Parents' Forum Newsletter
Parent forum: What it means to be a teen in 2014
On 27 May 2014, the Student Centre relaunched our Parent Forum initiative. The evening was introduced by two of our matric girls, Jennifer Purchase and Megan Roux. They, together with Bronwyn van Ryneveld and Natasha Brown (who offered apologies due to AP English) put together a presentation to parents to give a perspective on “What it Means to be a Teen in 2014.”
A panel of parents attended as a panel to help in giving opinions, perspectives, thoughts and feedback.
This panel included Mr Bruno Fernandez (Deputy Chair of our PTA), Mrs Dianne Webb (parent of alumni, Angie Webb), Mrs Lianda Galatis (Chair of our Parents Prayer Group), Dr Kim Laxton (past pupil of the school who is now the Senior Registrar of the Tara Paediatric Hospital and a practising psychiatrist), Mr Pierre Bosch (father of one of our Grade 10 girls, Jordyn), Mr Linda Moni (father of one of our Grade 12 girls, Winnifred), Mrs Vicky Chilvers (H.O.D. Life Orientation) and Mrs Ronelle Klinck (Pencilbox and social media expert).
The evening was a wonderful time for us to come together to continue working towards and developing our parent partnerships, and is a perfect example of our philosophy of Us³ (that is, Parents x Girls x Staff, the three important legs of our business here at the College). We discussed a range of different topics and shared some thoughts and perspectives of what it is like being an adolescent today (thanks to a number of girls who attended the evening), as well as the challenges we face in helping to guide and direct our children. The evening was also a great opportunity of synergy to bring both the Girls’ Prep and Girls’ College together, and we were grateful to have a wonderful turnout from both schools.
Thank you to the parents who sent feedback following the event, please see the wonderful comments we received below:
“I think openly discussing differences is so important and my kids continued chatting to me all the way home on all the issues we discussed. It was awesome.”-Lynda Hood
“I think it was very valuable and did give the girls a chance to air their thoughts and anxieties.”- Dianne Webb
“These issues are so close to my heart, and speaking from experience … no parent can ever say that their child will be shielded from the pressures and temptations that confront our precious children every day, no matter how hard you try as a parent to ensure that they stand by your parenting and family values”- anonymous
“It was interesting and informative and good to set aside time to revisit issues that we often are too caught up to discuss.”- Lianda Galatis
“Thanks for the meeting last week – it was most interesting. The parents I spoke to got a lot out of it too.”- Kari Kinmont
The next Parent Forum will be run in Term 3. For more information and updates please follow the Student Centre Blog: www.saintsstudentcentre.wordpress.com or contact me on mditerlizzi@stithian.com.
