PARENTS SURIVAL GUIDE

Press, 30 January 1986, Page 16

PARENTS SURIVAL GUIDE

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case discussions involving senior pupils to focus on common problems that arise in families. There will also be social education workshops oh drug education and teenage sexuality, and informAL “meet the teacher” evenings. i More than two thousand families have been involved in the programme so far, and David Matthews has noticed that the type of parent attending has changed. “It’s true that in the early years the majority of people attending were the confident, self-assured and educated parents that generally attend this type; of meeting. But as the community has shown more interest and confidence in our work, we are seeing more parents at our; workshops who either want to learn some new skills or have a specific problem they require some hielp with.” “Of coursed there will always be some parents we don’t reach,” he concedes. They try to keep the groups small and unthreatenirig, and leaders are trained to be sensitive to the needs of those who find it difficult to communicate. With funds from the parent teacher association, they have published a Working Together handbook for parents of teenagers which has been distributed to all families in the school. When the. Working Together programme began, it was unique in New Zealand. But /it has caused a tremendous amount of interest both here and overseas. The programme was used as a resource by the 8.8. C. television series “Parents and Teenagers,” and the latest Working Together resource book had a print i run of 23,000 to cope with enquiries

MAVIS AIREY

from schools, community groups and Individuals. The team is now trying to encourage other schools to develop work-shop-type programmes. A survey they did in 1983 showed that about 30 per cent of schools are beginning to do this. He insists that the Bumside method is only a model, and that each school has to find a method that suits them.

He suggests parents wanting their school to do this could approach the school through the parent teacher association and see if anyone is interested and available. All schools have guidance counsellors, he points out, and they would be suitable people to approach. Although the Working Together programme is very much in line with Education Department policy, David Matthews feels official recognition of the benefits of this sort of programme has been lacking. “The school gets no extra time or resources to do this work. It’s something we do because we are committed and interested. We have had some very supportive comments from the Education Department here, but sometimes comments are not enough." He would like to see resource material made available, and national courses on school-parent relationships, as well as the development of pilot projects where primary and secondary schools group together to develop school-parent relationships.

“The emphasis is so much now on consultation, especially with the curriculum review, but I feel we haven’t got the structures to do this yet,” he says.