PARENTS AS PARTNERS
Parents are a vital part of the school community and parent participation is considered essential and takes many forms.
Parents take an active role in their children’s learning experience and help ensure the welfare of all the children in the school. What gifts will each child and parent bring to the community? We value the ideas and skills that the families bring to the school as an intrinsic element of collegiality and support.
We offer a variety of parent gatherings and events to welcome you and your children to the community and support you throughout the year. Building a caring community begins by holding space for all of you to meet each other and develop friendships that will follow you beyond NSW.
There are lots of fun ways to get involved through volunteer teams for events, hospitality, technology, beautification, gardening, fundraising, emergency preparedness, documentation and more. Parents also contribute to NSW traditions such as bringing weekly fresh flowers, teacher appreciation birthday lunches, and special events for the children.
We are learners together, parents/teachers do not have to have all the answers. We look forward to hunkering down together with all of our PARENTS as PARTNERS as we create, invent, define, imagine, and relaunch together what it means to be an active, vibrant whole school community.
Parent Gatherings
We offer a variety of parent gatherings to help connect us in a united philosophy of modeling positive interactions with each other.
Monthly Coffees with Roleen
A beloved NSW tradition, throughout the school year we hold monthly coffees with our founder Roleen Heimann, hosted at a NSW family’s home. An opportunity to connect with fellow parents to share parenting tips, joys, challenges and successes. We cover a variety of topics and share parenting stories that, through laughter and vulnerability, continue to deepen our relationships.
Buddy Families
Before the school year begins, a current NSW family will reach out to introduce themselves as your buddy family. They will help welcome you to NSW and answer any questions you have.
New Parent Orientation
You’ll meet fellow new parents and teachers and get a window into how we all work together. You'll receive important information about what to get and bring to school, how the teachers support transitions and what your children's daily schedule will look like.
Family Pages Night
This will be a great night to continue to build relationships with fellow parents as we get to know one another by sharing your child's gifts and stories about parenting. Family Pages serve as a great connector between home and school and a strong relationship builder as the children share their books with each other and their teachers.
Group Play Dates
Children will have the opportunity to explore their classrooms, all set up for them! They will have an opportunity to separate from their parents for a portion of the visit and explore the outside spaces with their teachers while Roleen gathers parents at the meeting rug to answer any questions.
NSW Family Picnic
This is a fun way to meet a lot of the NSW families and siblings are welcome. A sign up to bring items for the picnic potluck will be published the first week of school.
Committees
We look forward to activating our parent teams, from emergency preparedness to gardening, technology to teacher appreciation, library to fundraising, and more! In September, our Parents as Partners evening sets the collaborative tone for the year as you learn about all the fun and helpful ways to get involved at New School West.
Hospitality Team
Beautification Team
Gardening Team
Emergency Team
Tech Team
Library Team
Fundraising Team
Teacher Appreciation Team
Documentation Team
