St. Andrews International School Sukhumvit S107 is an international school for Early Years, Primary and Secondary schooling that caters to young minds from Nursery to Year 6 as well as Year 7 to Year 13 and beyond that.

We also offer Sixth Form education that’s internationally recognised (by mostly Commonwealth countries) to prepare pupils for A-Level or equivalent exams like Cambridge Pre-U or the International Baccalaureate.

Our school wishes to also explore family involvement in academic, socio-emotional and extracurricular/co-curricular competence in our young learners.

It’s all part of our holistic approach to learning where every aspect of your child’s development is taken into consideration, including their home life. St. Andrews creates a mosaic of classrooms woven with both diversity and solid home values due to familial connections.

Let’s discuss the value of involving the family and engaging parents to their child’s education from the start.

Parental Involvement vs. Parental Engagement

There are a few notable differences between parental involvement and parental engagement even though you need both to support your child’s success in academics.

Parental involvement is the first step towards parental engagement. Parents should have an attitude of willing support and participation in school activities and events.

As the teachers provide information and resources regarding the child’s performance, parents can support the child in mapping out how they could further improve upon certain subjects or activities.

To be involved parents in your children’s schooling means to engage in active, ongoing participation in these young learners’ education. Parents or primary caregivers can demonstrate educational involvement at home by doing the following:

• Helping children with their homework.

• Volunteering in classrooms or engaging in PTA events.

• Establishing clear lines of communication at home and school.

• Talking to the children about school events or what happened in school.

• Read along with their children, using bedtime stories or a mini-library of age-appropriate books.

Involved parents can achieve engagement with the assistance of our instructors who hold primary responsibility in setting the pace for the children’s educational objectives.

Our teachers can offer advice to families and caregivers on the status of their child, which allows them the opportunity to involve themselves and engage their children towards fulfilling their academic or holistic learning potential.

Teachers can also ask parents about information regarding the children that they may not know, such as if they have learning disabilities like dyslexia or conditions like ADHD.

This way, they can enrich the learning experience of the children while bringing both perspectives to the table when push comes to shove. Full parental engagement is an all-in involvement where both the school and the home come together as a team to educate the child.

How Should Parents Support Their Children’s Learning and Overall Development?

According to researchers and decades of study, parental involvement in learning can transcend obstacles in learning that include socio-economic status, the background of the children, and the type of school that they attend.

The parents should be their children’s first teachers anyway, even if they don’t decide to have them home-schooled and have opted to enter them into a public or private school system.

Here at St. Andrews International School Sukhumvit S107, reading with the child is one of the ways parents can give their children a head-start in developing themselves literacy-wise and academics-wise.

It also assists in their self-confidence, self-reliance, and vocabulary for good measure. Instilling and nurturing a love for reading early on is a type of parental support.

Help your child adjust eventually to international school life by reading books with them through bedtime stories or through their own mini library. Meanwhile, have St. Andrews Sukhumvit 107 cover their holistic learning that involves social-emotional development that enhances those foundations.

There’s no magic wand of success to improve the child’s chances of academic excellence. However, it will certainly help them greatly to have parental support from the start.

Instead of giving the child a tablet full of videogames or the YouTube kids app to distract them or even show them television, it’s better to buy them books about their preferred shows or mascots to beguile them about how magical reading is.

The Benefits of Parental Involvement in Children’s Schooling and Academics

Children who have involved parents when it comes to their schooling have a better chance of excelling at school, being more engaged in learning, observing better attendance and behaviour, and getting better skills and grades overall.

Parental support makes the difference even in the social skills of children, as opposed to parents who depend solely on the school to “babysit” these young minds.

Positive parental involvement in children’s schooling that isn’t pampering them or smothering them with attention involves keeping tabs with their progress and giving them prep time for academics during their home life.

According to the National PTA from decades back, the three key parental behaviours that serve as accurate predictors to child achievement in school include the following:

• Developing a home that encourages learning.

• Staying involved in the child’s school education.

• Communicating reasonable yet high expectations for achievement.

Researchers believe the school and parent tandem is the key to long-term success when it comes to the child’s academic performance that also extends to their holistic learning.

Studies also suggest that the children’s academic, behavioural, and motivational performance in school is directly linked to parental engagement that motivates the child to learn and improve.

In other words, a better relationship between home and school should be established to ensure academic or even holistic educational achievement across the board.

How Should Parents Contribute to Their Child’s Education?

Parents should assist in instilling a love for reading in their children because it’s not solely the responsibility of the school to instil such passion in them.

It’s easier for children to become self-motivated in learning, academics, and literacy by reading in school and at home, in fact. Parents should prepare these young learners for the brave new world of academics even at a young age by reading with them early on in their life.

Children should act more like the game changers of society. Did you know that self-motivated people like self-made millionaires, entrepreneurs, career lawyers, and businesspeople are known to voraciously read at least 2 to 3 books a month?

Within a year, these successful persons are able to read 25 to 30 books to expand their knowledge. Within 30 years, they’d consume a total of 1,000 books, at that!

These high-achieving people tend to read self-help books or books about general knowledge to continuously enhance their personal growth and development. Popular billionaire Bill Gates (the founder of Microsoft) is known for reading 50 books a year, while successful investor Warren Buffet reportedly reads for 5 to 6 hours every day.

Parents should cooperate with St. Andrews to make children feel like citizens of the world through reading and learning all about the world through various books.

The Bottom Line of Parental Engagement to Children’s Education

The St. Andrews International School advocates for parental engagement to help instil a sense of passion and normalcy when it comes to learning. Children will feel more passionate or think it’s normal to always want to study and improve their educational attainment.

The school will do its part in helping parents get more involved and engaged with the academic status of their children even as they do read-along sessions with them.

Meanwhile, take note that St. Andrews belongs under the Cognita School Group’s umbrella, which operates other schools located globally from Asia to Europe and the Americas.

For more information about St. Andrews Sukhumvit, please submit an online form to book a school tour at our campus on your preferred date. You may also visit our website and take advantage of our personalised interactive virtual campus tour to see our school from the comforts of your home.