Family Engagement
The Barbers Hill Early Childhood Center will focus on strategies that will assist in developing and supporting a Family Engagement Plan to increase the opportunity for all students to become successful learners. This plan will aid in the establishment of effective partnerships between school, home, and community. The components of the plan include the following:
Facilitating family-to-family support
The Barbers Hill Early Childhood Center facilitates family-to-family support prior to the beginning of each school year by providing parents with opportunities to meet during our annual “Eagle Launch”. Eagle Launch provides the parents of previous ECC students an opportunity to visit with the parents of new students as well as the teacher. Additional opportunities for families to interact are offered during our annual Open House, Fall Fest, and field trips. In addition, BH ECC provides a family area in the cafeteria where parents may eat with their children and socialize with one another. All families are invited and encouraged to participate in school parties held three times a year. The campus offers many volunteer opportunities including the organizing of instructional materials and other special event assistance. The implementation of the WATCH D.O.G.S.1 program allows our dads and other father-figures the opportunity to be involved in the daily operation of our campus.
BH ECC provides communication assistance to our bilingual and ESL students. Bilingual teachers and teacher aides are available for translation during all parts of the school day. BH ECC provides translated material for Spanish speaking students including student report cards, agendas, and other parent communication. Other translations are available upon request.
Establishing a network of community resources
BH ECC has available on its website a page containing a network of Parent Resources. The guide supports the needs of the families by providing information on a number of resources available to families of BHECC students.
Increasing family participation in decision-making
BH ECC provides opportunities for families to be involved in decisions related to our Early Childhood and Pre-Kindergarten programs through our partnerships with parents. Teachers and staff are encouraged to build and strengthen partnerships with parents in order to build a culture of collaboration and trust. Teachers are required to provide two-way communication between families and school through our ClassDojo2 system, “Peek of the Week” newsletter, student communication folders, special events, as well as regularly-scheduled parent conferences. The Campus Improvement Team invites representatives including parents and community members to collaborate in decisions regarding the campus continuous improvement plan.
Equipping families with tools to enhance and extend learning
Teachers will provide families with information regarding age-appropriate developmental expectations during regularly-scheduled parent conferences. Age-appropriate student learning expectations will be shared with parents four times per year through the ECC standards-based report card. Classroom activities are shared with parents weekly through the Seesaw3 technology. Seesaw allows parents the opportunity to view students at work during the school day. Updates concerning student behavior, both positive and negative, are shared with parents daily through ClassDojo. Teachers may also utilize the ClassDojo system to share work samples with parents.
Developing staff skills in evidence-based practices that support families in meeting their children’s learning benchmarks
BHISD provides ongoing professional development to support teachers in implementing evidence-based practices to support student learning. Training includes research-based strategies to teach age-appropriate pre-reading and literacy skills, math, health and wellness, language and vocabulary, writing, as well as positive character building, and social emotional development.
Evaluating family engagement efforts and using evaluations for continuous improvement
BH ECC will provide parents an opportunity to evaluate the Early Childhood Center each year through a parent survey. The ECC staff will evaluate the results and collaborate with parents to improve and strengthen our programs.
BH ECC’s mission is to ensure high levels of learning for all in a safe and loving environment. The ECC believes that the mission can only be realized through the continued collaboration and partnerships among teachers, staff, parents, and community members.