Home-School Partnerships
HOME-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS 2
One of your most important roles as an early childhood educator will be to foster home-school
partnerships. Discuss what you believe are the benefits of home-school partnerships. Also, share one
positive experience you have had (either from your own schooling or from your work with children) that
relates to home-school partnerships. Finally, share one idea you plan on using to establish home-school
partnerships.
Home-School Partnerships
Home-school partnerships have proven to have many benefits to the students. According to
scholarly research, the establishment of effective partnerships between communities, families
and schools results in children developing better socio-emotional, cognitive, and academic
outcomes. Furthermore, collaboration enables schools and families to have a better
understanding of the challenges that come with educating and raising children. Another
benefiting arising from home-school partnerships is that teachers are put in a better position to
understand the background knowledge of the learners and to use this information in connecting it
to the new knowledge being imparted on the learners (Madison, nd).
One positive experience that I had from my working with the children in regards to home-school
partnerships came up when I involved parents to help me better understand the children in my
class. I was a new teacher in a new environment and I worked closely with the parents in order to
understand the cultural and social factors that affected the performance of the children in my
class. I appreciated the fact that collaboration with parents can help a teacher understand the
manner in which the children perceive the world and things around them. By collaborating with
their parents, children will appreciate the fact that learning is a lifelong concept.
To establish a home-school partnership, I intend to encourage parents and children to participate
in evening activities which will involve exploration of scientific ideas and projects. In the
process of exploring, I will act as a facilitator and allow parents and children to look at familiar
things from different perspectives. Accordingly, I will encourage them to discover something
HOME-SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS 3
new, using simple equipment. The aim of the partnership project is to ensure that the notion that
we are all scientists is inculcated.
Reference
Madison, L. (nd). Home-School-Community Partnerships.