"It takes a village to raise a child"
Casa is a small community. Group guides and parents are integral partners in the social and emotional development of the children. Success depends on the active participation, engagement, and communication between the school, group guides, and parents.
To facilitate this, there are many ways for parents to be involved at Casa, as you will see below.
Child Center Council
The Child Center Council consists of parents and staff members. Previously, we had a School Participation Council and Childcare Parent Committee (ages 1-12). These two groups are now united in the CCC (or in Dutch "KCR", Kind Centrum Raad).
The "KCR" is involved in (new) policies within Casa. It gives advice and support on policy. In certain areas, it has the right of consent. It can evaluate the implementation of policies at Casa. The functioning of this council is described in the "KCR" regulations.
You can reach the Child Center Council at kcr@casaschool.nl.
Members CCC
Parents in the Child Center Council:
- Sander Quak
- Jeannine Tjin
- Jeff de Haan
- Marc van Dijk
- Mark Stol
Guides in the Child Center Council:
- Moèna Vervoort
- Jeroen Bouman
- Miranda Kop
- Debbie van Velzen
- Engelien de Bruin
Help Parents
Throughout the year, Casa needs help from parents in various activities. This includes:
- checking for lice
- Accompanying on outings, events or sports days
- Reading with children
- Help with making materials
- visiting the classes to talk about professions/hobbies
- etc
If you would like to help, please let the class parent or guides know or respond when a request for help parents is sent out.
Library
Our CASA libraries contain lots of books in mainly two languages; Dutch and English. While the BIEB at Koningshof can be visited at any time over the day, we provide BIEB opening hours for Children’s house and elementary student. Parents and teachers have teamed up in order to coordinate the work in the BIEB. We are always looking for people interested to support us.
Interested in helping? WE WANT YOU.
- Spend one morning per week in CASA BIEB @ ACACIALAAN
- Help plastifying new books.
- Help registering new books into our BIEB lists @ Acacialaan
For more information, send us an email at library@casaschool.nl or come and talk to us during library hours. Tue-Fri 8.30 – 10.30
Class Parents
Each class has one parent who volunteers to be the main contact point between the guides and other parents from the class. They assist with coordinating extra help that the class needs as well as working with the Events Team for activities.
If you'd like to contact your class parent you can reach them by email.
Children's House
Sun: sun.classparent@casaschool.nl
Earth: earth.classparent@casaschool.
Venus: venus.classparent@casaschool.
Lower Elementary
Mars: mars.classparent@casaschool.
Jupiter: jupiter.classparent@
Mercury: mercury.classparent@
Upper Elementary
Neptune, Saturn, Uranus: classparent.ue@casaschool.nl
Events Team
The event team is a team of enthusiastic parents who coordinate all events and trips that take place at Casa and are directly related to school activities. In doing so, they work together with Casa employees and help parents.
What, then, is to be considered?
The event team supports (or organises) the teachers with all activities that are done, but not directly in the classroom.
In addition to the standard activities at school, the lower and upper elementary groups have an activity, about 10 times a year, that is tailored to the current AMI theme. This can be a trip to a museum, or also a number of guest lessons by someone who specializes in that subject.
For the Children's House, this is filled in by activities that are mainly focused on movement, on increasing vocabulary and on broadening knowledge about daily activities in the vicinity. Think of visits to the library, a guest lesson of a conductor, a "snuffelstage" to get acquainted with dogs from close up, etc.
For all groups, traffic lessons are organized 3 times a year, either on foot or by bike, in the (immediate) vicinity of the school.
In addition, there are all kinds of events such as the avondvierdagse, the King's Games, the Light Festival, the school picnic (the Summer Festival), the Sinterklaas Festival, the Children's Book Week, the sports tournaments and the school photographer.
Apart from these recurring events each year, sometimes something comes along that the event team and Casa also want to do something with. A lecture by a well-known American neuropsychologist, for example, or an opportunity to attend a free theatre performance. Often very nice, cozy and useful, but it has to be arranged... and that is what the event team does.
Come and help us?
For (almost) all events we very much need help from parents who want to come and help for a few hours. The question of what is specifically required for that event is made known via Parro or via the class parents.
And, we are always looking for extra members for the event team! The more parents there are to help organize, the more activities we can realize for our children!
For questions, comments, offering help, passing on ideas, etc., we can be reached via the e-mail address events@casaschool.nl
Observations in the classroom
There are two moments per year parents where parents are invited to visit the class. The first moment is to observe their children at work, and the second is for a meeting with the mentor guide of the child to discuss their progress. This is arranged directly with the guides of the child.
In order to ensure that this is done in a way that does not disturb the children's work, we request that all observers adhere to a few rules. When you arrive, the guides will provide you with the comprehensive list, but here are a few key points to keep in mind:
- Observations in the classroom are possible between 09:00 and 11:00. The parents receive a clipboard from the supervisor on which they can take notes about what they see;
- During the Montessori work period, the observers must be as discreet and unobtrusive as possible and must not talk or try to come into contact with children or adults. In addition, we ask that the mobile phone is switched off before entering the learning environment;
- Observers are requested not to hold conversations with the children. If a child speaks to an observer, he or she is asked to respond as briefly as possible and ask the children to let them observe;
- It is useful for observers to take notes of their observations regarding the behaviour and attitudes of children. This should be done in such a way that children feel free to continue their work undisturbed.
Lesson Afternoons and parent evenings
Once a month, children can give lessons to their parents with the Montessori materials. This alternates between Wednesday and Friday mornings or afternoons.
At the start of each school year, every class hosts a parent night during which general announcements, educational topics and procedures are discussed.
Twice a year, each section will host a parent meeting. These meetings are aimed at upbringing, growing up and education, to exchange experiences and for support at home. Topics such as the Montessori philosophy, the interface between school and home, educational topics and our way of work are also discussed.
