On the 19th of March 2022 (Saturday), the School of Education and Language organised a webinar “Ways to Build Partnerships Between School, Parents, and Caregivers” through a Microsoft Team meeting with all SEGi College Penang students. The invited speaker, Mr Jery Yeoh from Whytehouse Education Group shared his experience and knowledge on building good partnerships for the school, parents, and caregivers. The webinar covered the topics “What is Partnership?”, “The importance of Building Partnerships Between School, Parents, and Caregivers”, “The Benefits of Partnerships Between School, Parents, and Caregivers”, “How to Foster a Two-way Communication” and “Ways to Solve Conflict Between Partnerships”.
A preschool teacher is a professional who is dedicated to achieving success in her field. Teachers can be more effective by collaborating with parents, according to research, because it increases their knowledge of the child. It is important to consider all the information parents have about their children, especially if you’re meeting a young child for the first time or if the child has a special need. To acquire a whole image of the child, it is crucial to cultivate positive relationships with parents.
The importance of a good partnership with parents is that it fits the child’s needs. It maintains a measure of consistency between the home and the classroom. It respects the child’s home environment, recognises the essential role parents play in their children’s life, and adheres to the whole-child approach philosophy. Parental interaction with children from an early age has been linked to improved child outcomes. Preschool teachers can adjust their services to the individual requirements of the children in their care with the support of a partnership. Parents are experts on their children, and by establishing constructive communication with them, the teacher can gain access to a wealth of information that would otherwise be unavailable to them.
Mr Jery mentioned the importance of having parents or caregivers playing an active role in their children’s education through active participation in their child’s developmental growth. The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has shifted the roles of the preschool teachers more toward facilitating and parents or caregivers playing a direct role in their child’s education and learning. Meanwhile, preschool teachers are reminded to uphold their professionalism and ethics as preschool teachers in educating young children and building a good rapport with children and parents. The session with a few questions and answers by Mr Jerry sharing from his experience of running his own preschool and apply with some scenarios which provide an insight for our students taking the Diploma in Early Childhood Education programme.
