Reporting Procedures and Outdoor Education

This is a question received last night with my answer below:

"Good evening,

We have noticed many of your signs up in our neighbourhood. We are wondering what your thoughts are on the reporting procedure which was mentioned in your brochure. We are also wondering what your thoughts are on outdoor education. "

My answer:

"Thank you for your email.

In terms of the reporting procedure I would like to know why the division came up with the decision to move to two reporting periods in the year instead of three. I believe the communication between teachers and parents is so important when it comes to educating our children. Parents need to know where their children stand on a daily basis in learning the curriculum in order to support them at home.

I am concerned on how this decision came into place. Were parent’s consulted about this before the decision was made? Is this something parents are comfortable with when it comes knowing how their children’s progress in school? I can tell you, I wasn’t consulted, and I am not comfortable with it. I recognize there is Parent Portal but there are many teachers currently not using the tool to record grades. I believe, until this program was fully implemented and utilized the report card should not have been removed. In my opinion, instead of removing a reporting period, I would have added an extra interview session at the end of the year between parents and teachers. It’s so important that parents know what is going on at school with their children and an extra meeting session with the teacher at the end of the year would be such a great enhancement to us knowing the progress of our children.

When elected, I will sit on the board with a well-rounded point-of-view. I will be there as a concerned parent, and also as an educated person that will be able to analyze the way decisions are made. If they aren’t made in the best way possible, I will be there to make changes to the process.

I believe our teachers should incorporate an outdoor education component to every day, weather permitting. With a long-term plan, teachers should be able to accommodate their activities based on a rainy/snowy day. We are from Saskatchewan after all, and we need to take advantage of all the nice days we have while we have them! I would like to see structured education taking place outside the walls of the classroom. I recognize some teachers currently focus on this but I would like to see more focus from the division as a whole.

I hope this covers your concern. If not, please let me know and I can clarify further. I hope I can count on your support when you cast your vote.

#reportingprocedures #outdooreducation