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families and schools working in partnership to ensure the emotional well-being of young people
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HOW DOES YOUR SCHOOL BECOME INVOLVED?Check Out How it All Works. As a first step, it is a good idea to read through some of the information on this website to get a clear idea of what the “Families Matter” initiative is aiming to achieve in school communities and how it is intended to operate – and the likely resource support the school and parents will need to be prepared to invest. These information links are worth browsing:
Get Agreement and Support. You will need to talk with people in the school community to ensure that they are in agreement with participation in “Families Matter” as an initiative that fits with other activities and purposes of the school, and able to be supported by school staff and parents who can put in the time that will be required to support its operation
Register your School. Once your school has agreed to participate, the Principal should complete a a formal School Registration Form for Families Matter, which can be accessed and downloaded here. Indicate Suitable Training Day. The Registration Form gives you the opportunity to indicate which of the current schedule of Training Days and Locations would be most suitable to your school’s team. Check the current Schedule. Negotiate an Alternative Training Day or Location. If these dates and locations are really inconvenient for your team, there is space to indicate you would like to discuss the possibility of alternative dates or locations. There is some limited opportunity to schedule additional or alternative Training Days. However, in most cases this will not only depend on the availability of one of our Training Team, but also on being able to organise for other local schools’ teams to participate on that date and location – apart from associated delivery costs, the benefits of the training day for all participants are greatly increased where teams from a number of schools work together and share their experiences and input. Acknowledgement and Welcome. When the initial Registration Form expressing the school’s interest in participation in Families Matter is received by the LNA Training Coordinator, a letter of acknowledgement and welcome is sent to the nominated School Contact with a copy also to the School’s Principal. This outlines the principles of the program and includes workshop details where a specific workshop has been indicated by the School. If the school has indicated on their Registration of interest they wish to discuss alternatives, the LNA Coordinator will make contact to discuss the possible options. Also included will be brief letters to be distributed to each of the members of the Parent Presenter Team from the school (see below: Forming the School Team). Workshop Confirmation & Registration Form. Subsequently, the LNA Training Coordinator will send a workshop Confirmation/Registration Form on which the school can confirm their attendance at the designated workshop and provide nomination details of their parent team members and school staff liaison person. This is Faxed back to LNA so that catering (including particular dietary needs) can be provided, and so the Training Facilitator knows who to expect in preparing for the day. It is important this information is faxed back in advance of the workshop: so that all of your team are provided for in our planning. Forming the School Team. The school will need to identify a small team of appropriate people to undertake a full day’s preparatory training in the use of the materials and how to plan and lead further two-hour workshop events in their own school community. The basic structure of the school team is:
Find Keen Parents Suited and Willing to Take on the Role. In terms of selection of parents for this role, it is worth noting that in addition to their willingness and enthusiasm to take on the challenges and opportunities which the parent presenter role provides, it is also an advantage if these team members have some level of experience in leading and co-ordinating group discussion, planning and facilitating community events, and in presenting materials to their peers. This is a leadership role for which such background skills and experience are a considerable advantage. Training Day usually runs from 9.00 am through to around 4.00 pm. Training is informal, activity-based, highly participative in ways that encourge everyone to contribute, and above all is great fun. These training days seek to model the aproach for the running of workshops by the teams back in their own school. The process works through the purpose and aims of “Families Matter”; the structure of the resource kits and how these can be used; how to plan and lead a two-hour workshop drawing on those materials – and how to encourage the participants in the school workshop to come up with a plan to take their discussions forward in productive ways. Mentoring and Support for Your School Team. Our Training Facilitators also emphasise that school team members are not on their own – our trainers will follow up and provide an ongoing mentoring and advice service to the school team as they plan their own workshops and to take those discussion processes forward in their own school community. Planning and Running Workshops for Parents in Your School Community. The purpose of the Training Day is to provide your school team with the information and confidence to plan and run an initial two-hour workshop for other parents in the school community. That workshop is to make a wider group aware of the issues and the ways in which they can work together in partnership with the school to support young people’s well-being. This is intended to provide the starting point for an ongoing conversation – the ways in which this develops and the directions it takes are very flexible, and adaptable to the school context and the shared priorities of the school and its community. That first workshop should plan where the group seeks to take the conversation forward from there – which could involve additional workshops to involve additional groups of parents; and/or planning for information evenings on particular identified topics; and/or particular projects or programs the group and the school agree to develop and progress jointly with the school community. Feedback is an important element of each stage of the process – feedback that will help us ensure the high quality of the “Families Matter” initiative and its materials and supporting processes. Training Day participants will provide helpful feedback on the day and also will be asked to ensure that the formal feedback sheets provided in the materials are completed and returned by participants in the workshops in their own school communities. Tell your Story. Other participating schools are keen to hear about your experiences. Put information about your Families Matter experiences on your Website – and we can put in a link from the Families Matter site to yours so others can learn from your ideas and successes. And also you can tell us your own story, in your words and with pictures if you can, which we can publish on the relevant area of the Families Matter website to share your ideas and experiences. External Evaluation. The funding Department, as normal, requires that an extensive national evaluation be undertaken by an external consultant toward the end of 2005. The successful consultant will have extensive practical experience of working effectively with schools and their communities: and the purpose of their report will be to draw on the experiences of participating schools and their communities, to assist in planning for the continuation of Families Matter and its further extension in 2006. Any Other Qestions:
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