L’École des parents

1) Category:
• General program

2) Issues Behind the Program:

• It has been proven that educational success is closely linked to the interest that parents
take in their children’s activities in school.
• Parents sometimes need advice, pointers and extra information to be effective in
helping their children with school.
• Parent involvement in school life must be increased.

3) Objectives:
• Strengthen family-school-community ties because of their obvious positive effect on
educational success.
• Ensure better communication between families and the school.
• Coach and support parents in their educational actions and in their attention to their
children’s life in and out of school.
• Collaborate in organizing training and interactive activities based on the school
community’s needs.
• Make school staff aware of the importance of parent participation in school life.
• Support Governing Boards in promoting parent participation in school life.

4) Environment:
• Primary and secondary schools

5) Target Group:
• Parents of students at Commission scolaire des Navigateurs

6) Key Words:
• L’École des parents, coeuréaction, school-family-community partnership, parent,
educational success, workshops, parenting skills, school support, coaching, training,
meetings, exchange, talks, slate of activities, guide, self-esteem, motivation,
homework assistance, collaboration

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7) Description:
• L’École des parents is a training and interactive activity service for parents. Its purpose
is to strengthen the ties between families and the school. The service provides parents
with various resources (workshops, talks, publications, etc.) for improving their skills.
• L’École des parents stems from the collaborative efforts of the Parents’ Committee,
adult education services and educational services (students and school teams) of
Commission scolaire des Navigateurs.
• Every year, L’École des parents organizes some 100 panels in collaboration with the
Governing Boards.
• Lectures have been given by luminaries such as Jacques Salomé, internationally
renowned author and human relations instructor, Danie Beaulieu, well-known
psychologist and impact techniques specialist, Jocelyne Robert, sexologist and
educator, and Camil Sanfaçon, author and education consultant.
• Training activities are organized in conjunction with various partners (CPE, Agence de la
santé et des services sociaux, Special Needs Advisory Committee, AQETA, CAFEC, etc.)
• Here are a few examples of the themes that can be covered:
o Why give homework and assignments?
o Organizing work
o Tips for helping your child with math, English, etc.
o Roles and responsibilities of parents, children and the school
o Responsibility-sharing between the child, parents and the school
o The different facets of educational success

8) Steps:
I. At the beginning of the school year, the parents who are interested form a committee
within the Governing Board.
II. With the person in charge of the program, the committee expresses its needs and
expectations.
III. Activities are chosen from among the school board’s slate of activities and planning is
carried out for the activities to be offered to the school’s parents that year. If there is
interest in an activity that is not on the school board list, it can be organized
nonetheless.
IV. The activities are available for every sector of the school board (Lotbinière, Chutes-de-
la-Chaudière and Desjardins).

9) Activities/Actions:
• Coaching of and support for parents and their undertakings is achieved through:
o Training on subjects related to school support (homework, emergent literacy, etc.)
and the role of parents (parent-child relationship, supervision, etc.), such as:
 meet-and-greets;
 lectures;
 training activities.
o Workshops on parenting skills:
 Partir du bon pied offered to the parents of children in preschool childcare;

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  En route vers l'école offered to the parents of children who will be attending
kindergarten the following year;
 En route vers l’école comme tout le monde offered to the parents of children
with a disability who will be attending kindergarten the following year.
o Publishing (publication of guides for the parents of primary-school children):
 À l’heure des devoirs et des leçons – Tools for helping your children with
homework;
 Donnez-moi des ailes – Tools for motivating your children;
 Guide des jeux de société – Learning through games;
 Un cadeau pour la vie – Guide on self-esteem (spring 2010);
 Y a-t-il un pilote dans l'avion? - Guide on supervision (2010);
 L’apprentissage de la lecture (coming).
• Development of better family-school-communuty ties is achieved through:
o One-off projects:
 Les Aventuriers du livre (project to promote reading by families).
o Ties and projects with the community:
 moderating of the three L’École des parents training committees bringing
together representatives of the school board’s primary- and secondary-level
Governing Boards (Lotbinière, Chutes-de-la-Chaudière and Desjardins);
 ad-hoc participation at meetings of various internal committees of CSDN
(Parents’ Committee, Governing Boards, education committees, etc.);
 participation in the three prevention, family promotion, child and youth
committees (Lotbinière, Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, Desjardins and Soutien
continu);
 occasional collaboration with Comités d’action famille, école, communauté
(CAFEC);
 collaboration with various education partners, e.g. early childhood education
services, municipalities, municipal libraries, Maisons de jeunes, community
organizations, etc.;
 participation at symposia;
 promotion, organization and presentation of training activities in response to
one-off requests from other organizations (Conseil des premières nations,
Commission scolaire du Saguenay, Commission scolaire de la Capitale, etc.);
 member of the Commission de l’enseignement secondaire of the Conseil
supérieur de l’éducation.

10) Resources Required:

• Human resources:
o School contacts
o Parent volunteers
o Community members (psychologists, sexologists, authors and education consultants,
etc.)

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11) Roles of the Participants:
• L’École des parents:
o organizes activities and projects in collaboration with the school contacts, parent
volunteers, etc.
• Parents:
o sit on the Governing Board and express their expectations and needs;
o attend workshops, talks, etc.
• Community members:
o give training sessions and talks.

12) Scientific Basis or Validity:

• The program is 20 years old and boasts a total of 100 instructors and speakers, 50
themes, 1000 parent volunteers and 35,000 parent participants.
• Benefits of L’École des parents:
o Training on homework assistance and emergent literacy gives parents a better idea
of the approach and methods used by the teacher and ways of making homework
time enjoyable.
o Training on self-esteem and motivation helps parents encourage their children to
work on these important factors for academic and social success.
o Training on work methods and techniques shows parents how to make their children
more responsible and how to help them get organized.
o Training on discipline and supervision equips parents to use discipline effectively,
make their children feel secure, and help them build their personality.
• Comments by parents:
o "Reassuring and very useful." (activity on motivation)
o "We were given plenty of pointers on how to make it easier for our children to learn
how to read." (workshop on emergent literacy)
o "The workshop responded to our need for tools and support and enabled us to look
at ourselves for the well-being of our childrens." (workshop on self-esteem)
o "I appreciated the fact that real case studies were used to help us understand the
problem." (workshop on gangs)

13. Program Material

• Website: http://www.ecoledesparentscsdn.ca [in French only]
• Guide for parents ($10) [in French only]
• Handbooks on specific topics [in French only]:
o À l’heure des devoirs et des leçons – Des outils pour accompagner son enfant by
Gilles Carrier
o Donnez-moi des ailes – Des outils pour motiver son enfant by Paule Levesque
o Guide des jeux de société – Pour apprendre en s’amusant by Anick Pelletier
• Other online tools
• Schedule for training activities in 2010

This factsheet was taken from the following website: http://rire.ctreq.qc.ca/. Page 4 of 5
14) Additional Information:
• The information contained in this factsheet was taken from:
http://www.ecoledesparentscsdn.ca.

15) Contacts:
• Josette Grégoire, Program Manager
Commission scolaire des Navigateurs
30, rue Champagnat, Lévis (Québec) G6V 2A5
Tel.: (418) 838-8305
Toll-free : 1(866) 839-0607
Email: ecoledesparents@csnavigateurs.qc.ca

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