributed to each child enrolled at Waverly Elementary. A copy of this policy is available in each classroom. In an effort to develop and maintain meaningful communication with parents, the school sends home surveys and questionnaires with each student at the beginning of the school year. The school also relies on teacher referrals to identify students with disabilities, English Language Learners (ELL), migratory, or internally displaced persons (IDPs). Once these groups are identified their needs are defined through the services available by the State Department of Education and our local school system. Modifications are then made and each student’s progress is reviewed throughout the school year. If parents cannot read, write, or speak English, the teachers will present materials orally. All other information will be written in a language parents can understand and/or an interpreter will be provided if at all possible. Efforts are made to include parents with disabilities in all activities, as well. Various opportunities are offered to the parents in an effort to help them improve their child’s achievement such as: grandparent day, open house, Fourth Grade Parent Night, transition to Fourth Grade and visitation day, as well as other training designed to make parents full partners in the education of their children. Waverly Junior High will host an early registration in the spring of each year in order to provide a smooth transition into junior high school for all entering fourth grade students. The time and date will be announced in the local paper. To insure parents are kept informed of their child’s progress, teachers send home three week progress reports, six week report cards, standardized achievement test scores at the end of the year if they are available, and graded student work, as well as scores obtained on teacher made and/or textbook designed tests. Upon request, teachers will explain their curriculum, grading and discipline policies. In an effort to keep lines of communication open between home and school, all notes and/or phone calls which are received from parents will be answered that day or as soon as the family can be reached by phone or letter, and when necessary a meeting arranged. A minimum of two parent teacher meetings is held annually to discuss student progress. The administration and secretarial staff of Waverly Junior High makes every effort to schedule conferences with teachers and parents when it is most convenient for the parent, while protecting the integrity of instructional time. All parents and students are made aware of shared knowledge and resources here at Waverly Junior High School. This is done through the following means: a handbook for every child that each parent must sign, along with their student, that they have read and understand, the school website (www.waverlyjuniorhigh.com) that contains events, schedules, forms and other items crucial to student success, advertisements in the newspaper, and newsletters from many teachers, to name a few. The school makes parents aware of services available in our county such as: the GED program, educational classes held at the community college and preschools offered at Waverly Elementary for at-risk children, as well as how to enroll. There are a variety of plans and strategies that are implemented at Waverly Junior High to ensure active parent participation in school. One of these includes a strong parent organization Students Teachers Parents (STP) that meets on a regular basis. This organization looks at what the school needs and develops polices to help provide for those needs. Homework, attendance, and discipline require parent participation as well. Each discipline incident that goes through the office warrants parent/family notification. This is done through a Disciplinary Referral Slip. The parent is required to sign these slips and send them back with the student. Letters are sent to parents of students with excessive absences as well to ensure attendance and success. Parents are also made aware of the variety of after school programs that provide homework help and tutoring services on a regular basis through written communication. Parental comments and collaboration in policymaking is sought in a variety of ways. The parent organization Students Teachers Parents regularly talks with many parents seeking input and comments on how the school can operate better. The school itself randomly surveys parents, asking for comments on what is right and wrong with the school, along with how the school can be changed for the good of every student. Each teacher makes the students and parents aware of the materials and services available to them. All parental requests for training and/or parent involvement activities must be submitted to the school principal who presents it to the Parent Involvement Committee for consideration. The school provides reasonable support for parental involvement activities requested by parents. Waverly Junior High School institutes reflective practice through its Family and Community Advisory Council (FCAC). This group meets each year to assess the effectiveness of the Parent/Family Involvement Policy to determine what actions should be taken to increase parental and community participation. The FCAC is comprised of students’ parents from each grade level served by Waverly Junior High, an administrator, three teachers from different grade levels, and community business leaders. |
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