Parents are invited to experience classroom again

Christine Keriniotou, a mother of three school-aged boys, has attended numerous parent-teacher evenings and read countless half-yearly report cards.

However, when she received an invitation from Trinity Grammar School, where her children attend, to spend a day experiencing life as a year 7 student, she jumped at the opportunity.

The program, which had been cancelled due to the pandemic, was reinstated last month with around 160 parents participating over two days.

Trinity, an all-boys private school located in Summer Hill, has been inviting parents to experience a day in the life of a high school student for years.

Parents arrive before the morning bell and attend a whole-school assembly, followed by six traditional subject periods. During this time, their child spends the day engaged in an in-school activity.

Clinical psychologist and teenage mental health researcher, Andrew Fuller, explains that high school students face greater responsibility and pressure to manage their time, homework, and project deadlines.

They are acquiring executive functioning, organizational, and planning skills and developing their emotional regulation.

The program at Trinity provides an opportunity for parents to better understand the complexity of daily decision-making for high school students.

The parent swap days at Trinity Grammar School give parents the chance to participate in classes and assemblies, use the cafeteria, playground, and lockers, and meet their child’s teachers in term one.

Principal Tim Bowden says the program is designed to help parents better understand “the cognitive load involved each day”.

Parents’ engagement with schools has been shown to lead to improved academic results and student outcomes.

Craig Petersen, head of the Secondary Principals Council, notes that a close connection between schools and parents can lead to higher levels of student motivation and aspiration, as well as improved academic results and wellbeing.

After COVID, there has been an increase in parent involvement in P&Cs in some schools, but engagement levels tend to decline as students move to high school.