At Bear Park, family involvement is crucial to our community of young learners. Together, parent and teacher can be a child’s biggest champion in the early stages of life. When all are involved and understood, we can build powerful environments to learn, connect and feel secure in.
We believe that parents can be active, not passive, partners in their child’s learning, Our roots, grounded in the Reggio Emilia concept of learning, whole heartedly embrace this stance. The first school of Reggio Emilia in Italy originally began as parent-run post-war initiative, funded by proceeds from the sale of surplus war material. Village parents sought the help of educator Loris Malaguzzi to help them reflect their vision of a visionary, parent-friendly school, who proceeded to innovate a new model of learning for young children.
It is from these beginnings that Bear Park inspires parents to see the child as full of potential and capable of learning in many ways. This extends to the home learning environment, as well as bringing family into the classroom. We take great pride in our open door policy, and parents are welcome to join in for morning meeting time, transition periods or art sessions in the atelier. We also encourage parents to volunteer their unique skill sets for special projects, whether they play an instrument, wish to take part in an excursion or are a skilled artist or photographer.
“Creativity becomes more visible when adults try to be more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than to the results they achieve in various fields of doing and understand.”
