Parent Involvement in the Catholic School

The climate and role of the educating community is constituted by the interaction and collaboration of its various components: students, parents, principals, teachers and non teaching staff.

Parents have a particularly important role to play in the educating community since it is to them that primary and natural responsibility for their children’s education belongs. It is necessary to foster initiatives …which provide the right sort of concrete support which the family needs and which involves it in the Catholic school’s educational project.

The Catholic School on the Threshold of the Third Millennium, 1998.

The Catholic School of the 21st Century

Catholic Education is in a period of momentous change requiring systems and schools to evaluate their practices in the light of serious challenges to the role and conduct of education within contemporary society. In a world in which our youth face an uncertain future, the Catholic school needs to centre its existence on those Christian values and traditions which give hope for a more just and peaceful society.

The Catholic school should promote excellence in its teaching and learning in a creative environment. Education needs to be seen and accepted as an enjoyable and rewarding pursuit able to be easily accessed at any stage of life. The school community should be willing to adapt to change and to play a proactive role in the current educational debate. The Principal and the teaching staff need to be supported as they attempt to come to terms with the ever changing needs of students and the pressures of an increasingly demanding society.

Truth, trust and shared wisdom are important hallmarks of the authentic Catholic school. These should be evident in the positive relationships of its community members, its openness to criticism and renewal and the maintenance of structures which invite real involvement in its operation. The school’s policies and procedures should demonstrate that it affirms the personal worth of each member of the school community and it recognises, shares and celebrates success in all forms of life and learning.

Download the discussion paper on Parent Leadership in the Catholic School of the 21st Century

Word Document
PDF Document