Bridging the Gap Between Home and School

BY NAKUL GROVER - JANUARY 19, 2022

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In Okayama, a smaller city than Tokyo and Osaka, Sawa saw the potential of fostering a deep-rooted community around her school. This idea led to creating "academies" or workshops that support parents in continuing learning at home. Currently, the school uses Parental Effectiveness Teaching (PET), a framework introduced by psychologist Thomas Gordon in the 1950s. English-language learning is a central part of the curriculum and mission of the school as the school believes that it allows more opportunities for students in the modern world. Since most parents aren't bilingual, many of Sawa's workshops support them in teaching English to their children at home. 

"Usually, parents would see posts on social media or the Internet about how to teach their kids at home but still feel unsupported. In a workshop I lead for parents, I teach them how to read aloud to kids from picture books, especially English books," says Sawa. "These academies have been the most important piece in our school. We do these programs to distill techniques or ideas so that parents can continue engaging their children at home."  

As some of these academies run concurrently with school hours, Sawa holds workshops on Saturdays for working parents. In addition, she sends out newsletters with content and recorded media from the academies, especially about new techniques parents can try out at home. 

One challenge Sawa continues to face is getting parents to understand that the techniques and metrics they are used to, such as worksheets and test scores, are not among the tools used to teach language at the play-based and creativity-focused school. 

"Getting parents to understand that language isn't about test scores is a challenge I face," says Sawa. "Language is more than being able to communicate — it's an opportunity to be creative and think with it."  

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Full story here - Harvard Graduate School of Education