The Parent Room

Welcome to The Parent Room.

This space is provided to support your quest for information, to borrow a toy, book, DVD, to use the computer or to speak with other parents.

.  As the parent is the first and most important teacher in a child’s life, the necessity of parental involvement in their child’s educational and therapeutic program is essential to meeting goals and achieving success as defined by the family.  The following services were created or expanded to move Silver Creek forward in our efforts to help each child achieve their full potential: 

• A more focused Parent Advocacy and Support program.  We continue to be grateful to Etobicoke Brighter Futures Coalition for their financial support of this project.
• Weekly volunteer support in the parent room provided by a community member with expertise in social work and provincial policy
• Parent in the Classroom project: a dedicated day for parents to participate in the classroom
• Home/School Connection visits where teachers and therapists are able to visit in the home or alternate school program/childcare to promote cohesive goal setting and to problem solve around situations that are impeding progress.  These situations may be behavioral, health, medical/surgical issues, communication, ADL, school transition, or adaptive equipment in nature.
• Parent Workshops:
  • CPR/First Aid
  • Keeping It Together:  make and take organizational binder
  • Sign Language 5 week course
  • School Transition evening, including the TDSB, TCDSB, and Special Education Advisory Committee
  • Pathways to Printing workshop
  • Parents of former SC students: ‘What I have Learned” panel

• Playgroups on Friday mornings with specific focus:
  • Cooking Theme
  • Communication with support from our SLP
  • Jolly Phonics

For all of these programs we request/receive parent feedback, as well as elicit ideas for topics of interest/need.  Following are a few of the responses received:

“the personal experiences were very inspiring and valuable in so many ways; all speakers shared excellent and relevant experiences; it was a great night with lots of good planning” (parent evening April 14, 2010)

“Very friendly instructor, very knowledgeable, sessions informative and educational; the course was great, but would be even better if it is offered early in the school year” (Sign Language January 2010)

“Very informative; all the explanations were done well; all tools were presented and explained; certainly I learned of ways which promote continuity of learning as well as the potential in other play activities which contribute to development of printing skills; exceeded my expectations.  Examples of activities for use were plentiful and practical. “ (Pathways to Printing, Feb. 2010)

“ I got to see my children in a different environment/ as a working mom whose kids take the bus I don’t normally get to see what happens in a typical day for them; I highly recommend keeping this program on as its great way for parents to get involved and also picked up lots of ideas about what they can do with their child at home” (Parent in the Classroom initiative)

Feedback from our families to these events/initiatives shows that we are meeting expectations 98% of the time; exceeding 25% of the time and that parents 98% of the time see themselves applying some of the learnings from the workshop/course. Our next endeavor is to reach more parents/participants in these activities, particularly our families who have language barriers or difficulties with access to transportation.