The district will implement
Waterford's SmartStart's Home Connection to enhance the campus parental involvement plans that focus on the mutual responsibility of our schools, families, and community to build relationships that will support student learning and achievement, support family well-being, and the continuous learning and development of our children, families, and educators.
SmartStart's Home Connection provides family engagement resources designed to extend learning beyond the classroom that include family engagement opportunities focused on:
- success strategies to support motivation and learning,
- identifying shared goals of student progress and engagement with progress monitoring and usage reports,
- SmartStart's activity worksheets (available in English and Spanish) for families to engage children at home,
- sharing information with families through ready-made home newsletters (English and Spanish),
- utilizing My Backpack for engaging and interactive learning activities (anytime and anywhere),
- using take home books and DVDs to reinforce concepts and mastery, and
- home access to Smart Start curriculum for additional instruction and practice.
With Waterford's SmartStarts Home Connection activities, parents and guardians will be actively involved with their child’s educational journey through multiple opportunities to practice skills such as sentence structure and communication through activities and games that encourage families to talk which will increase their child's success with areas such as vocabulary and communication.
Waterford’s experienced Professional Development Consultants will also provide family engagement opportunities delivered in dual languages that will focus on strategies that parents and guardians can do from home to help their child be more successful in school. Waterford's SmartStart's Home Connection will assist the district in achieving and maintaining high levels of family involvement and positive family attitudes toward education to support student learning and encourage the on-going learning and development of each child.
The family engagement opportunities planned will facilitate family-to-family support, establish a network of community resources, increase family participation in decision making, equip families with tools to enhance and extend learning, provide ongoing professional development opportunities for educators on culturally responsive, evidence-based strategies that support the education of the child, and evaluate family engagement efforts and use evaluations for continuous improvement.