Staff, parents and students at St. David Catholic School believe that reading is fundamental to school success. Families continue to support student success by sharing their love of reading with their children at home in the school’s “read at home program” and at school during the “learn together mornings” program.

St. David families were co-learners alongside students during the school’s “learn together morning” which took place during Catholic Education Week (April 30-May 5, 2017). Family members spent the morning learning with their children demonstrating their love of reading and using it as an effective to tool to teach reading.

“It was a wonderful morning. It’s always great to see students so excited to read. Parents and family members were very proud of their children and the children were fantastic hosts”, said Colin Lapalme, the school’s vice principal.

All schools want family members to be active participants in their children’s education. It has been proven statistically that students with parents that take an active role in their education, achieve more and display generally more positive attitudes towards their education. Developing truly effective and equitable partnerships with families requires that school staff members work to create an educational environment that welcomes families into the school culture. Family members might also need training on how to become involved and how to reach out in supporting their children academically as well as socially and emotionally.

St. David Catholic Elementary School continues to partner with parents and family members to support student improvement in reading. Families participate in a nightly “read at home” program. This program greatly supports improved reading achievement as well as reading confidence.

St. David Catholic School hosted an annual “Family Guided Reading” morning. On this morning all families were invited into the school to participate in guided reading lessons with their children. Parents learned about how the school determines student reading levels and what reading level their child was reading at. Most importantly, the children read with their parents and conferenced about their individual reading goals.

Colin Lapalme, St. David School vice principal stated, “successful home / school relationships are built over time. The more opportunities families have to be in the school and witness for themselves the great learning that is happening each day, the more trust develops. We are appreciative of the families that come to these special mornings hosted by their children. We know the kids love having special guests in the school and we hope that the parents enjoy it as much as we do.”