I would like to start this newsletter with a request to those parents who have not yet filled in the ‘Parental Satisfaction Survey’, to grab their last chance of doing so as it will be closing soon. For us as a school is it very important to receive your feedback, both positive and negative, as we wish to ensure that your expectations are being met and that we can only improve on what we already do, by taking in multiple perspectives and your family’s perspective is the most important one for us!
This is the link to use:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TISPCParentSurvey2021 As illustrated above, in our TIS Puchong community we want to listen to each other and have that open communication flow! This is also the reason why we held 4 coffee mornings/evenings this week with our leadership teams and the parents of KS1 and KS2. EY already had their session earlier on. A thank you to all those parents who made time to join us and share their experiences and thoughts. We received a lot of encouraging feedback and also got some ideas to ponder on.
Part of our information sessions were reserved to talking about Quantum Learning. Our head of QL, Ms. S.T. Shum, presented us with the headlines of what QL stands for, how it works and how this system is recognisable in classrooms, both online and in the building. She shared with us how QL uses methodology from effective practise, research and neuroscience in an all encompassing and integrated system that consists of the core components; Foundation, Atmosphere, environment and Design, Deepen & Delivery. It connects a culture to cognition, a perfect marriage for learning.
Our teachers are all fully trained to facilitate children’s learning through the QL system. If applied well, QL has proven to enhance levels of engagement, feelings of responsibility, collaboration, intrinsic motivation and above all, an effective enjoyable way of learning.
So how can parents tell it is working? Afterall, if all of the above is taking place, how do we know that this should be attributed to an excellent teacher, an engaging curriculum or a group of exemplary students? The answer is that we don’t need to pinpoint to any of the above, as long as we can indeed testify that all the described positives are recognisable.
So, using a tool called “Mentimeter”, we asked the parents to give us their responses to the key question: How do teachers at TIS Puchong ensure that children are engaged and learning?
Reading through all the answers (thank you so much for those), there were a couple of things that stood out for me. Teachers provide activities that let our children connect with each other, both emotionally, socially and academically. In my eyes, that makes every class a collection of aligned, learning focused learners rather than just a group of children bundled together! Parents overhear a lot of effective peer interaction, sometimes in breakout rooms, and they hear the variety of questions that are being asked, by students and by teachers. Children know what is expected of them and understand why the rules and agreements are important. The teachers encourage a sharing of answers and ideas, the children are happy to share and feel safe enough to give everything a go. Parents also mention that, despite being forced to work from screens, teachers manage to engage the children. Additionally, a nice one to end this list of examples with: “there is a lot of thinking going on”.
Have a great long weekend, we are looking forward to seeing all children back in their online classes next Wednesday the 21st of July.
Mr. Marco Damhuis (Head of Primary)
Email Contact : marco.damhuis@pc.tis.edu.my
