Thriving Through…. Connection

Today’s forum explored the role of strong connection with our children, the school and the community in order to thrive.

As a provocation, we watched the The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey and discussed how it connected to, extended or challenged our thinking. 

We focused on the CONNECT section of the Profile of an ISU Parent and began by exploring how we can develop and maintain a strong and meaningful connection with our children. Each table discussed a different scenario that a child might bring home from school, and considered how we as parents might react. 

💬 Suggested Tips for Parents:

• Pause before reacting — your child’s feelings are valid, but the full story may still be unfolding.
• Empathise and validate — “That sounds really hard,” or “I can see why you’d feel that way.”
• Be curious, not judgmental — ask open-ended questions: “What happened next?”, “How did that make you feel?”, “What do you think you might do tomorrow?”
• Empower your child — help them reflect and develop problem-solving or communication skills.
• Know when to follow up with school — if it’s a pattern, a safety concern, or your child feels powerless.

We then considered what was working well for each of the areas of connection in the ISU parent profile - and what might make it even better. Table discussions generated lots of ideas for developing and maintaining strong connections between parents and children, ways to connect with other families, and how to strengthen the home school connection.

We outlined some of the ways we aim to foster a strong home school connection, including the Student & Parent Dashboard for both Junior School and Senior School. You will find valuable information about your child’s learning experience at school via these links, so do take the time to explore them.

Our breakout sessions included a focus on some of the platforms we use to communicate between home and school (ClassList, Seesaw, Managebac), as well as opportunities to delve deeper into improving communication with your child, and considering how to “disconnect to connect”.  

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