Truganina College has been recognised for their ‘outstanding work’ in family engagement at the Australian Council of State School Organisations awards in early November.
The Susan Ryan Family Engagement Award is named after ACSSO’s first executive officer and the first female in the Labor Ministry.
The college’s deputy principal Sadia Toqeer said the school was “very excited, proud and thrilled” to know that their community engagement work was recognised by receiving second place.
“Since the start of the college, we had a clear vision around family engagement in learning, to achieve our vision,” Ms Toqeer said.
“The college developed a family engagement strategy which included the establishment of the Community Engagement Team with the aim to support the creation of an educational partnership with all families focused on student learning and educating the team and all staff around the impact families play in supporting student learning.”
Other initiatives included the development of appropriate learning support resources for families, including student-led explanation video vignettes, establishing a range of communication opportunities designed to provide information for families and a focus on encouraging parent helpers to work in classrooms.
“Family engagement in learning leads to improved outcomes for students and learners of all ages. When families work together with educators, it improves their child’s learning, health and wellbeing,” Ms Toqeer said.
“We would encourage all families to engage in their child’s learning. They can do so by setting up routines and habits around completing homework, daily reading individually or as a family.”
